Fried Green Tomatoes

Ummmmm... I love fried green tomatoes. To me the most important thing is to find green tomatoes at the proper degree of ripeness. If the tomato is to green it will be hard and without flavor, if it's not green enough, it will be too soft and smushy. Yuck. I choose the ones that are firm with a blush of red. My grandmother made them with either a flour or cornmeal batter, but I don't like a batter on them so I cut the tomatoes and then dip them in water and toss them into a bag that I've mixed flour, salt and pepper in. If you like a batter then just mix your flour or cornmeal with water or milk and add one or two eggs. Mix well and add more milk or water as needed to get your batter to the consistency you like. Then dip the tomato slices in the batter and fry in very hot grease until they float.
Fried Green Tomatoes

4 medium green tomatoes
flour
salt and pepper to taste
canola, crisco or vegetable oil ( I like the way crisco fries anything)
Paper grocery bags or paper towels on grate

In a large frying pan, add enough oil of choice for the tomatoes to float (1 -3 inches)
bring oil to 350 to 375 (if you don't have a thermometer, the best way to tell if oil is hot enough to fry in, drop a dash of batter or flour into oil and it should begin to furiously fry and move around)
While oil is heating, slice tomatoes and dip in water then add to mixed flour bag or dip in batter.
When oil is at frying temp, gently add each sliced tomato in a single layer to the pan.
Tomatoes should fry quickly and will start to float when they are done. If you cut the slices too thick you may need to turn them once.
Remove tomatoes and add more to oil until all are cooked.
You may need to turn oil down if it begins to smoke during this process.

My preference in a pan is always a cast iron skillet for frying, but I can't use it on my glasstop stove, so my next preference is to use a deep fryer.
Do not leave unattended. Always keep salt, baking soda or a fire extinguisher close by when you are frying. You can also place the lid of the frying pan on the pan if a grease fire starts, then move (with protection) the closed pan off of the eye and turn the eye off. DO NOT try to extinguish with water.