Veggie Wednesday: Fried Green Tomatoes

I adore fried tomatoes--green or red. My mom, being from an area of Indiana with a large Southern influence, talked about these often when I was growing up. Only thing that would make this better would be ham with red-eye gravy and grits.

Fried Green Tomatoes

1 egg
1 T milk
1/3 c flour
1/3 c cornmeal OR breadcrumbs (that's simply a preference thing)
1 t salt
1/4 t paprika
1/8 t cayenne pepper
1/8 t black pepper
3 firm green or under ripe tomatoes
oil for frying

Beat egg and milk together well. Mix flour, cornmeal or breadcrumbs and spices--(My own way is nothing but salt and pepper-add the other spices only if you'd like to). Core tomatoes and cut into thick slices-about 4 per tomato. Dip slices in egg and then flour mixture to coat. Heat 1/4 inch of oil in a large skillet (cast iron works beautifully for this!) until hot. Brown tomatoes on both sides and drain well. Serve immediately.

Now I'm going to see if any of my green tomatoes are big enough for this!