Yes, people really eat those things down here...

I recall when I was growing up in Utah hearing about fried green tomatoes, and being horrified that someone would actually eat something like that. I dislike the mushy, slimy texture of cooked tomatoes, so the thought of eating a cooked tomato that's not even ripe yet? Disgusting. How can you eat something like that?

Very easily I've discovered.

I made my first attempt at fried green tomatoes about a week ago. I had tried them before at resturants, and while they weren't disgusting, neither were they something I wanted to seek out. However, I'm very committed right now to local, seasonal eating, and there is nothing that says "late October in Georgia" more than a plate of fried green tomatoes.

Green tomato anything is a great way to use up those late season tomatoes that just will not ripen now that it's cooler. I made these using the last tiny tomatoes from my yard and a few other things I'd been saving. This is a perfect example of poverty food.


First, I sliced my tomatoes and sprinkled them with salt and pepper. The salt will dry out the tomato, which makes the breading stick. Leave them on the counter for about ten minutes. Breading is very simple. The technique for a tomato is the same as a piece of meat. First, you roll in flour. I used unseasoned all purpose. Remember, the tomatoes are already seasoned. Then I dipped them in an egg and milk mixture. Then you roll them in bread crumbs. I ran a slice of home made beer bread through my food processor to get my bread crumbs. The flour gives the egg something to stick to, the egg gives the bread crumbs something to stick to. If you've ever bitten into something fried and had the crispy outside come away from the inside bit, they didn't use flour first.

While I was mucking about with the breading, I melted some saved bacon fat in a pan. Bacon fat is great. It's full of flavor and it comes free with your breakfast. After I finished breading, the tomatoes went in the pan.

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Notice, I'm only cooking a few at a time. Crowding the pan means they take longer to cook and soak up more grease. I like bacon fat, but I like my arteries more.

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As they reach doneness, pull them out and lay them on paper towels to drain. If you're super concerned about the grease, you can lay them on a cooling rack. Since I only had a few tomatoes, I wasn't too worried about them reabsorbing the grease.

And thus concludes the saga of my first attempt at growing my own tomatoes.

Submitted to Grow Your Own.

Tomato Sauce

I always seem to get behind on posts here, don't I? Let me reward your patience with some marinara sauce!

Tomato season is starting to wind down here. A few weeks ago, I had the half assed idea of making tomato sauce to freeze, so I could still enjoy locally grown food over the winter. Great idea, misses something in the execution. You'll see.

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The tomatoes. A combination of from my garden and the farmers market.

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Onion, garlic, green bell pepper and carrots. Yes, carrots. My mom made a recipe for Bolognase sauce a few years ago that used carrots as part of the base. Ever since then I've used them in tomato sauce and tomato soup. They add a different dimension of flavor to your dish.

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With the tomatoes added. I used the box grater method, which is why it looks pureed.

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After I added parsley and basil from my garden.

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Pureed using my immersion blender.

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LOOK AT THE SAUCE! LOOK AT IT!!!

The more astute of you have figured out why there is none in my freezer currently.

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It turns out I made just enough for one lasagna. It was a great one. Feta cheese mixed with the ricotta, freshly made sauce, Italian sausage. We had leftovers for three days.

But it's gone now.

And I am sad.

Submitted to Grow Your Own.

Thai style stir fry

I made this dish a few weeks ago. It's one of our favorites. It's sort of nice to have a reminder of summer as the days get cooler.



It's onions, green beans, red jalapeños from the Riverside Farmer's Market and Thai basil from my garden stir fried with chicken breast. I've made this already this year, using the same ingredients, but you could use pretty much any vegetable. Except maybe those collards that I still have in my fridge.

Submitted to Grow Your Own, which is hosted by A Scientist in the Kitchen this time.

Oh, and one other thing...

I'm really proud of tonights dinner. Other than a few pantry ingredients and chicken from the freezer, it was all local ingredients.

I stir fried chicken with pole beans and jalapeños from the Farmers Market (we are still positively swimming in beans around here), and the Thai basil in my garden. I served it alongside steamed brown rice, which my picky Chinese husband has grudgingly agreed to eat occasionally.

Ingredients:

Chicken breast
Corn starch
Soy Sauce
Garlic
Onion
Fresh green beans/pole beans
jalapenos
Thai basil
Chicken broth

The first thing I do is cut up the chicken into smallish chunks that will cook quickly over high heat. Put em in a bowl, then toss with soy sauce and cornstarch. The cornstarch is going to coat the chicken and give it a velvet texture. If i have it on hand, I'll also add ginger and sesame oil to the mix.

While that's doing it's thing, snap the beans. Make sure you get that nasty little string off of them. Cut them into small pieces that will cook quickly. A stir fry is fast food. You want everything to cook fast. Put those aside and chop your onions and garlic.

Heat oil in your pan. When its rocket hot, put the veggies in and give them a quick cook. Keep them moving. When the beans are almost, but not quite done to your liking, pull them off the heat and pour into a bowl.

Add a little more oil to the pan and heat it up again. Add the chicken. I think I needed to drain it first, because I had issues with it sticking to pan. Oh well, it still tasted good. As with the veggies, keep it moving. Once it's mostly done, add the veggies back to the pan. Stir them around together. Add some chopped jalapeño and the Thai basil. It should smell really, really good right now.

Pour it off into a serving dish and set aside. Now, we like a good sauce to flavor the rice when we have Asian style food. If you don't, then go ahead serve now. But we like sauce. I added enough chicken broth to cover the pan, then scraped up all the tasty brown bits stuck to the pan. Let that simmer down and reduce by half, then pour over the chicken and veggies.

What you get now is a beautiful, quick dish that reminds me of very good Thai food.

Watermelon Salad

Last summer, I had one of the best, most unusual salads I've ever eaten. It was the Watermelon-Feta Salad from Relish. Unfortunately, it's no longer on their menu, so I have to make my own. All I recall from it, was that it included fresh watermelon, crumbled feta cheese and heirloom tomatoes. After a bit of Googling for recipes, I created this:



It has what I remember from Relish's salad, plus fresh Thai basil from my garden. I took this right before I poured the homemade balsamic vinaigrette over it. If I had to do it over again, I think I'd skip the vinaigrette. It didn't ruin it, but I think it gave it too many competing flavors. I'll definitely leave it out next time.

Submitted to Grow Your Own.