Fried Green Tomatoes

While fried green tomatoes have a reputation for being a dish from the American South, Robert F. Moss, a food historian and author from South Carolina, has written that mentions of fried green tomatoes first appear in the northern and mid western part of the U.S., not in the South.* He also speculates that Jewish immigrants may have had some part in the beginnings of this dish which gained popularity with the release of the movie "Fried Green Tomatoes" in the early 1990s. When I was kid and teenager, we had fried green tomatoes on occasion, and this was like from the late 1950s and through the 1960s. I don't ever recall hearing anyone say they were "southern," or for that matter, that they were "northern" or "mid western." I always liked them, and some people made/make them by simply tossing the green tomato slices in some seasoned flour and then frying them, while others coat the tomato slices in flour, then dip them into beaten egg and then coat them with breadcrumbs or cornmeal, but others, including me, prefer to dip them into a seasoned batter.

Give yourself an extra treat, and serve them with Louisiana remoulade sauce, here is the link to the remoulade recipe: https://pontificating-randy.blogspot.com/2020/08/louisiana-remoulade-sauce.html

Ingredients (about 4 to 6 servings):

These amounts may need to be adjusted, as the size of the tomato slices will determine how much batter you'll need, but naturally, if you mix the batter and it is too thick, mix in a little more buttermilk, or even a little water. If, by chance, the batter is too thin, just add a little more flour or breadcrumbs. These are hardly decisions we'll need to summon Einstein to make for us, but if you do summon him, good luck with that one ... he's likely busy with E=CQ2, ah, E=TMSquare, ah, E=H2O, oh, whatever the hell it is!   

4 large green tomatoes
3 eggs
2/3 cup buttermilk
1 1/4 cup flour
1/2 cup cornmeal (yellow or white)
1/4 cup panko bread crumbs (or the finely ground type)
3/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
1 1/2 tablespoon (dry) adobo seasoning** or seasoned salt
oil for frying (rendered bacon fat added, see below)

Fried green tomatoes are often, but not always, fried in bacon fat, but you can skip this, or you can add some bacon fat to your oil. Rather than go with all bacon fat, first fry 5 or 6 slices of bacon (you can fry it for breakfast or perhaps for a bacon, lettuce and tomato sandwich for lunch) and keep the rendered bacon fat. When you get ready to make fried green tomatoes, add half the bacon fat to the oil you will use to fry the tomatoes (enough oil and bacon fat to make about 1/2 inch depth in your skillet; after you've fried some tomatoes you'll periodically need to add more oil, and you can add some of the remaining bacon fat each time). Cut tomatoes into slices of about 1/3 inch. In a bowl, mix together the eggs, buttermilk, flour, cornmeal, bread crumbs (I use panko, which are 'chunky' and coarse, but the finely ground type is certainly okay), black pepper and adobo seasoning or seasoned salt. Heat the oil (and bacon fat, if using) in a skillet over medium heat until a small piece of bread sizzles when dropped into the oil. Put individual tomato slices into the batter to coat, letting excess drip off before putting the slices into the skillet. Keep the tomatoes separated in the skillet. Fry the tomatoes on both sides until golden brown, removing the finished tomatoes to a plate covered with paper towels. Repeat the process until all of the tomatoes are fried. Serve with Louisiana remoulade sauce. 

* You can read Robert Moss's complete article for yourself at this link: https://alforno.blogspot.com/2007/08/fried-green-tomato-swindle.html 

** Adobo can mean different things in different Latino or Spanish influenced cultures. The adobo for this recipe is the dry seasoning commonly used in Puerto Rico. It is very easily found in supermarkets or Latino grocery stores in the U.S., but it is also easy to make (it takes all of about 2 minutes). Here is the link to the recipe: https://pontificating-randy.blogspot.com/2017/11/adobo-seasoning.html 

Fried green tomatoes with Louisiana remoulade sauce on the side ...

WORD HISTORY:
Scot (as in "scot free")-This word is related to "shot," "shoot" and "sheet," all words from the Germanic roots of English, and it "likely" has nothing to do with the word of the same spelling, only capitalized, relating to the people of Scotland. It goes back to Indo European "skeut/skeud," which meant, "to throw, to shoot," seemingly with the underlying notion, "to propel outward;" also "to chase, to rush," which also show implications of "movement out from a given position." This gave Old Germanic "skeutanan/skutanan" meaning, "to shoot, to propel or move forward or away from." This gave Old English (Anglo-Saxon) "sceotan," a verb primarily meaning "to shoot, to throw," but secondarily "to pay out," and the nouns "sceot," literally, "(a) shot," but also "payment, contribution," and "gescot," meaning "payment, contribution." The Old Norse speakers who came to England brought along their word, "skot," which was related to the English forms, and this melded with the native English forms to produce "scot," which had come to be used for "a tax paid to landowners or nobles, including to the king." That's why we say, "scot-free," which originally meant "tax free" (it was written as one word centuries ago, "scotfreo." Of course the meaning of "scot free" has long since broadened to mean, "no payment or consequence for something." German, a close cousin of English, has the now archaic "Schoß" in this same sense, "tax, monetary contribution" (German has other words of this spelling still in use, but I'm referring to the form with this specific meaning).