Fried Green Tomato BLT

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The same co-worker that provided me with delicious ripe tomatoes from his garden to make Biscuit and Tomato Gravy blessed me with another gift – green tomatoes! I love me some fried green tomatoes. What can be better than that?

Well… throwing it on a sandwich with bacon, THAT’S WHAT. *high fives a million angels*

I love onions, but I didn’t want an overwhelming raw onion flavor, so I decided to make a scallion aioli, a.k.a.  green onion and garlic mayo. Did you know that homemade mayonnaise is INCREDIBLY EASY? If you don’t want to make your own aioli, you can simply mix some store bought mayonnaise with chopped green onions to get similar results (but just go ahead and make the mayo. For real).

This recipe produces about 1 cup of aioli – enough for quite a few sandwiches plus some leftover. It’ll keep in the fridge for about a week.  Otherwise, this recipe is for one sandwich – multiply the rest of the ingredients (minus the aioli) accordingly.

Let’s start with the scallion aioli.

Vegetable oil, olive oil, scallion, eggs, garlic, lemon and dijon mustard is all you need to make this bomb ass sauce.

Combine the egg, garlic, dijon, and lemon juice. Blend until … blended lol

With the blender going, slowly drizzle in the vegetable oil until completely combined. Then do the same with the olive oil. The reason for using two types of oils is simply that extra virgin olive oil has quite a strong flavor, and we only want a bit of that flavor for this aioli.

See how thick and delicious it becomes? At this point you have super delicious homemade garlic mayonnaise. You could stop here, but why?

Add in the scallions and blend until smooth.

Ta-da! Homemade scallion aioli in < 10 minutes. Refrigerate this until you’re ready to put the sandwiches together.

I’m a pretty awesome kitchen multi-tasker, so while I was prepping my tomatoes I started frying the bacon. If you can multi-task, I suggest you do the same. If you cannot, I’d cook the bacon and set it aside before getting started on the tomatoes.

Lots of steps – few ingredients: Cornmeal, flour, panko, milk, green tomatoes, eggs, and Slap Ya Mama seasoning.

Slice the tomatoes pretty thick – I think 3-4 slices per tomato is a good call. Look how pretty this green is!

Set up your dredging station. 1 plate with flour, 1 plate with egg + milk, 1 plate with cornmeal + panko. Each station should be seasoned a bit, with the cornmeal + panko plate having the most seasoning.

First, dip the tomato in flour. This will help the egg mixture stick.

Next, dip in the egg + milk mixture. This is what’s gonna help that panko and cornmeal stick real nice like.

Finally, coat well in the seasoned cornmeal and panko mixture. Don’t forget the edges.

And that’s it.

Fry in hot oil for 2-3 minutes per side. Do not overcrowd your pan and do not let the tomatoes touch! Your breading will be a wrap if you do.

Drain on paper towels and try not to burn your fingers and tongue picking off little pieces (I see you).

Now put it all together.

Choose your favorite bread for this sandwich – mine is this onion dill rye. Potato bread, sourdough, reg’la ol’ white.. anything works as long as you like it!

Lightly toast a piece of your favorite kind of sandwich bread and spread a thin layer of scallion aioli on top.

Top with a few pieces of lettuce – I use red leaf lettuce because I think it’s pretty. This is art, afterall.

LOOK.
If you’re gonna make a BLT, MAKE A BLT. No skimping on the bacon. NO TURKEY BACON (ugh, don’t get me started). Just pure, unadulterated crispy crunchy salty bacon… piled high.

Top with a few slices of fried green tomato. You should be drooling at this point.

Top with your last slice of bread. I really loved the way the scallion aioli came out so I put another thin layer on the top piece of bread too. Do you boo.

Cut on the diagonal (as all sandwiches should be enjoyed) and devour completely.

Fried Green Tomato BLT

makes 1 sandwich in about 30 minutes

Ingredients

for the scallion aioli (can be made ahead and refrigerated)

2 large egg yolks
1/2 lemon, juiced
1/4 tsp Dijon mustard
1 clove of garlic
4 scallions, roughly chopped
2/3 cup vegetable oil
1/3 cup extra virgin olive oil
Sea salt

for the fried green tomatoes

1 green tomato, ends removed and sliced thickly (1/4″-1/2″ slices)
1/2 cup of flour
1 egg
1/4 cup of milk
1/4 cup of cornmeal
1/4 cup of panko or breadcrumbs
2 tsp of Slap Ya Mama Cajun Seasoning (or your favorite Cajun seasoning)

for the sandwich

2 slices of your favorite bread, toasted ( I love onion rye)
8 strips of bacon, cooked crispy
3 leaves of lettuce (I prefer red leaf)

Directions

for the scallion aioli

(Note: I used a stick blender for this recipe, but it can be done by hand with some elbow grease or in a blender / food processor. These directions are for a stick blender.)

Combine eggs, lemon juice, dijon and garlic in bowl and blend until combined. With blender running, slowly add in vegetable oil. The consistency will begin to thicken. Once fully incorporated, add in olive oil in the same way – slowly while blending. At this point you have super delicious mayonnaise. Taste and add salt as needed.

Add in chopped scallions and blend until smooth. Refrigerate until ready to use.

for the fried green tomatoes

Begin heating about 1-2″ of oil in a large skillet over medium heat while you’re preparing the tomatoes. Hot oil is essential! Prepare 3 separate plates for breading the tomatoes.

1) Flour with a few sprinkles of Slap Ya Mama
2) Egg + milk with a few sprinkles of Slap Ya Mama
3) Cornmeal + Panko + 2 tsp of Slap Ya Mama

First, dip the sliced green tomato in flour. Then in the egg mixture (which will stick to the flour), then finally into the cornmeal / panko mixture. Place in skillet (do not overcrowd the pan and do not let the tomatoes touch each other) and fry about 2-3 minutes on each side, until crispy and golden brown. Drain on paper towels.

(Note: While prepping and cooking the tomatoes, I was also frying my bacon. You can do this concurrently as well, or cook the bacon first then fry the tomatoes.)

put it all together

Spread scallion aioli over one piece of toast. Top with lettuce, then crispy bacon and fried green tomatoes. If you’re in love with the scallion aioli like I am, put another thin layer of it on the top piece of toast. Cut in half diagonally (a.k.a. the only way a sandwich should be eaten) and devour.

Notes

Don’t want to make your own aioli? Grab some mayo and add a few chopped scallions in, and maybe a squeeze of lemon juice if you’re feelin’ fancy.

I had a whole slice leftover! Lucky me.

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