Ever since watching the film of the same name I have wanted to find out what these tasted like. I finally tried them and I wasn’t disappointed!

I adapted this recipe, although a search will show that recipes for these don’t differ that much. I wanted one that didn’t include breadcrumbs as I think that would destroy the taste of the polenta. Polenta, or cornmeal as they call it in the States, is for me the flavour of the southern States so I wanted that to come through.

This was my final tomato harvest of 2019. I decided to try to ripen some on the window, and cook the rest.

I found this size tomato made 2 slices each. You can discard the ends or save them to make chutney or curry.

Ingredients

  • 8 medium tomatoes
  • 1 large egg
  • 50 ml buttermilk (or milk)
  • 100 g plain flour
  • 100 g polenta
  • ½ teaspoon smoked paprika
  • vegetable oil
  • sea salt
  • freshly ground black pepper

Method

Sliced green tomatoes
  • Slice the tomatoes 1 cm thick.
  • Whisk egg and milk in a small bowl.
  • Mix flour, polenta, smoked paprika and some salt and ground pepper in a large shallow dish or plate.
  • Drop the tomato slices in the flour mixture and cover them. Shake them off, dip in the egg mixture (use a spoon to soak them) then put them back into the flour mixture.
  • Cover the tomato slices in the flour mixture then gently shake them off and transfer to a plate.
Floured green tomatoes
  • Line a large plate with paper towels and keep it close to the hob.
  • In a large frying pan heat just over ½ cm of oil to a high heat. You want it to almost or just cover the slices.
  • To check the oil is ready throw in a small cube of bread – it should fizz quickly and turn brown. Then transfer the tomatoes carefully to the frying pan. Cook for around 2 minutes on each side, until they are golden brown.
Frying green tomatoes
  • Transfer to paper lined plate and pat dry. Season with sea salt and black pepper.

Serve

  • Serve with a spicy mayonnaise or Sriracha chilli sauce.
Fried green tomatoes