Pan-fried Green Tomatoes
Traditional breaded fried green tomatoes are dressed for town with crab meat remoulade and tart chow chow. The tomato breading and remoulade both contain cayenne pepper for heat; adjust to your own taste. This recipe can easily be broken into its components, such as breading mix, and used for other things.
Ingredients
- Chow Chow
- Green Tomatoes - 2, stemmed
- Red Bell Pepper - 1, seeded and deribbed
- Green Bell Pepper - 1, seeded and deribbed
- Onion - 1 small
- Cider Vinegar - 1 cup
- Sugar - 1/2 cup
- Salt - 1 tablespoon
- Celery Seeds - 1/2 teaspoon
- Mustard Seeds - 1/2 teaspoon
- Remoulade
- Onion - 1 small
- Egg Yolks - 2
- Paprika - 2 tablespoons
- Celery salt - 1/2 tablespoon
- Garlic powder - 1/2 tablespoon
- Cayenne Pepper - 1 teaspoon
- Freshly ground black pepper - 1 teaspoon
- Creole mustard - 4 ounces
- Olive Oil - 2 cups
- Cider Vinegar - 2/3 cup
- Kosher salt to taste
- Green Tomatoes - 4 small
- Breading
- All-Purpose Flour - 1 cup
- Corn Meal - 1 cup
- Salt - 1 tablespoon
- Dash of freshly ground black pepper - 2 teaspoons
- Garlic powder - 2 teaspoons
- Cayenne Pepper - 2 teaspoons
- Paprika - 1 teaspoon
- Vegetable oil - for frying
- Lump crab meat - 1 pound, picked over
- Celery Heart Stalks - 4
- Green Onions - 2, chopped
- Flat-leaf Parsley - 1 bunch, stemmed
Instructions
To make the chow chow: Pulse the tomato, peppers, and onion in a food processor until reduced to lumpy pulp, or, very finely chop by hand. Put the vinegar and seasonings in a nonreactive saucepan and boil for 2 minutes. Reduce the heat, add the vegetable pulp, and simmer for 10 to 15 minutes, until well blended. Remove from heat and let cool in the pan.
To make the remoulade: Place the onion, yolks, and seasonings in a food processor or blender and puree. When the onions have been chopped up, with the machine running, slowly pour in the oil, then thin with the vinegar. Adjust the seasoning with Kosher salt to taste. Set aside.
To prepare the tomatoes: Slice the tomatoes crosswise just over 1/2-inch thick. Place the breading ingredients in a paper bag and shake up. Heat the oil in a skillet or saute pan over medium-high heat. Dredge the tomato slices, a few at a time, in the breading mixture and place in the pan. Do not let them touch each other. Fry until golden, about 2 minutes, then turn and fry on the other side for 1 to 1-1/2 minutes, until golden. Drain on paper towels.
To serve: Toss the crab meat with one half of the remoulade. Add more if you want the mixture more moist; left-over remoulade may be refrigerated and used with salad greens or other seafood). Overlap four slices in the center of each serving plate. Spoon three small mounds of chow chow on each plate. Cover the center of the tomatoes with a mound of crab remoulade. Stand a celery stalk in each. Garnish with parsley and sprinkle with green onions.
