The Featured Guest Blogger series continues this week with the fabulous Jamie and her {should-be-award-winning} recipe for Not So Fried Green Tomatoes. Just wait until your taste buds wrap themselves around these tasty delights.
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Hi everyone! This is Jamie from Mama.Mommy.Mom. I’m super excited to be guest posting for Emily this week. I’m coming to you from the steamy Piedmont of North Carolina.
So far, we’ve had 47 days above 90 degrees this summer and surely many, many more to come. You can look at my tomatoes and see that everything around here is suffering. I’m a little worried that my tomatoes aren’t going to make it. It pains me to see all those green tomatoes that might die on the plant. So, rather than watching them die, I decided to cook some of them!
I love Fried Green Tomatoes, both the movie and the food! But, I’ve been working hard to avoid fried foods (way too much fat) and the thought of frying these beauties made me a little sick to my stomach. What is the saying about ‘adapt and overcome’? So, my Not So Fried Green Tomatoes were born!
You’ll want to grab a few full-size green tomatoes. You can even use tomatoes that have just started to turn. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.
While your oven warms up, start slicing off the tops of the tomatoes. Make sure you cut away all of the hard stem from the center.
Slice your tomatoes between 1/4 and 1/2 inch thick. You can use the end piece if you like, but I usually leave that part off. The skin is so slick that the breading doesn’t stick very well.
Your set up for dipping is easy! Tray #1 is seasoned (salt and pepper) all-purpose flour. You could certainly add any spices you like. I think Cheyenne pepper would be an excellent addition! Tray #2 is Skim Milk and 2 eggs. You’ll want to whisk it together until the egg is evenly distributed throughout the milk. Tray #3 is simply store-bought Italian Seasoned Bread Crumbs.
The process is simple… Dredge in the flour, dip in the egg mixture and coat in the bread crumbs. This is the point in the traditional recipe that you would drop these lovelies into a kiddie pool sized pan of hot oil. The flour and bread crumbs would start soaking up oil nearly immediately. Not in my version!
The secret is a cooling rack. Seriously.
Take a foil-lined baking pan and lay a cooling rack across it. This elevates the tomatoes, allowing the hot air to circulate around them completely. Just lightly spray the rack with cooking spray, lay the tomatoes in a single layer, then give the tops of the tomatoes a light spray and you’re ready to bake!
These take about 35-40 minutes at 350 degrees, but this will vary depending on the thickness of your tomato slices and your oven. Just peak at them every 10-15 minutes. Once you see a lovely golden-brown color, they’re ready to come out.
How great do these look?
These tomatoes won’t send you into cardiac arrest like the traditional version and it’s a great way to get in your veggies!
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Thank you, Jamie, for sharing this great recipe! It’s certain to become a favorite in our home, too.
Jamie Rippy is the totally stressed out, in-over-her-head, professional nothing who’s cooking, taking pictures and blabbing about her kids at Mama.Mommy.Mom. If that’s not enough, you can also find her babbling on Facebook and Twitter.
These look great! I will maybe have them tonight 🙂