Fried Green Tomato BLT

 

How we make it.

Makes two sandwiches.

1 green tomato 
1 cup yellow cornmeal
1 1/2 teaspoons Kosher salt
1/4 cup canola oil
6 pieces bacon
Butter lettuce
Duke's mayonnaise
4 slices Dave's Killer White Done Right bread, toasted

Layer bacon on a baking sheet lined with foil and cook at 400 for 15-20 minutes until crisp. Set aside. Toast bread, set aside. Wash and dry butter lettuce. Set aside. 

In a shallow bowl or a plate mix cornmeal and salt. Heat a large skillet, preferably cast iron, on high until hotter than you think. In the meantime, slice green tomatoes thinly, about a quarter to a half inch thick. Put tomato slices directly into cornmeal mixture and coat both sides. The moisture from the tomatoes is enough to make the cornmeal stick, it's going to be a thin crust. Add oil to hot skillet and let heat until sputtering a bit but not quite smoking, maybe like a minute or so. Add cornmeal coated tomatoes in single layer and let fry for 3-4 minutes per side, flipping and doing the same on the other side. You'll want your kitchen fan on because this might stink up the place. Once browned and crispy on both sides, remove from oil and place on a paper towel covered plate. I'd like to tell you that you can keep this in oven on warm but you just can't. They don't stay crispy long so these are a make then immediately eat treat. 

Slather both sides of the toasted bread with mayonnaise. Layer bacon, tomatoes and lettuce. Slice diagonally because it's cuter and enjoy immediately. 

Why we make it.

Fried green tomatoes, affectionately known in my family as fried greens, have been a staple at our house since I was a kid. My mom makes them for my dad for any special occasion "even though they're trouble." If you catch a whiff of overheated canola oil at my mom's house you're about to find us standing around the stove with the salt shaker, snagging fried greens with our fingers off a paper towel covered plate. Unlike some of these deep fried, flour coated restaurant varietals you might see (which offend me), ours are very simple, don't stay crispy long and you'll smell them before you see them. I wouldn't say they elevate a BLT exactly, but they make it a different kind of good. This classic, simple BLT is your grandmother’s really, except it took a hard left in the garden. Juicy red heirlooms are replaced by the sour punch of a thin green tomato coated in the unctuous crunch of canola fried cornmeal. It's the saltiest and the best. That's why we make it.