Fried Green Tomato BLTs

Posted on October 29, 2015

We are well into fall, and the first frost will be here soon. My dad still has crops in the garden who fall victim to the first frost. He picked a basket of fresh green beans for me that I cooked tonight. My family loves a big pot of green beans, and if you toss in some sausage, potato, and onion, it makes a whole meal. My girls actually love this for supper

Today, my dad was picking his tomatoes, red and green. It reminded me of this Fried Green BLT recipe that I made recently. I love bacon! I love BLTs! This is a refreshing new take on a classic sandwich. There are couple of aspects that I really like about this recipe. Number one is the bacon. As much as I love bacon, I don’t like frying bacon. Cooking the bacon in the oven, in my opinion, is the only way to go. I can’t taste a difference, and it is less messy. Number two is the fried green tomatoes. This is the first time that I have successfully made fried green tomatoes. They came out just right, perfect crispiness, perfect browning, perfect taste! I also used freshly ground cornmeal from my Dad. Just pick out your favorite bread and you have the perfect BLT.

I honestly could have eaten several of these sandwiches. I only ate one BLT because when my husband and I turned our backs, my 4 year old ate a whole pound of bacon. I guess the love for bacon runs in the family.

I found this recipe on Food and Wine. Definitely try this at home. Enjoy!

Ingredients

4 slices of bacon
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1 large egg beaten with 1 tablespoon of water
1/2 cup yellow cornmeal
Salt and freshly ground pepper
1 pound unripe green tomatoes or large tomatillos, cut into 1/2-inch slices
Canola oil
8 thick-cut slices of whole wheat or multigrain bread, toasted
Low-fat mayonnaise and baby arugula, for assembling

Instructions

Preheat the oven to 400° and line a rimmed baking sheet with foil. Arrange the bacon on the foil and bake for about 15 minutes, until crispy. Drain the bacon and cut in half.
Meanwhile, put the flour, egg mixture and cornmeal in 3 shallow bowls. Season the cornmeal generously with salt and pepper. Dip the tomato slices in the flour, then in the egg and finally in the cornmeal, pressing to help it adhere. Transfer the slices to a wax paper–lined platter.
In a very large skillet, heat 1/4 inch of canola oil until shimmering. Add the tomatoes and cook over moderately high heat, turning once, until golden and crisp, 5 minutes. Drain the tomatoes on paper towels.
Lay 4 slices of toast on a work surface and lightly spread with mayonnaise. Top with the green tomatoes, bacon and arugula. Close the sandwiches, cut in half and serve.