Fried Green Tomato

Well, I live in the south and have discovered everything there's to be about southern culinary... I love it all and try to make as good or better than what i have tried.
We visited a very country restaurant in charlotte a few weeks ago and picked fried green tomato for a appetizer. And i've had it once in NY before, and didn't care for it and that's probably because its a southern dish and shouldn't be cooked by a  new yorker ...
But this time everything was perfect, the tomato was crunchy but soft and not soggy at all... just delicious... so here i am, trying to duplicate the same dish. I think i got pretty close.

Ingredients:

2-3 firm green tomatoes cut to 1" thick slices

salt and pepper to taste

1 cup of milk

2 eggs

1 cup of flour

1 cup of bread crumbs

2-4 teaspoons of olive or vegetable oil

As every vegetable that holds a lot of water(i.e. tomato, zucchini, eggplant) the trick is to lay your veggie slices in a platter and sprinkle salt over them, after about 10-15 minutes you will have lots of water in the plate, drain that with a paper towel and your veggie is ready to be breaded and fried.

Set 4 separate bowls in your counter with the milk, flour, beaten eggs and bread crumbs in that order.

Heat the oil in a large frying pan.

Dip the tomato in milk, then flour, then egg, then bread crumbs. Set each tomato in the pan not crowding them.

Cook them in batches for about 2 minutes per side over medium heat. Serve them hot, but they also taste really good a few hours later at room temperature.

Orechiette with Broccoli, Sausage and Lemon Garlic Sauce

This is one of those dishes that you can eat on a hot day, and after that morning power walk that has your body screaming for carbs...

This will feed 4 people with second servings.

Ingredients:

1 head of broccoli florets, blanched

6 cloves of garlic thinly sliced

2 lemons

3 tablespoons of olive oil

salt and pepper to taste

1 lb of block sausage( i use Neese's in NC)

1 box of orechiette pasta cooked to package instructions

Arugula(Optional)

In a large frying pan heat 1 tablespoon of olive oil. Add garlic and fry for 1 minute. Add sausage and cook it well done with the garlic, always stirring to break big chunks.

Add blanched broccoli, 2 tablespoons of olive oil and the juice of 2 lemons. Add salt and pepper to taste and the cooked orechiette. Toss the pasta with a bunch of arugula and add more olive oil if needed.