Fried Green Tomatoes or: Hey winter, you're coming already?

This summer Matt (my partner) and I endeavored to claim our very own bit of the world in the form of four modest containers full of plants. 

The tomatoes had an unfortunate start in the form of squirrels run moisture-mad by the drought.  Eventually we got a small number, but by the time the weather turned nippy there were an number that were not going to make it to ripe before this state got way too cold to even think about going outside to look at plants.

We had friends and their adorable baby stay with us this week and decided that it was the perfect time to gorge ourselves on delicious under-ripe fried fruit.

Fried Green Tomatoes 

What you need: 
8 green tomatoes
3 eggs
3/4 cup of milk
1 1/2 cups of flour
1 cup cornmeal
1 cup Italian bread crumbs
4 teaspoons kosher (or sea) salt
1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
vegetable oil

What you do:

1. Slice tomatoes approximately 1/4 inch thick
2. Mix eggs and milk together in a bowl, put flour onto a plate and a mixture of bread crumbs, cornmeal and salt on another plate.
3. In a large skillet warm a 1/2 inch of vegetable oil over a medium heat. You can test to make sure the oil is hot enough when some of the batter that gunks all up on your fingers while you're working on battering the tomatoes is all bubbly when you drop it in the oil.
4.  Coat tomato slices in flour, then the egg mixture and bread crumbs.
5. Place battered tomato slices in oil (don't crowd the tomatoes! they shouldn't touch in the pan or they'll stick all up together)
6. Turn when they're brown on the down side and allow to get brown on the other side. 
7. Place on a plate with a paper towel, or a cooling rack so they don't pool in the oil.
8. Eat them all up, they're delicious.

We ate ours with Cheesy Polenta, here's how I made it:

Cheesy Polenta

What you need: 
2 cups milk
2 cups water
1 cup polenta (dry, not the sausage roll stuff made for slicing)
3/4 cups of your favorite cheddar
1 1/2 teaspoons of kosher (or sea) salt
1/2 teaspoon fresh ground black pepper
4 tablespoon of butter

What you do:

1. Bring milk and water to a boil in a medium sauce pan.
2. Stir in polenta and turn down to a simmer
3. Once mixture is just about as thick as you would like it add the 1/2 cup cheese, salt and pepper. 
4. Spoon out, garnish with a pinch of the remainder of the cheese.