cooking etc – Homestead One Day

When I was a kid I loved fried green tomatoes. Something about the sour contrast with the breading stuck with MD.

Over the years I’ve tried unsuccessfully to make them myself. Usually they came out soggy and the breading fell off leaving me a pile of…mush…

I tried just laying them on regular flour both sides and cooking in hot oil. I tried dipping in beaten egg then flour. I tried using Wondra flour by itself. Tried Wondra with egg. I tried cornbread mix…cornmeal…with and without egg. I tried….with no luck.

After a trip to a restaurant that had fried green tomatoes as an appetizer, I noticed the coating was way thicker than anything I had come up with.

When I got home I started looking through the internet hoping to figure this out once and for all! Instead of simple recipes, I set my sights on more steps …which is way different than my normal recipe hunt usually is.

As I browsed several different sites, I ended up combining a few different ways so I do not have a single site to send you to.

One thing I noticed is several recipes have you slice the tomatoes, salt them, and then let them rest for a few minutes. I have never done that! I asked a friend who is a way better cook and she confirmed this method, and told me that is how she does her eggplant for eggplant parmesian.

Another difference I found is some had you flour, dip in egg, and flour again…ahhh thicker coating! But I wanted the cornmeal …found that as a suggestion on another site for the last layer.

So what I ended up with was the following method:

1. Slice tomatoes into desired thickness slices. Single-layer on a plate, sprinkle salt over the slices, and let sit a few minutes. Heat up a shallow layer of your desired pil in a pan.

2. While the slices are sitting, put out 3 bowls. First bowl is flour (I used the cheap plain stuff), second bowl is egg and milk beaten together (I did 1 of my duck eggs and a cup of lactaid milk for 4 tomatoes). Third bowl is fine ground cornmeal.

3. Lay each slice in the first bowl, pressing gently to coat with flour and turning over and repeating.

4. Dip the slice in the egg/milk mix, and let drip for a second.

5. Repeat the coating processes with the cornmeal.

6. Put in the hot oil. All the receipes said 2-3 min per side, but apparently mine were thicker than theirs so it was 5-6 min per side. I did all 4 tomatoes in 2 rounds of full pan.

7. When browned to your liking, place on a plate lined with paper towels to absorb the excess oil.

8. Let cool down enough that you don’t burn your mouth and enjoy!

That’s it-all done! As you can see by the picture, this was a huge success for me.

PS I used lactiad milk to keep my stomach happy, but several recipes called for buttermilk. Worth a try!

Well, the problem with the wild pig destroying my freshly planted corn and my neighbor’s yard is solved. No more piles of manure 5 feet from my pig enclosures carrying who knows what pathogens or worms with them…no more fencing being pushed down. He came too close too often and caused too much damage.

I spoke to a friend who knew someone experienced in such matters and they came out and took care of the problem, including leaving me 2 legs and a tenderloin

I have never cooked a wild pig. Heck, the last wild thing I cooked was a rabbit a couple of decades ago and that was over was over campfire! I’m pretty sure you could cook a tire over a campfire and make it taste good.

I decided to roast one of the legs in the oven. I hit up my friend the internet and got some advice (some of it,as expected, conflicting). I ended up resting the meat in the fridge 24 hours in a stainless stock pot. Then I made a salt water brine and soaked it another 3 days in the fridge.

Then I took a baking dish and lined it with enough foil to wrap the leg. I added a stick of butter (cut into pats). I then poked the meat all over with a knife, sprinkled garlic and pepper on top, and rubbed the slices and butter into the slits.

In the meantime I had the oven preheating to 400. I added some Cajun seasonings and put the leg in the oven uncovered for 30 minutes. This was to brown the top and crisp some fat.

After 30 minutes the top was brown so I pulled it out and wrapped it up tightly. I returned it back to the oven and turned the heat down to 250. I was told by several people to cook wild game to 190, so I figured 8 hours as it was about 8 pounds.

After 8 hours I pulled it out and wow! Sorry, no picture of it fresh from oven because I was too excited! There was a lot of juice, I drained that off into a small saucepan and added Wondra flour until it was gravy like, stirring the whole time.

As soon as the gravy was done , I grabbed some bread and made myself a bowl. It was delicious! To me it tasted a lot like slightly overdone roast beef. The gravy was good enough to eat on its own!

Ended up grilling/smoking smoking the second leg on a homemade smoker, wrapped and with butter. It was also very good, although I think the oven roasted was better…did I mention yummy gravy?

Next time, if there’s another leg offering, I’ll check it sooner as a small portion was dry…with the bone in I think it cooked faster than any directions or advice mentioned. 10/10 and would do again!

Category: cooking etc

Fried green tomatoes, finally a successful recipe!

Wild pig….it’s what’s for dinner!