BABZ BITES
Nothing tastes like summertime in Kentucky more than a green tomato.
It’s such a simple treat it often confuses me to think how this garden fruit can be so underrated. It’s hard to believe something as classic as the green tomato actually stems from nothing more than garden-variety tomatoes plucked prior to ripening. Regardless of the species, green tomatoes have the luxury of being harvested throughout the season, and for those of us who simply can’t get enough, they are on our dinner table throughout the season. The best ones to pick are the large tennis-ball-sized tomatoes with tight skin.
In the last week I have had at least three people contact me for my fried green tomato recipe. Most of those inquiries have been from folks hungry for a bite like their grandma or mother used to fry it up. Recipes like fried green tomatoes are still some of the special treats that we all strive to recreate from the dinner tables of our youth. We associate so many foods and bites with a memory, and even a person who is no longer with us. Like many, for me, sharing these recipes or recreating them is a way to not only share who I am, but who members of my family were.
Growing up with a Grandmother who had been raised during the depression-era, our table was never shy of green tomatoes. NanNan would reminisce about the farm she grew on in Stamping Ground, with tall tales of catching craw-dads in the creek, finding snakes in the barn, and being the first on Sebree Road to have a driver’s license other than parents and older folks. Although she said DanDan (my great-grandfather) lied and said she was 16 when she was really 13 to help her get it early. More than anything NanNan would talk about how hard times were and what that meant for their dinner table. “When we cooked a chicken, we used every last bit and bone of that chicken for something,” NanNan echoed to us numerous times after eating chicken and throwing and watching us throw away the bones.
NanNan knew how to get every last use out of a plastic bag, glass container, or paper towel. But she always said no matter how poor they were, they felt like kings during the summertime. The fields around their small rural house would come alive. Corn, tomatoes, berries, okra, squash, pole beans, anything they needed would sprout life after so much darkness, depression, and even hunger. They would take to jarring what they could and the rest would be feasted upon til their bellies swelled.
This depression-era lifestyle manifested into what became my grandmother’s palate. NanNan would take classic dishes, and redefine them with a twist of her own. That woman could put a fried green tomato on just about anything. Grilled cheese, hamburgers, BLT’s, nothing stood a chance. If it could be eaten with a fried green tomato, she had it on there. Or oftentimes she would just make them on their own, dredged in leftover crackers and laid on days old newspaper to soak up the oil. As my palate has grown with time, I have continued to enjoy putting the affectionately termed FGT, on everything.
But she didn’t just fry up the green tomatoes, we had too many for that. NanNan would often substitute recipes that called for red tomatoes, with green tomatoes. This simple twist made me reminisce and crave home anytime I was anywhere else other than Kentucky in the summer.
Green tomato guacamole, green tomatoes with country ham, green tomato salsa, green tomato everything. It should come as no surprise that I have never really been a red tomato kind of girl.
Whatever your taste bud, do yourself a favor and treat yourself to this summertime classic before the season ends.
Good luck and enjoy!
Green Tomato Guacamole Spread
4 large avocados, pitted and peeled
4 tbsp sour cream
¼ tsp garlic powder
½ tsp kosher salt or sea salt
2 tbsp fresh lime juice
1 or two small chopped green chilies
1 small onion, chopped fine
2 medium green tomatoes, chopped fine
Mash avocados. Add sour cream, garlic powder, salt, lime juice, chopped chilies. Stir well. Add onion and tomato and stir again. If not serving immediately, place avocado pits in mx, cover and refrigerate. Pits will prevent guac from turning dark.
Fried Green Tomatoes
Makes 8-10 servings.
2/3 cup all-purpose flour or cornmeal
2 teaspoons salt
Dash pepper
3 pounds green tomatoes, cut in 1/2 inch slices
salad oil or bacon fat
About 30 minutes before serving:
In a pie plate, combine flour, salt and pepper. Dip tomato slices in mixture to coat both sides. In a large skillet over medium heat, in 1/4 cup cup hot salad oil or bacon fat, fry tomato slices, a few at a time, until golden on both sides and heated through. Drain on paper towels or newspaper. Add more oil if needed.
Green Tomatoes Bites with Balsamic Glaze and Country Ham
(served with blue cheese crumbles on toast points)
Serves 5
3 green tomatoes
½ pound country ham
1 baguette
3 tablespoon olive oil
Balsamic vinegar glaze 1/4 cup brown sugar
½ cup blue cheese crumbles
Basil leaves, for garnish and presentation
a) Slice baguette into ½ inch slices. Lay onto the cookie sheet open faced. Sprinkle with olive oil and toast for 5 minutes at 400 degrees.
b) Allow the pan to cool and place small pieces of ham on each toast point.
c) Wash and slice tomatoes. Thinly slice tomatoes into so that they will fit easily onto your toast points. Top each toast point with a slice of tomato.
d) Drizzle with balsamic glaze.
e) Sprinkle blue cheese across tomato, ham, and balsamic glaze.
f) Garnish with basil leaves or thinly sliced pieces of basil.
g) Serve any remaining basil leaves on plate and arrange toast points around them or on top of them. Serve immediately or toast points will become soggy.
The photos and recipes used in today’s article are from the kitchen of Chef Babz with a little help from the recipe box of late grandmother, Louise Osborne. Green tomatoes provided by Nathan Truesdell of Circle T Farms.
