Farmer Boy Recipe - Fried Green Maters

The north wind is blowing and the temperature is dropping, the forecast is for frost - so, I ran out to the garden to gather what was left of the tomatoes!  Some of them were almost ripe, a deep orange color.  Others were pink.  And still others were light to dark green!  It was the green ones that I wanted the most!

It seems that my family had been frying up green tomatoes long before it was fashionable.  So here is one of those recipes, passed on from one generation to the next.

Farmer Boy Fried Green Tomatoes

Ingredients:

• 3 - 4 medium to large tomatoes (GREEN)
• 1/2 - 1 Cup of seasoned flour (seasoned with a pinch of: finely chopped parsley, sage, basil, ground black and white pepper, celery powder, and onion powder) (or you use whatever seasonings your family likes better)
• 1/4 Cup of Corn Meal
• 6 - 8 slices of bacon (or the drippings left over from frying the bacon = about 1/4 Cup)
• 1 Cup of Buttermilk (reserve 1/4 Cup for a gravy, if desired)

Directions: Slice the firm green tomatoes to about 1/8 inch thick.  Dredge them in the flour, cornmeal mix.  Make a second dredge in the milk.  And again, dredge them in the flour mix.  Place them directly into a pan of hot bacon drippings.
Fry the tomatoes till golden brown on both sides.  Remove to paper towels to drain.
Add about a Tablespoon of the flour to the hot drippings, along with 1/4 cup of milk, to make a gravy. *  Plate up the tomatoes and pour the gravy over them.  * You may wish to add the crumbled bacon to the gravy also.  They are good even without the gravy.   A dollop of sour cream on them is good too!

These tomatoes make a great side dish with just about any entree or even as a snack.

It is always a good thing to watch the weather and listen to the forecasts.  But better to do than to just listen!  What a great treat I would have missed, if those tomatoes had frozen on the vine!

If you don't have home grown tomatoes ready for this recipe, you can use ripe tomatoes instead.  But you'll have to use more of the flour mix to coat them; as they are juicier.  And they'll probably take a little more frying.  But, be careful not to burn them!  I always seem to set the smoke alarm off, no matter how careful I am with frying inside the house!  They turn a bit sweeter in the frying - just as we should do - turn sweeter as we age or when the heat is turned up on us!  :)

If you make these, please let us all know, by leaving a comment here.  Thanks.  The Old Man in the Bib Overalls

"It does not so much matter what happens.  It is what one does when it happens that really counts."  Laura Ingalls Wilder