Bacon, Lettuce and (fried green) Tomato sandwich

I've never had fried green tomatoes before.  I've heard of them, of course, but being from the Midwest, and coming from a household where the only thing we ever really "fried" was fresh fish, it has remained on my periphery all these years.  Until this week, when there were green tomatoes in my Los Poblanos produce box.  So I thought I would give them a try in the form of a ramped-up BLT.

I've never gotten a good look at a sliced green tomato and they were beautiful!

Making the fried green tomatoes themselves are pretty easy.  Since I was making bacon anyway, I cooked the bacon and saved the drippings in the pan and cooked the tomatoes in there.  Cooking oil can be used, too, but the bacon fat really added some great flavor to the tomatoes.

Bacon, Lettuce and (fried green) Tomato Sandwich

Green tomatoes, sliced 1/4 inch thick
Bacon, cooked and drained
Leaf lettuce, washed and patted dry
Rustic Bread (I used a sourdough loaf)
Herbed mayonaise or dressing (I made a chipotle ranch dressing)

To fry the tomatoes, slice them 1/4 inch thick.  Salt and pepper them lightly.
Set up three shallow bowls with the following ingredients, in order:

1. Flour.  I use Western Star Seasoned Flour for this.
2. Buttermilk with a few generous shakes of hot sauce.
3. A half and half mixture of cornmeal and Panko bread crumbs.

Heat your pan with the bacon fat (or oil, if you prefer) to medium high.  Coat the tomatoes in the flour, buttermilk and crumbs, in order, and fry until golden brown, about 3 minutes each side.  Drain on paper towels and use to assemble your sandwich.

The sandwich was a delightful blend of textures and flavors.  The tartness of the tomatoes was tempered by the saltiness of the bacon, the chipotle ranch added a bit of zing and it was all cooled off a bit by the lettuce. My husband (AKA the test kitchen) gave me one of those looks when I told him we were having green tomato sandwiches for dinner but he was completely sold. I can't wait for more of them to come my way!