Growing up, every summer my grandmother served a variety of things from the garden.  One of which was fried green tomatoes.  I loved them as a kid, then over time I generally forgot about this wonderfully southern dish.  Then as I mentioned in an earlier blog, we honeymooned in New Orleans.  On our last day in the Crescent City, indeed it was our last meal there; we stumbled across a little restaurant called The Secret Garden.  On the menu were, of course, fried green tomatoes; and I fell in love with them all over again.  A while back I received a free sample of Emeril’s Original Essence which I decided to try on these tomatoes.  I encourage you to try this traditional south of the Mason-Dixon favorite.

Ingredients

• Several large Green Tomatoes sliced into ½” thick slices
• 1 cup Flour
• 1 beaten egg
• ½ cup additional flour
• ½ cup yellow corn meal
• ¾ teaspoon Emeril’s Original Essence
• Vegetable Oil
• Tabasco Red Pepper Sauce

Preparation
Preheat ½ inch of oil in a large frying pan over medium high heat.  It is important to make certain that your oil is thoroughly heated, but not too hot.  Too hot and the tomatoes will burn on the outside before they are cooked on the inside.  Not hot enough and the tomatoes will soak up the oil.  An easy test is to gently lower the first tomato into the oil.  If it immediately sizzles without a lot of popping and spatter, you have your oil just right.

While the oil is heating, prepare three shallow dishes.  In the first dish combine 1 cup of flour with ½ teaspoon Essence, in the second dish place the beaten egg.  And finally, in the third dish combine the remaining ½ cup of flour, corn meal, and the remaining ½ teaspoon of Essence.

Dip the tomato slices first into the flour, then into the egg. Finish by coating the tomato with the cornmeal mixture.

Keeping plenty of space around the tomatoes in the pan, fry tomatoes in oil until the bottom side is golden brown.  Flip the slices over and allow the other side to brown.  Remove from the oil onto a plate covered with paper towels to absorb any excess oil.  Enjoy them while still hot.  Sprinkle with Tabasco red pepper sauce.  Enjoy.