Sunday, August 31, 2008

Culinary Creations: Fried Green Heaven

Last night, J made one of my favorite things: Fried Green Tomatoes! We also had this for the first time during our trip to Charleston. I don't eat a lot of fried foods, and never would have imagine being so enamored with them. The few places we tried them at all seemed to like serving them in the form of a "BLT". As they seemed to know what they were doing, who could argue? J is now a master at making them, and does so 3-4 times a year. We made them last night, and they made the perfect coupling with the left over peanut soup. When we make them, it is usually just for the two of us. Instead of halving the batter, we've taken to using the extra to make Fried Dill Pickle Chips! As dill pickles are my favorite food, it doesn't get any better than this for me...

* After slicing and and coating the tomatoes, J fries them in a small amount of oil for 3 minutes per side, on a medium-ish heat. The dill pickle chips take around 30 seconds per side. Through trial and error, we've found that Mount Olive's organic chips work best. They are a bit thicker so hold up well to the heat.


*Then drain on paper towels. Ahhh, look at that lovely golden color. I'm salivating!!!

* Paired with African Peanut Soup...



* Up close and personal. Good condiments are the key to completing this meal. For the BLT, I make a mayonnaise/hot sauce mixture. The Dill Pickle Chips are completed with a few dashed of Screamin' Dill Pickle Hot Sauce, that we picked up in Savannah.

7 comments:

Jane King said...

Hello - do you just buy green tomatoes? I dont think you can (well obviously you can if you grow your own!!) What do you coat them in? Is it batter? Also what are dill pickle chips? I think i know what a dill pickle is but how do you chip it? And you then fry that too? It looks really good! i have always wanted to try fried green tomatoes. I did literally fry some green tomatoes once - they did not taste good :-)
also now REALLY want to go to Charleston. A dry day whats that all about are they amish or sometthing and whats so evil about lemonade?! :-)

Amy J said...

Yes, there are a few places here where you can buy green tomatoes. I always thought that they were just unripened, but now I think they might be a certain type too. When I went to buy them there was only one that was green and some red ones that had green stickers on them. They looked completely red and ripe, but they were as firm as the green ones. So am not sure, should look that up to make me an expert :-)

We do use a batter; it's got corn meal in it, and really makes a difference. If you want it I'll post it for you.

Dill pickle chips come sliced like that. Not chips in your sense, but flat like ours. McDonalds put them on their burgers. We have just been tossing them in the left over batter and they are divine.

I will be happy to make this for you. Your life won't be complete until you try it! :-)

You would love Charleston. It is beautiful and the food is diving. I'm going to eventually do more on some of the places we ate there. We ate so much there we were so full that we didn't eat much in Savannah. I never thought it was possible to be over food, but it was!

You would also love the Inn at Middleton Place. They have stables there and riding trails. It was so relaxing and a nice escape from every day life. It's on a plantation and is out in the country. As for the evils of lemonade... that is still a mystery. Our server couldn't even explain why. There are still a lot of places in the US that are dry on Sunday. I guess it's a carry over from the prohibition. It's actually government mandated. Even though Jesus turned water into wine, definitely NOT lemonade, they don’t want you drinking it on his day. Not an Amish thing, though I bet you can’t buy alcohol in their areas at all.

Amy J said...

I forgot to mention that dry counties and dry Sundays are mainly a southern thing. In Sarasota County, you can't buy alcohol before noon on Sundays. When we were driving through Louisiana, you could only buy drinks that were under 8% on Sundays. There was no limit to how much you bought, as long as each drink was under 8%. C-R-A-Z-Y!

Jane King said...

I think its quite cool about the alcohol thing makes it seem old fashioned and wholesome (perhaps not so much in reality?! Thinking southern redneck KKK not wholesome at all!!!) I would really like to go to the inn at middleton place. I know what you mean about being over food that can happen sometimes. I think by the end of a holiday in florida i was over food :-) In a great way though!! I havent seen green tomatoes for sale here is what i should have said but i shall look out for them some more specialist shops might i didnt thing about them being a certain type you might be on to something there! I understand about the dill pickle chips as soon as you said mcdonalds ha ha!!

Amy J said...

It does seem old fashioned and is rather quaint, but they should at least tell you when booking, I think. I'm not an expert on the subject, but I think of the KKK being more around Mississippi, Alabama, and Tennesee than I do around South Carolina. To me it seems like a much more civilized area of the south in that respect. But as I said, I'm no expert so could be wrong.

I knew McDonalds would be a good reference. It's the first thing that comes to mind of American stlyle dill pickles in the UK. They did have them once on a pastrami sandwich from M&S. I miss their sarnies!!! :-(

Jane King said...

if its any consolation M&S sarnies arent what they used to be they arent as good! They dont seem to do the really nice flavours anymore. My fave was the chicken tikka on nan bread but they dont have that anymore. Their sushi is really good (I dont think you eat sushi?). Also their other food has really gone good and they do meals for £10 where you can buy for eg a chicken, prepared veg, a pudding and bottle of wine its really really good :-P
Charleston makes me think of the old fashined dance and i thought it sounded a quaint old fashined place lovely wish i could go!! You are right about the dill pickes. Pastrami is a terrible disappointment here. I had a pastrami sandwich from lemon tree a couple of weeks ago its new people in there now the cakes are amazing but the pastrami - yuk it was like rubber. i had a pastrami sandwich when i came to florida when you lived in the apartment and i walked to the nearest shops. IT was heaven and not like rubber!

Amy J said...

Was it First Watch or the British Open that you has pastrami at over here? They both have nice pastrami. That sounds a really good deal at M&S. I really do miss their food. I remember that Tikka / Naan sandwich, it was good. Do Lemon Tree still do the delectable tikka sandwiches? They were bliss! Remeber when they had to stop using bacon as the place next door had complained?