Fried Green Tomatoes, Southern Style with a Twist

This is another one of our favorites to add to "Tomato" Season; fried green tomatoes.   No respectable Southern gardener, who grows tomatoes, will neglect to fry up some green ones.  In fact, I bet there isn't a child from the South that has not had some.

As a child, I was fortunate my Mom, born and raised in Texas, taught me to cook and to cook with creativity.  Her cooking style is a bit of North and a lot of South, which we LOVE!!!  Our family simply does not "fill up a big pot and stir in bland" - we love flavor and spice.  Anyhow, Mom made the best fried green tomatoes in a perfectly seasoned cast iron pan!  I can still see myself in pig-tails, elbows on the table, head resting on my hands waiting for my share to come out of the frying pan all hot and tasty!  My mouth is already watering!

I had a few green tomatoes in the garden that looked like they might turn out bad, so I grabbed them out of the garden, cut off the dark spots on the top and sliced um up to turn them into Fried Green Tomatoes, Southern Style with a Twist. 
 

This year, in a pinch, I grabbed Southern Living's fried green tomato recipe.  Am I glad I did!  It is now my go to recipe, but I must confess, as usual, I changed it up.  See below for what I did to this incredible recipe to make it EVEN BETTER!
 

 

First off, my husband's brother, Thomas lives in South Carolina and Barry's family swears there is NO better corn meal then Joy Brand made in Lakeside Mills, North Carolina.  Every so often Thomas mails me a bag.  I have to say it is the BEST corn meal available.  This is what I used in the Southern Living recipe.  BTW: I put my corn meal in a freezer bag and freeze so it is good and fresh when I use it.

The other change I made was out of necessity because I did not have buttermilk.  But, I do have kefir milk, so that is what I used instead of the buttermilk.  I figure they both have a tangy lemony taste, so why not?!

 

The crust's texture is crunchy, like a good piece of fried chicken, sweet and tangy, from the corn meal and kefir milk.  The sliced tart green tomatoes retained their firm texture and were  complimented by that buttery, crunchy, tangy, crust.  

I fried up all three tomatoes, our bird Sammy ate two slices (I know, I know he isn't supposed to eat fried food), and we finished the plate of um in one sitting! 

I was about to put these two slices in the fridge, when I couldn't resist taking one more bite.  The best part is usually I don't care for cold fried green tomatoes, but the crust retained it's flavor and texture and didn't get "greasy tasting". We bargained over the rest of um until they were gone.  If you have never tried fried green tomatoes, you gotta try this recipe.  Your family will love them!