Renaissance Molly

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Justin and I live in a little town home with the a very shaded back yard the size and shape of a standard letter envelope. As such, however much we desire (and however hard we intend to try next year) to grow a garden, fresh veggies only come from the grociery store at this point. That to be said, Green Tomatoes (the sweet, not yet red and ripe cousin of the Red Tomato) are a rare and precious commodity only gifted to us occasionally by dear dear friends. Last year we were given some by the parent of a friend. This year, Justin's Dad somehow acquired them and gave them to us.

My first experience with Fried Green Tomatoes was an appetizer at the Dog Street Pub. Since then I've had a taste for these tasty little critters but can only rarely get the ingrediants and attempt to imitate the way Dog Street presented them. Thus, here is my recipe inspired from them:

Fried Green Tomatoes

I cannot take credit for this recipe, I found it here, on AllRecipes.com but I will repeat it here for ease of access.

The AllRecipes.com recipe may be more explicit about things but I have found that when breading and frying food, go with what you think is best. I didn't worry about how thick these slices were, I just sliced. Whisk up the eggs and milk in a bowl. Mix cornmeal, bread crumbs, salt and pepper in a seperate bowl. Place flour in yet another bowl.

Coat tomatoes in flour. Then dip tomato in milk and egg mixture. Finally coat with breadcrumb mixture. Just be weary, this process can make your fingers more battered than the tomatoes. On one hand, it's great: you have all that batter on your fingers so that when you drop in the tomatoes, any oil doesn't actually touch your skin. But it can still be tiresome to have to wash off your hands all the time just to stir something or check on something else.

Heat your oil in a large, deep frying pan. I did not use a quart of oil to deep fry. I think I used about 2 cups, just enough to, with my pan, cover about 3/4 of the tomato when it was sitting in it. I started heating my oil on high but then turned it down a bit once I started frying. Frying sounds intimidating (at least it does to me) but it's not too bad. The best thing to do is always keep the top handly. It can be used as a shield in case the oil is too hot and starts to splatter and it can also be used in case an oil fire starts. I also like to keep the cap off of the flour canister when i'm working with hot oil, just in case. Remember: the LAST thing you want to put on an oil fire is water. But fortinately i've only started an oil fire once. Popped the cap on it real fast and it went out in about 20 seconds.

Any ways, put in the tomatoes in batches so that they are not touching eachother. The nice thing about tomatoes is that they fry up fast. If the batter on the outside looks like its done, so too will the tomato inside be done. The difficulty comes in frying up meats. Once they are fried to your liking, place them on a paper towel to drain. The nice thing is that you get a few chances at frying these up, so if one batch burns, turn your heat down a bit and try again.

Balsamic Reduction

A balsamic reduction is a good thing to have in your back pocket - it goes great on so many things: steak, chicken, veggies. And it's simple! I learned this trick from an archaeologist (if you've been digging in a whole since 7 am, around 3 pm you get really hungry and start talking about recipes....It's sorta like watching Food Network after 9 pm: you really shouldn't, but it's just sooooo tempting!)

Honestly, balsamic vinegar has a harsh scent to me: If I get too big of a whiff, my eyes will water and I'll start coughing. But the reduction sorta cooks away some of the harsher aspects of the vinegar and (since I add brown sugar) adds a sweetness and a thickness that is just delightful!

Heat these two elements in a pan together over medium high heat until brown sugar has dissolved and balsamic has thickened up a bit. Done. Easy. Tasty.

Constructing Fried Green Tomatoes alla Molly

At this point you have an infinite amount of options. But here are some suggestions from experience.

Cheese options

I've used a few different cheese with this dish before. Goat cheese is definitely a favorite. The softer and creamer it is, the better the result. We could not find goat cheese this time so we work with some other options.

We tried mozzarella this time, but honestly, although the texture was nice, the flavor just could not stand up next to the sweet tomatoes, the tangy balsamic, and the spicy arugula. Poor mozzarella, a great stand by, but couldn't hold it's flavor ground next to these big boys. I would avoid mozzarella for this dish.

We also tried Boursin with this. Boursin is a soft, creamy artisan cheese (found with all the other specialty cheese near the deli section). It is one of my absolute favorites. The traditional flavor for Boursin is Garlic and Fine Herbs (which would go great on this, but was unavailable in the store the day we went, so we opted for another option). This time we tried the fried green tomatoes with Boursin Shallot and Chive. Now Boursin can be pricey (but totally worth it) however if you are unsure, you can also try the imitation brand, Allouette spreadable cheeses. Allouette is definitely a contender, but I was raised on Boursin so I must say, it is my favorite.

You could also try ricotta with this. But Justin has a strange aversion to ricotta so we've never tried it. If you do, though, let me know. I think the texture would be there but I fear it would have the same flavor problem that mozzarella had: lacking in umph.

Now I am not a bleu cheese or stilton fan. But if you are (and you know who you are: I'm looking at you, mom), than bleu or stilton may actually be great on this. It fits the flavor type: soft-ish cheese, the right texture and can really hold it's own in flavor next to some of these other bold flavors. If you try this, let me know, because, despite not liking these types of "stinky" cheese myself, I do respect them.

So make sure you have everything in place:

Plating your creation is simple: however you like. The first time we did tomato, cheese, arugula, balsamic around the side. This time we did it almost upside down: arugula, tomato, cheese, balsamic on top. As a salad, it doesn't really matter as long as all the elements are on there.

So there you have it. Justin and I love these little things. We couldn't eat all of them but they actually keep surprisingly well. We put the left over componants in separate bags and the fried tomatoes in sealed tupperware. The next day, they heated up beautifully in the oven or the toaster oven. Just heat them up until they're nice and warm again and then add the cheese, arugula, and balsamic after you heat them!