Fried Green Tomato with Sweet and Sour Sauce

This is another dish with its origin from the South. This also reminds me of the 1991 movie of the same name starring Jessica Tandy, Mary Stuart Masterson, and Kathy Bates. Green tomotoes are actually slightly tangy in taste and the crunchy batter make this dish taste so nice.

Finding green tomatoes though is a little hard sometimes. I was just lucky that I happened to pass by some while walking around at the Farmer's Market. as soon as I found them, I knew I just had to make fried green tomatoes.. I just had to...hehehe. Using cornmeal makes the batter really crunchy and as I was eating the darn fried things, my brain was busy thinking of other ways that I could use cornmeal as a batter. One thing that popped into mind was corndogs...hehehe... that is totally going to go on my to make list. Coincedentally, that list is getting longer and longer with each passing day...*sigh*



Ingredients:

2 green, unripe tomatoes- sliced about half an inch thick.
1/2 cup cornmeal
1/2 cup bread crumbs
1 cup flour
sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
1 egg
1/2 cup milk or buttermilk
a pinch of paprika
oil for frying




1. In a bowl, mix egg and milk//buttermilk and whisk slightly
2. In a separate container, mix paprika, flour, salt and pepper.
3. In another separate container, mix bread crumbs and cornmeal.
4. To assemble: Take a piece of tomato and dredge it with flour mixture then coat with milk/egg mixture. Finally, coat with cornmeal/breadcrumbs mixture.
5. Heat oil in a pan and fry battered tomatoes. NOTE: Be careful of oil splattering and hot pan. Use splatter screen to prevent oil from splattering on you as well as the stove/ wall area.
6. Fry all of the battered tomato ( a few at a time to prevent overcrowding) until golden brown. Turn over and brown the other side as well.
7. Remove from oil and onto a paper towel lined plate to drain excess oil.
8. transfer to a serving plate and eat with sweet and sour sauce.


Sweet and Sour sauce

Ingredients:

1/4 cup vinegar
3 Tbsp catsup
2 Tbsp sugar (adjust according to desired sweetness)
1/2 cup water
ginger 2 inch size, peeled and sliced
1 Tbsp four
3 Tbsp water

1. Heat pan over medium heat.
2. Add vinegar, catsup, sugar, 1/2 cup water and ginger. Mix well until sugar is dissolved. Let it boil. Stir occassionally.
3. In a small bowl mix flour and 3 Tbsp water. Dilute flour and set aside.
4. When castup mixture starts to boil, lower the heat to medium low and start adding flour mixture. Add a tsp at a time until the desired thickness is achieved.
5.Using a fine mesh strainer, strain to remove undisolved flour.
6. Serve as a sauce for fried green tomato.