Fried Green Tomatoes- The right way.

Since I was a teenager it has been a special treat to find good solid green tomatoes because this means Fried Green Tomatoes:  tangy, sweet, salty fried goodness.

You can find these on a rare restaurant menu; however more often than not they are made the wrong way.  Well, in my mind anyways.  Maybe you’ve tried the wrong way and like them, maybe you have always wanted to try them but never have, and maybe you have never heard of fried green tomatoes before! Well my friend, let me introduce you to my old friend and educate on the right way to make them  Now I have have some pretty good fried green tomatoes made differently than I like them, but I will always stick with my way as it is what I am used to and how I like it best.  I apologize that I did not photograph the process well, I was more concerned with getting dinner on the table than with food blogging at the time.

First you have to have a really green tomato- not light green starting to turn red- but GREEN green and firm.  This will give you a good tangy taste.

Slice the tomato into round slices- for your first time, I would slice some thick, some thin because some people like them thin and crispy while others like them thick.  I prefer thicker.

Next take flour, sugar, salt and pepper and combine in a bowl.  I never measure but this is a good guess to give you an idea of the proportions:  1 cup flour, about 1/3 cup sugar, 2 tsp salt, 1 tsp pepper.  Mix this all up in a shallow bowl.

Cover the bottom of a skillet with oil and heat to a good pan frying temp. so that the tomatoes will sizzle as soon as you put them in the pan.

When oil is ready, dip tomato slices in the flour mixture to cover well on both sides.  Then add the the heated oil.

Cook on each side until brown or dark brown/black is you like crispy charred)- this takes anywhere from 2-4 min. depending on oil heat and tomato slice.

Mmmm Mmm! look at that golden fried goodness. This makes me sad that fall is here because that means no more green tomatoes.

After tomatoes are done on each side, remove from oil and place on paper towel covered plate- blotting the top of the tomato with more paper towel to rid of excess oil.  You can eat these by themselves with salt or sugar (I like them with salt, sugar is weird to me, but that is how my brother liked to eat them growing up) or make them into a sandwich.  I got the sandwich idea from a restaurant called The Whistle Stop, (probably named from the movie Fried Green Tomatoes) the only place I have had fried green tomatoes made the way my mom made them (the right way).

For the sandwich:  Toast seeded rye bread and spread with mayonnaise; top with provolone cheese and good hearty slices of fried green tomatoes.

We like to heat the final product for a few minutes in the toaster oven to melt the cheese and mayo into artery clogging goodness before eating.

Ta-da! Dinner is served:

Tasty. Cheesy. Delish.

Let’s just skip the “What is healthy for you in this?” section for today and just tell ourselves we are eating our veggies, grains, and dairy when we eat fried green tomato sandwiches. 0:)