Side dish

Fried Green Tomatoes with Black Eyed Pea Vinaigrette

Another Black Eyed Pea for the New Year recipe!

Not taking any chances this year. I had my black eyed peas, cooked cabbage and fried pork belly (in place of hog jowl). Cabbage for “green money”, black eyed peas for good luck, and pork belly for wealth and prosperity. So I should be covered for the year.

I ate fried green tomatoes long before the movie “Fried Green Tomatoes” got people wondering why someone would want to fry a green tomato instead of waiting for it to ripen to a juicy acidy tomato good enough to go on a bacon, lettuce and tomato sandwich.

My mother use to make the best fried green tomatoes and I think her method was just to dip them in cornmeal. Over the years I have experimented with lots of recipes; sometimes using self rising flour, sometimes, plain, sometimes cornmeal and now mixing the flour and the cornmeal. Instead of just eggs like I did the Fried Green Tomatoes with Romalade Sauce, I’m mixing an egg with buttermilk and a few dashes of hot pepper sauce; Tabasco, Louisiana, any type will do and you can add as much as you want.

I’m sure everyone has had a black eyed pea salad before and my feelings are black eyed peas are good whether they are served hot or cold. This recipe happens to be a Black Eyed Pea Vinaigrette, sounds like a black eyed pea salad to me but I’m calling it a Vinaigrette. Fried Green Tomatoes with Black Eyed Pea Vinaigrette sounds a lot better than take a fried green tomatoes and throw some black eyed pea salad on top. So, since I’m typing this I guess I can name it whatever I want.

I thought the idea of a tart crispy fried green tomato topped with a cool black eyed pea mixture sounded good, so I set out on Google looking for a Vinaigrette and found several, merging them all of course.

My tomatoes were not as green on the inside as I would have liked, but they were still tart.

Using my breading trays for the wet and dry ingredients.

Put the slices of green tomatoes into egg/milk mixture.

Dredge the tomato slices in the cornmeal/flour mixture.

I cooked the fresh peas and then tossed in all the other ingredients.

Fried Green Tomatoes with Black Eyed Pea Vinaigrette

Ingredients

  • 1/2 c. buttermilk
  • 1 egg
  • 1/2 tsp. hot sauce
  • 1 c. yellow cornmeal
  • 1 c. self-rising flour
  • 1/2 tsp. salt
  • black pepper to taste
  • sugar
  • canola oil
  • 2-3 Tbsp. bacon grease optional
  • 3 large green tomatoes cut into 1/4" thick slices
  • Black Eyed Pea Vinaigrette
  • 1 bag frozen black eyed peas
  • 1 red bell pepper finely chopped
  • 1/2 onion chopped fine
  • 1/2 c. fresh parsley
  • 2 tsp. + 1 Tbsp. olive oil
  • 3 tsp. balsamic vinegar
  • 1 tsp. vinegar
  • 2 tsp. Dijon mustard
  • salt and black pepper to taste
  • 1/2 tsp. minced garlic
  • 1 jalapeno pepper chopped fine

Instructions

  1. Beat the egg, buttermilk and hot sauce and set aside.
  2. Slice the green tomatoes about 1/3" thick, set on rack or wax paper and sprinkle with salt and a little sugar on each. Let rest for about 15 minutes and you will see moisture starting to come from the tomatoes. That's good.
  3. In a paper bag or plastic bag mix the flour, cornmeal and black pepper. Dip tomatoes in the egg/buttermilk mixture then flour again. Set on plate until ready to fry. You can do these in advance and refrigerate until ready to fry.
  4. Heat the oil and bacon fat (optional) in a skillet until 360°.  Fry a few tomato slices at a time. Season with a little more Kosher salt.
  5. Top with some of the black eyed pea vinaigrette.
  6. For the Black Eyed Pea Vinaigrette, cook the black eyed peas according to package direction. Drain and set aside.
  7. In one tablespoon of the olive oil, sauté the onion and garlic until almost tender. Add in the red bell pepper and sauté another 3-4 minutes

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