Fried Green Tomato FAIL

I do not take to failure well, especially when cooking. But inevitably it happens. Like mixing up baking powder and baking soda, or that time I ran out of arrowroot when I was making orange crème brulee and decided to try and use guar gum in place since that’s all I had handy. I ended up with something that resembled stringy tapioca/ rice pudding and tasted even worse than that sounds. This was one of those times.

Now, when I think of fried green tomatoes, I envision a light cornmeal coating fried to a deep golden brown, so I have to admit, I was a bit skeptical going into the this recipe (which, by the way, is “Fried Green Tomatoes 1” in WSCC. There are two more recipes in the book. TFG)

The batter is much like the batter I used for the onion rings in my previous post, which does not jive with my dreams of crunchy cornmeal coated tomatoes, but I thought “what the hell.” Which is exactly what I thought after I fried two rounds. I successfully decimated two of my beautiful green tomatoes I had spent many minutes selecting at the farmers market. I ate a few, and Lindsey tried to eat one, but only made it through two bites. They were super oily and half the batter fell off during frying. So sad. The tomato slices that hadn’t made it into the hot oil went in fridge, which means I’ll be snacking on not-fried green tomatoes tonight.

Like I said, I’m glad there’s 2 more recipes to try. Because I really REALLY love a good fried green tomato.

A Little Plate of Fried Snacks (Hush Puppies, Onion Rings and Zucchini Fries)

I knew I couldn’t make it long without busting out the deep fryer my friend Jen got me for Christmas, and today looked like the day to do it. Yesterday was a gorgeous day for a long walk, Lindsey and I took advantage and walked though the city, stopping to pick up some gorgeous onions from the farmers market at the Eastern Market. She’s been begging me for onion rings since I started this adventure, and I figured as long as I had the fryer out, I might as well make zucchini fries and hush puppies at the same time. In my opinion, hush puppies are the king of all southern food, you just can’t go wrong with deep fried corn meal batter.  Let the frying commence!!!

 Hush Puppies

(WSCC pg. 115)

2 cups cornmeal

3 tbs all-purpose flour

1 tsp baking powder

½ tsp baking soda
1 tsp sugar

1 tsp salt

egg replace for one egg (I use bob’s red mill.)

1/3 cup extra firm silken tofu, beaten in blender

1 cup milk soy milk with 1 tbs apple cider vinegar (mix together and let sit for 10 min)

1 tablespoon vegetable oil

3 tbs minced onion

vegetable oil for frying

Mix first 5 ingredients together. Beat egg replacer, oil, silken tofu, and soy milk mixture. Add to cornmeal mixture, onion and stir until blended. Drop 1 ½” spoonfulls into hot oil (375 degrees, approx) and deep fry until golden brown. Drain and serve. And don’t crowd the oil!

“Why add vinegar to soy milk?” you may ask. Well, when you add vinegar (or lemon juice) to soy milk and let it sit, the soy milk curdles and acts more like a buttermilk. And no, it doesn’t work with rice milk. Unfortunately.

Onion Rings and Zucchini Fries

(WSCC pg. 94)

1 cups bisquick

1/3 cup cornmeal

¼ tsp salt

¼ tsp black pepper

1 cup soy milk (or rice)

1 tbs yellow mustard

vegetable oil for frying

1 large onion, peeled, cut into ¼ slices and split into rings

1 zucchini, cut into sticks

Combine dry ingredients into bowl, and beat in soy milk and mustard.

Coat zucchini and onions and place in hot oil until browned, turning once. 

The best to make both of these are probably if you have people coming over. It makes quite a bit for just two people. Even when one of them can eat copious amounts of onion rings.