Fried Green Tomatoes with Catsup

Fried Green Tomatoes with Catsup

Ever since the movie of the same name, my daughters have clamored for fried green tomatoes (kind of makes me wish there had been a chick flick entitled “Liver and Onions” or “Fatty Italian Sausage,” two items I clamor for, but to no avail).

Last Sunday, the wife whipped up a batch of pan-fried green ones. Very simple: dip slices in beaten egg then corn meal and fry.



My job was to salt and pepper the ‘maters fresh from their hot oil bath. They were outstandingly good, one of those food items that is so wonderfully simple and flavorful, the tomato flesh absorbing none of the oil but just heating up enough to get the flavors going, the fried coat furnishing a fine contrast to the soft, almost gelatinous fruit inside.



At the picnic, the ever-thoughtful C2 gifted me with a most excellent dispenser for the universal condiment.



It’s pretty cool that with this catsup bottle, different shaped openings enable you to extrude the tomato puree in any number of patterns. Copy on the bottle challenges, “How creative are you?”



Tomatoes with catsup; a mother and child reunion, of sorts.

Hammond

Yum! Those look delicious! Fried green tomatoes are some of my favorite things.


Except.....I've never heard of putting catsup on it. Hmm. Now I know a little of how my DH feels (JimtheBeerGuy) when I put catsup on my eggs - something he finds revolting. Let me hastily say, it's not that I find catsup on fried green tomatoes revolting, just....different.

Outside of the "what do I do with all these green tomatoes when the frost hits" factor, I've never seen the point of fried green tomatoes, since the same application on another solanacae (sp?), eggplant, yields such a tasty treat.

I can still taste the time I walked into a long-gone Italian joint near my old neighborhood (La Pasta Ria, now moved to Morton Grove) to pick up some pasta I'd ordered, and they've just pulled a pile of sliced mellanzana from the fryolator. I comment on how good it looks and they gave me a couple slices. Mmmmmm. Yes, I patronized them often, it's amazing how a little lagniappe will yield a regular customer.

Hi,

If anyone wants the fancy ketchup dispenser, please note this was located at Odd Lots, the home of discontinued and over-runs products.

Glad you liked the ketchup. Rene G and I found it on a NW Indiana excursion, we each found it at the same time and thought of you!

Regards,

JoelF wrote:Outside of the "what do I do with all these green tomatoes when the frost hits" factor, I've never seen the point of fried green tomatoes, since the same application on another solanacae (sp?), eggplant, yields such a tasty treat.

JoelF, not to be overly contentious, but isn't this kind of like asking, "Why eat apples when you can eat oranges?"

However, to compare apples to oranges, fried green tomatoes to eggplant, one advantage of the former is that they absorb no grease and so have a somewhat fresher, crisper taste -- also, I love that look of green jelly inside the fried shell. That said, I like fried eggplant, too, of course, because, you know, it's all good.

Hammond

what a funny coincidence!

i guess it must be the time of year that folks make fried green tomatoes, because i just made some this past wednesday. we had about five tomatoes that just never ripened in our backyard, so i picked them, sliced, and three-step breaded. i didn't have cornmeal handy, so used panko mixed with lots of 'parmano' cheese (a great product).

i also made a fancy ketchup by mixing heinz with some raspberry jalapeno jam that we had in the back of the fridge.

turned out pretty good.

You know, another major benefit of catsup (and there are really too many to count) is that -- even at room temperature -- it can radically bring down the heat of a fried item to make it cool enough to eat even fresh from the fryer.