Fried Green Tomatoes
I'm not sure if this is a good thing or bad, but we found some tomatoes growing at the University. For the past week, we've been talking about making some northern Persian pickles at home that need green tomatoes, and the only way to get them in Hong Kong--as far as I know--is to grow them yourself. Needless to say, then, that we were really happy to not have to make that effort. On the minus side, they are grown suspiciously close to a GM food lab, but since there were no signs stating that they were part of an on going experiment, we nicked a few. Any way, the random placement of the plants looks like they've grown after someone threw a tomato or two in the area last season. Haha
So after making the much coveted torshi, or persian pickle--a recipe for which is on its way--we still had a bunch of extra tomatoes left behind. Now, I've never even seen green tomatoes, except on the plant, let alone eaten one, but it seemed like a bit of a shame to let these go to waste. And this is where ye ole Google came in. A quick search for "green tomato recipe" showed a huge list of things people have been doing with these sour little fruits. One of them that kept popping up was for "classic southern (american) fried green tomatoes." Classic or not, since it is so popular, I thought of giving them a go...
Thankfully, i had all the ingredients on hand. And within about 20 minutes, we had a bunch of tiny green tomatoes covered in a mixture of breadcrumbs, egg, pepper, salt, and dried basil. I was reluctant to take the first bite, but it was actually surprisingly very good. Overall, besides the sourness of the tomatoes, it tasted great. Perhaps if they were cooked for a little while longer, the sourness would go away?
Ingredients (Serves 2)
5 small green tomatoes
1 small egg
1 cup panko breadcrumbs
2tsp dried basil
2tbsp water
Salt and pepper
Cooking oil
Directions
Slice tomatoes into 1/4 inch slices. Reserve.
In a small bowl, combine egg and water for an egg wash.
In another bowl or plate, mix the breadcrumbs, basil, black pepper and salt.
Heat a little bit of oil in a frying pan on medium-high heat.
While it's heating, coat tomato slices in the egg wash, transfer them to the breadcrumbs till they're fully coated, and move them to the frying pan.
Cook for 2-3 minutes on each side until each side is golden brown. The crust will be very crunchy, and the middle, still solid, but cooked.
Place on kitchen towel to drain away access oil before serving.
So after making the much coveted torshi, or persian pickle--a recipe for which is on its way--we still had a bunch of extra tomatoes left behind. Now, I've never even seen green tomatoes, except on the plant, let alone eaten one, but it seemed like a bit of a shame to let these go to waste. And this is where ye ole Google came in. A quick search for "green tomato recipe" showed a huge list of things people have been doing with these sour little fruits. One of them that kept popping up was for "classic southern (american) fried green tomatoes." Classic or not, since it is so popular, I thought of giving them a go...
| Ease of Cooking | Yummy Factor | Apprx. Cost |
|---|---|---|
|
|
HK$6 (US$0.7) |
5 small green tomatoes
1 small egg
1 cup panko breadcrumbs
2tsp dried basil
2tbsp water
Salt and pepper
Cooking oil
Directions
Slice tomatoes into 1/4 inch slices. Reserve.
In a small bowl, combine egg and water for an egg wash.
In another bowl or plate, mix the breadcrumbs, basil, black pepper and salt.
Heat a little bit of oil in a frying pan on medium-high heat.
While it's heating, coat tomato slices in the egg wash, transfer them to the breadcrumbs till they're fully coated, and move them to the frying pan.
Cook for 2-3 minutes on each side until each side is golden brown. The crust will be very crunchy, and the middle, still solid, but cooked.
Place on kitchen towel to drain away access oil before serving.
