Jenise wrote:Sadly, an inspection of our tomato plants yesterday proved that our tomatoes were, no joke, rotting on the vine. The season that never really started is officially over. The rot is a soft spot that starts out transluscent and turns pale brown, then gray, at which point applying any pressure at all causes your finger to punch a hole right through it. We pulled all the vines and harvested the green fruit that hadn't developed any rot yet, which was about half--about 50 lbs worth. I set the largest and most obviously mature out on a table on the sunnier side of the house in hopes some might ripen yet, but the majority don't have a chance, and I am wondering about pickling them instead. I love the Jewish style of pickled tomato and would love a recipe for those, if anyone knows. I'll cross-post this to Rogov's culinary section, too.
Additionally, is any green tomato a candidate for pickling? Obviously, some I picked are very immature, but since they're all green I can't tell which is which by size alone--does that matter?
Don't know about pickling them, but you can eat them right now.
Get some egg, cornmeal, and cayenne pepper (fresh or powdered).
Pour a small mound of cornmeal on two separate plates. In between the two plates of cornmeal, place a bowl of whipped egg.
Slice the green tomatoes about 1/4 inch each. One at a time, dip a slice in the first cornmeal bowl, then soak both sides in the egg, then dip it into the second cornmeal bowl to coat it. Sprinkle a little powdered cayenne on it and rest the slice on a paper towel until you have all slices coated. (Add more corn meal and egg as you need them.)
If you are truly old-fashioned, melt some lard to coat a nice cast iron pan. If not, pour canola oil into a pan, enough for each tomato slice to almost be covered in oil. Heat the oil, not to French fry status, medium is enough (although this is one of those things I do by feel and sense).
Cook tomato slices until each side is nicely browned--flip them over to make sure.
If you have fresh cayenne peppers, slice them and throw the skins and seeds into the oil with the tomatoes.
Some people use ketchup on the fried green tomatoes, some use mayo, I use either mint or basil leaves to top them.
Wonderful with cornmeal fried catfish, too!
