Fried green tomatoes is a dish that we have grown up eating and I believe that most families in the south have their own version of it. After Fannie Flagg’s book, Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe, was adapted into a film in 1991, there was a surge in popularity of not only this recipe but several other southern classics. Therefore, when thinking of recipes to do for “From the Book to the Plate”, this was one of the first that I thought of.
*Quick note: There are three recipes for fried green tomatoes in Fannie Flagg's cookbook. For this installment, we tried fried green tomatoes I. We may try the other two in the future.
When it comes to preparing for this recipe, the hardest (and most important) thing to do is picking out the perfect green tomatoes. I wish I was experienced enough to now go into detailed instructions on how to do this, however, this was our first attempt at making any version of this recipe on our own...and we got lucky. The rest of the prep is actually very easy (as long as you are being careful when cutting the tomatoes).
Frying the tomatoes was a bit more challenging though. I am not completely sure if we did not have the pan hot enough or just did not use enough oil. I am positively certain, however, that the tomatoes were too wet to hold on to the batter properly. The end result was several tomatoes sliding out of their crust or sticking to the pan (these were referred to as “disaster tomatoes”).
Also, the original recipe says to use tongs to flip (only once) but I found that they caused the problems with the batter to increase. Using a spatula, however, just led to oil splashing everywhere. In the end, what worked best for me was to use a spatula to wiggle them free from the pan and then use the tongs to flip them over.
Regardless of the problems that caused things to not turn out entirely as planned, we still managed to fry several that turned out almost perfectly. The tomatoes were very tart and the crust added the perfect amount of crunch. We made a large plate of these that were a mixture of the perfect, messy, and complete disaster tomatoes and they all went super quick. So, even if you mess this recipe up a little, it should still be absolutely delicious.
You can find the recipe for Fried Green Tomatoes I below. Let us know in the comments if you decide to try it yourself!
Buy the book(s):
Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe: Amazon, Abebooks
Fannie Flagg's Original Whistle Stop Cafe Cookbook: Amazon, Abebooks
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