Old Bay Fried Green Tomatoes

Ingredients:
5 green (unripe) tomatoes, sliced into 1/4 inch thick slices
2 cups buttermilk
1 cup instant flour (like Wondra)
1 cup cornmeal
1-2 tablespoons Old Bay
2 eggs
hot sauce
canola oil (for frying)

Directions:
Soak the tomato slices in the buttermilk for 30 minutes. Meanwhile, heat about a 1/2 inch of oil in a 12 inch cast iron skillet. Beat the eggs and a few drops of hot sauce in a shallow bowl. Pour the instant flour in a separate shallow bowl. Pour the cornmeal and Old Bay in a third shallow bowl and stir to combine. Dip both sides of each tomato slice in the flour, then the egg, then a cornmeal mixture. Fry until golden brown on both sides, flipping once, about 5-8 minutes. Drain on paper towel lined plates. Serve immediately.

My thoughts:

I wish it was tomato season here in Baltimore but we are not quite there. My plants are about five feet tall (monsters!) but all of the tomatoes are still green. Ripening, but green. Normally I made fried green tomatoes at the end of the season out of tomatoes that didn't ripen but I saw some lovely, large, perfectly round tomatoes at the farm store and snatched them up. Of course, I could have used my homegrown ones but I planted 10 different heirloom varieties and I want nothing to stop me from trying each one. I put a bit of a Baltimore twist on these tomatoes and added my favorite Old Bay. I liked it a lot because it added spice without being hot and made the tomatoes go well with seafood and Southern style food. Yum.