Fried Green Tomatoes

So it's getting close to that time of year again... the lovely time of year where the garden produces those most magical of creatures... the green tomato.
If you aren't from the southern and south-central U.S. you may not be familiar with the glory of a beautifully fried green tomato. So let's fix that, shall we?

Note: It's best to select a high acidity tomato for this recipe. Low acidity tomatoes will not have the proper flavor.

Ingredients:
4 green tomatoes - sliced into 1/4 inch slices
2/3 cup yellow cornmeal
1/2 cup all purpose flour, divided in half
1 teaspoon of salt
1/2 teaspoon of pepper
1/4 teaspoon of onion powder
1/2 cup of buttermilk
1 egg
 Vegetable oil

Beat the buttermilk and egg together in a bowl and set aside
Mix 1/4 cup flour with the yellow corn meal, onion powder, salt and pepper in a bowl and set aside
Place remaining 1/4 cup flour in a third bowl.

Dredge the tomato slices in the flour, dip into the buttermilk/egg mixture and dredge in the cornmeal mixture.

Pour vegetable oil to a depth of  about 1/4 inch in a deep skillet, and heat to 375 ⁰F.  Drop batches of tomato slices in the skillet and cook until golden brown, turning once (about 2 minutes each side). Allow to drain on a paper towel covered plate or on a wire rack with a drip catcher underneath.  Serve with your favorite "Southern" recipe. (They go very well with barbecue, chicken fried steak or fried chicken.)

A Very Old Cornbread Recipe

This backbone of this cornbread recipe literally dates back to the late 1700's, I've made some modifications to it over the years since I found it but not many.

2 cups cornmeal
1 cup whole wheat flour
1 cup buttermilk
1 cup milk
1 large egg, beaten
1/2 cup butter, melted
1/8 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda

If you prefer a sweet cornbread you can also add 1/2 cup molasses and 1/2 cup sugar.

Preheat oven to 400 ⁰F and grease a 13x9 baking dish.
Combine dry ingredients in a bowl, stir together thoroughly.
Whisk the butter and egg together in another bowl. Whisk in the sugar and molasses if you are going that route. Whisk in the milk and buttermilk.
Add wet ingredients to dry and whisk to combine. Avoid over-mixing.
Pour into prepared baking dish.
Bake for 25 minutes or until the top is golden brown and a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean.

Full Meal Deal - Stuffed Chicken Breast (Or Eggplant), Asparagus, Rice, Salad and Dessert!

It's been a while since we did a Pug Hollow Horde Cooks post so we thought it was time to come back and splurge on a "full meal deal". Today it's a feta and mushroom stuffed chicken breast, lemon rice, roasted asparagus, green salad with Greek Vinaigrette and a lovely caramelized peach and vanilla ice cream dessert. It's all pretty simple to make, and the flavors are amazing.

Note: You will want to find big chicken breasts for this recipe. They need to be thick so that we can butterfly them open for the stuffing. For a vegetarian version you can substitute eggplant. I'll cover how to do that below.

Ingredients:

For the Chicken Breast -
4 large chicken breasts
1 package of Grill Mates Herb and Wine marinade
   1/4 cup olive oil
   1/2 cup dry white wine (substituting for the vinegar and water)
1 container of sliced mushrooms - chopped fine
1/2 can of chopped black olives
1 cup of crumbled feta cheese
3 green onions 
2 cloves of garlic
6 big basil leaves
Pesto

Trim any excess fat from the chicken breasts, and marinate them in the Grill Mates Marinade for at least an hour.
Clean the mushrooms
Wash the green onion, and basil.
Peel the garlic
Combine mushrooms, green onion, olives, feta cheese, and garlic in a food processor and give a good blending. The resulting mixture should be finely chopped and crumbly.
Butterfly one chicken breasts, and lay it out on a square of aluminum foil large enough to wrap the breast.
Place a spoonful of pesto on the "inside" of the breast and spread it around.
Place a generous spoonful of the blended mixture on top of the pesto and fold the breast closed over it.
Wrap securely in foil and place in a foil lined 13x9 baking pan.
Repeat process for each of the breasts.
Bake at 450⁰ F for 55 minutes or to an internal temperature of 165⁰ F.

If you want to go vegetarian...
2 eggplant can be subbed for the chicken breast. The feta cheese can be omitted or replaced with a vegetarian substitute.

Cut the eggplant in half lengthwise.
Rub with olive oil, garlic, salt and pepper
Back until cooked through.
Scoop out the inside of the eggplant, leaving enough flesh to make a "boat".
Place the boats in a baking pan
Blend up the cooked eggplant innards and add to the blended mixture.
Mix well.
Put back into the eggplant boats.
Cover with foil and bake at 400 for 30 minutes. 


For the Asparagus -
1 bunch of asparagus, washed and trimmed
1 tbsp pesto
1/4 cup grated parmesan cheese
1 tbsp lemon juice
Salt and garlic powder to taste

Combine all ingredients in a large bowl, and coat asparagus thoroughly.
Wrap in foil and bake at 450 for 30 minutes or until the asparagus is just soft.


 For the lemon rice -
There are only 2 of us here so I only cook about 4 portions of rice (2 meals)
1 cup uncooked long grain white rice
2 cups chicken or vegetable  stock
1 tablespoon lemon juice
3 basil leaves, chopped finely
1 sprig of rosemary leaves, chopped finely
1 clove of garlic, chopped
1/2 can of chopped black olives

Combine the chicken stock, lemon juice, garlic, olives basil and rosemary in a sauce pan.
Bring to a boil.
Add the rice and give a quick stir.
 Reduce heat to the lowest setting, and cover.
Simmer for 20 minutes.
Remove the pan from the heat, allow to stand for an additional 5 minutes.
Fluff with fork.

For the salad -
1 large container of spring mix - washed
3 green onions, washed and chopped
1 container of grape tomatoes, washed and halved
1 cup of sliced black olives
1/2 cup of crumbled feta cheese

In a large bowl, mix all the ingredients. Dress lightly with Greek vinaigrette and toss to coat.

For the peach dessert-
4 or 5 ripe free stone peaches (you can use cling but they're harder to work with)
1 cup brown sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1 tbsp melted butter
Angel food cake dessert cups
vanilla ice cream

Cut the peaches in half and remove the stone.
Slice peaches into even slices.
Mix the brown sugar, vanilla and butter together in a bowl
Add the peaches and coat thoroughly.
Lay the peach slices out on a foil covered baking tray and bake at 350⁰ until they are soft and the sugar is beginning to caramelize.
Warm the cake dessert cups in the microwave.
Spoon the peach slices into the dessert cups and top with ice cream. Serve warm.