What comes to mind?  Lightening bugs…sweet tea on the porch…oppressive humidity…tomatoes fresh from the garden…peach ice cream…I could go on and on.  Southern Living tweeted a few weeks back “can anyone tell us why green tomatoes are such a Southern favorite?”…my response was “because we get so excited to have tomatoes fresh from the garden that we can’t wait for them to turn red”.  I believe Fried Green Tomaotes are one of the most Southern dishes.  This is the way I make them…

I am using three green tomatoes freshly picked from my garden…around here you can find them at the grocery store, too.

You can slice these to whatever thickness suits you, I like mine about ¼ inch thick.  I always use a serrated knife, mine is a bread knife, it works perfectly for slicing tomatoes. 

All sliced!

Now, you are going to need a few more ingredients:  AP flour, cornmeal, buttermilk, salt, pepper, and oil for frying.  Go ahead and put all of the sliced tomatoes into a dish and add buttermilk…enough to be able to coat all of the slices. 

These can soak in the buttermilk for as much or as little time as you want.  I have immediately started dredging and frying….and I have let them soak overnight…whatever you need or want, just if it is for a long time put them in the fridge ;).  In a separate dish, add equal parts of flour and cornmeal (I used around a cup of each for this) and salt and pepper (probably close to a tablespoon of each).

Mix them together until well combined.  You will want to go ahead and add an inch or less of oil to a deep skillet over medium heat.  Now it is time to dredge those tomatoes…I give them a gentle shake to get rid of some of the excess buttermilk before putting them in the dry mixture.

Now gently drop these into the hot oil (be sure your oil is ready…I mix a little drop of buttermilk with some of the dry stuff and drop it in…if it starts bubbling and rises to the top the oil is ready).

Give them a few minutes before flipping them…the edges will become golden when it is time to flip.  They will get a lovely golden color when they are done…

Lift them out of the oil, I like to hold them over the oil for a few minutes to allow as much excess oil as possible to drain off…then place them on a platter lined with a couple of layers of paper towels.

One batch down…several to go!  Keep it up…you might need to taste one while the others are cooking, just to be sure they taste okay ;).  This is a tedious process, but well worth the effort!

Heavenly deliciousness!  Enjoy!!!

Today’s secret revealed…the night I made these, I used the same method to do zucchini slices and onion rings…all were a smashing success!  I did the onions last so the buttermilk didn’t get onion-y.  That was a lot of frying…but so yummy!!!

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