Myrtle Beach, Charleston, Atlanta, Birmingham, and Charlotte all in three and a half weeks!  We arrived back just in time for the start of school.  With travel came food…lots of food!  As we traveled, I couldn’t help but notice every restaurant had fried green tomatoes on their menus.  It never failed that I’d see the pile of fried tomatoes drizzled with sauce and delivered to some diner’s table.  It also never failed that I couldn’t bring myself to order fried green tomatoes that ranged in price from $8 to $12!

Before there were gourmet $12 fried green tomatoes, there were my Momma’s or Aunties’s.  Usually picked straight from the vine, fried and served at breakfast time with grits.  If on a Saturday morning, there would mostly likely be fish included on that plate! No matter, they were a staple during the Summer in Birmingham, Alabama.

I was all geared up for them by the time I got to Birmingham but my mom and I didn’t get a chance to do any cooking.  To my surprise, I found green tomatoes at a local farm stand, right here in Maryland!  So, let the frying begin…I even fancied them up with a spicy sauce!

I cut the tomatoes into quarters then sliced each into three smaller wedges…My mother slices her tomatoes in rounds.

Seasoned flour, egg/milk dip, and seasoned flour/corn meal…ready to bread tomatoes

Coat first with seasoned flour.

Dip into egg/milk mixture

Dredge into seasoned flour/corn meal before frying.

Fried Green Tomatoes
Serves 2-4

2 medium green tomatoes, trimmed and cut into wedges*
1 1/2 cups all purpose flour, divided
1/2 cup corn meal, not self-rising
1 whole egg
1/2 cup milk
1 teaspoon onion powder, divided
1/2 teaspoon seasoned salt
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
cooking oil

Spicy Sauce

1/4 cup mayonnaise
1 tablespoon garlic mustard
3 dashes green hot sauce

Stir ingredients together until blended.  Refrigerate until ready to use.

*To trim and cut tomatoes into wedges: Cut each tomato into four wedges and cut away stem area at the top of each wedge.  Cut each wedge into three slices, lengthwise, creating 12 slices per tomato.

Using three shallow bowls, place 1 cup of flour, 1/2 teaspoon onion powder, seasoned salt, and pepper in one bowl, add remaining 1/2 cup flour, corn meal, and remaining 1/2 teaspoon onion powder to a separate bowl.  In the remaining bowl,  beat together egg and milk.

Before breading tomatoes, heat a half inch of oil(about 3/4 cup) in a heavy skillet on medium high heat.  working in batches, add half the tomato slices to the seasoned flour and coat on all sides.  Shake off excess flour and transfer wedges to the egg/milk mixture, quickly coating.  Shake off excess and dredge in seasoned flour/corn meal mixture.  Place tomatoes, flat side down in the skillet.  Fry for 3 minutes on each side.  Transfer to paper towel lined plate until ready to serve.  Repeat breading and frying process with remaining tomato slices.  Serve with spicy sauce if desired.