Fried Green Tomatoes

I have to admit, I skipped the Iron Chef Blogger Challenge this week. The secret ingredient was pears. I just don't love pears, at all really. I was contemplating making fritters (using one pear, to get in the ingredient, and then making apple fritters with the rest of the batter), but I just wasn't really feeling it.

I went to the Farmer's Market, halfway looking for a pear, but really looking for romanesco (which I apparently missed, but may keep looking for today). What I found, were green tomatoes. They were begging to be fried.

Below are my sliced tomatoes, sprinkled with kosher salt, and sitting in a colander trying to draw out the moisture. Part of the key to frying tomatoes is to be sure they are as dry as possible - otherwise your coating will slide right off. This method (which is Paula Deen's) didn't work that well for me, probably because of my lack of patience (I want to fry tomatoes NOW!). So, I later switched to Alton Brown's method of putting the tomato slices between paper towels to dry.


Dredged the tomatoes in a mix of flour (you can also use cornmeal or a combination of the two) with some black pepper, and a dash of cayenne pepper. Then fried in vegetable oil until brown on both sides.

At this point in the recipe, Alton Brown said the oil should be 350 degrees. I don't have an oil thermometer, but apparently I need one. I don't think my oil was hot enough, so mine didn't really get crispy. The photo below was the best looking one of the bunch. They did taste pretty good, but I think I need more practice frying.