Fresh & Easy, our favourite local grocery store, sent us a few boxes of their new store brand cereal, Mother’s Joy, including a box of corn flakes. Carlo and I aren’t big cereal eaters, but I decided to use the corn flakes to make some Crunchy Fried Green Tomatoes. I had no idea what to expect when I made these, but they were incredible. The corn flakes made a really nice crunchy crust to the tangy tomato inside. I just only wish that we had some bacon and bread on hand so I could have used the fried green tomatoes to make a killer BLT.
This recipe for Crunchy Fried Green Tomatoes feeds 4 people at 61 cents per serving.
Green tomatoes are basically tomatoes that have yet to fully ripen. They are pretty firm and don’t taste too good when you eat them raw, but they become delicious when you cook them. I was tempted to pick some unripened green tomatoes off my plants outside to make this recipe, but thankfully, the Farmers’ Market had some so I could let my tomatoes continue to ripen for another recipe in the future.
Cut the green tomatoes into 1/2 inch slices.
Grab three shallow bowls to prepare all of the ingredients for the batter. In one bowl, whisk together flour, salt, sugar, and cayenne pepper. In the next bowl, whisk together an egg and milk. In the last bowl, place some coarsely crushed cornflakes. I put my corn flakes into a large ziploc bag and then crushed them. (In case anyone was wondering, the Fresh & Easy corn flakes taste just like the corn flakes you grew up with, and added a really nice crunch to this recipe).
Take each tomato slice and dredge it in the flour mixture then dip it into the egg. Lastly place the egg-y tomato slice into the crushed corn flakes and press the corn flakes onto the tomato for them to stick.
Heat 1 tablespoon butter and 1 tablespoon oil over moderate heat in a frying pan. Once the foam subsides, put 3 tomato slices in the pan and fry until they are golden brown, about 3 minutes on each side. Take out the fried tomatoes and let them drain on a paper towel. After each batch, clean out the frying pan and add 1 more tablespoon of butter and olive oil until all of the slices are fried.
Place the drained slices on a baking sheet and bake the tomatoes in a 375 degree oven until tender in the middle and hot, about 4 minutes.
I served the Crunchy Fried Green Tomatoes with a spicy mayo that I made by combining some garlic chili sauce with regular mayonnaise. The spicy mayo tasted great with the green tomatoes and would also taste yummy on a BLT using the fried green tomatoes. In case you haven’t tried a fried green tomato BLT, make one! Carlo thought I was making this up, but it is a real dish and tastes as delicious as it sounds.
