Worried Fried Green Tomatoes
Submitted by lets eat
Southern skillet fried green tomatoes cooked slow in cast iron until dark, caramelized, and olive-brown. Flour-dusted, garlic-kissed, and worried around the pan the old-fashioned way.
YIELD
4 servingsPREP
10 minCOOK
35 minREADY
45 minDown South, “worrying” food in a skillet means fussing over it with a spatula, scraping and turning until every last piece picks up deep, dark color from the cast iron. These are not your quick-fried, cornmeal-battered green tomatoes. These are the slow-cooked, old-timey kind.
Sliced green tomatoes get shaken in a paper sack with flour, salt, and pepper, then hit a hot black iron skillet with olive oil and sliced garlic. From there, you let them sit, scrape, turn, and sit again until they go from bright green to olive and brown with caramelized, almost jammy edges.
It takes patience and a stiff spatula, but the flavor you get from that slow, worried browning is something a quick fry just can’t touch.
Kitchen Tips
- A well-seasoned cast iron skillet is essential; nothing else gives you that kind of crust
- Resist the urge to add more oil; the sticking and scraping is what builds all that flavor
- Slice the tomatoes vertically rather than horizontally for pieces that hold together better
- These are done when they’ve turned olive green to deep brown, about 30 to 35 minutes total
Ingredients
Directions
Shake tomato slices in a paper sack with salt, pepper and flour.
Heat oil over medium-high heat in a black iron skillet.
Add tomatoes and garlic.
Cook without stirring for about 5 minutes, then, using a stiff spatula, scrape bottom of skillet and turn tomatoes.
Continue to cook over medium to high heat, scraping bottom of skillet occasionally to prevent burning.
You want the tomatoes which come in direct contact with the skillet to get dark.
You should expect some sticking; just scrape hard.
Try to resist adding more oil but do so if you must.
When most of the tomatoes have turned olive green or dark brown, about 20 minutes, lower heat to low.
Continue to cook, worrying the tomatoes around with the spatula until they are all either brown or olive green.
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