Fried Green Tomatoes

Frying food at home is one of those life dreams that doesn’t seem obtainable, like becoming an astronaut or finding the guy of your dreams. Which is why I can now happily report that I’ve achieved two of the three, and no, I’m not going to don a space suit any time soon.

So here’s this, my final farewell to summer: fried green tomatoes. I found these green beauties at a local fruit stand, but with summer disappearing fast, you might want to bookmark this post for next year.

This is adapted from David Tanis’ book Heart of the Artichoke, which I read like a novel. Find more of his writing at the New York Times, where he pens the City Kitchen column.

First cut your tomatoes, four or five if you can find them, into thick slices. Then grab a big pot, pour in nearly a bottle of vegetable oil and heat over medium-high heat. This took about ten minutes. Use a candy thermometer to determine when it reaches 350°. It’s gonna splatter, so maybe try this out when your stove’s already a mess.

Next, in a shallow pan, combine 2 cups all-purpose flour, 1 cup fine yellow corn meal and a teaspoon cayenne. Dredge a few slices at a time in the flour mixture.

Gingerly drop a few of the flour-covered slices into the oil and heat until brown, a few minutes, then flip over to brown the other side. Remove to a paper-towel covered plate. Then dredge, plunk into oil, brown, remove, repeat.

Here’s a tip – keep your eye on the temperature of the oil; adding the slices will cool the oil down, so play around with the temperature to keep the oil hovering around 350°.

Arrange on a plate, sprinkle with salt and pepper, hand your friends a fork and a knife, and stand back. But these babies go fast, so be sure to grab one while you can.