Tomatoes are so beautiful! I am always amazed when I cut into a fresh organic tomato, it’s really just stunning. *Credit to my mom, the wonderful gardener in my life, who provides me with such beautiful produce*

I went to an event last night called From Field to Fork; it was encouraging, enlightening, and most importantly inspiring. But coming away from an event like that and feeling good about your personal contribution (or lack thereof), your communities efforts and the general state of the world is not going to happen. I went to bed last night with my mind turning and woke up this morning with questions and thoughts about food sustainability zooming through my head.

What’s a girl to do?

Firstly I think it is important to share a bit of what I learned last night since the message I received won’t do any good if it stops at me. I encourage you to visit justfood.ca to learn about what is happening here in Ottawa in the way of local food sustainability. Secondly I encourage you to visit 42 FineFoods over on Crichton Street, a delicious looking food shop that supports local farms and food initiatives. A few pieces of literature were brought to my attention last night but two of them stuck out to me the most and I recommend you read them; I will be doing the same. Resetting the Table: A People’s food Policy for Canada and Locavore which is a book by Sarah Elton that describes how foodies,100-milers, urbanites, farmers, gardeners and chefs across Canada are creating a new local food order that is sustainable and can feed us all. Finally, come with me on October 20th and October 27th to the Reel Food Film Festival. Please please please.

Okay, on to the recipe. I have wanted to make fried green tomatoes for a long long time. I’m quite sure the urge goes back to the first time I watched the movie and wondered what they were and what they would taste like. I adapted the recipe from Simply Recipes to suit what I had in my fridge. The result was very good and also very interesting. The tomatoes are a bit sour, kind of like rhubarb but not as in your face. In general the flavours are lovely and very refreshing!

Fried Green Tomatoes

2 small, firm green tomatoes

Salt

1 cup all-purpose flour

1 Tbsp Cajun seasoning

1/2 cup sour cream *buttermilk would be good too*

1 egg

1/3 cup cornmeal

1/2 cup fine dry bread crumbs

3 tbsp vegetable oil

Cut unpeeled tomatoes into 1/2 inch slices. Sprinkle slices with salt. Let tomato slices stand for 5 minutes. Meanwhile, place in separate shallow bowls: the flour and Cajun seasoning, sour cream and egg, and bread crumbs and cornmeal.

Heat the oil in a skillet on medium heat. Beat the egg and the sour cream together.

Dip tomato slices in the flour-seasoning mix, then sour cream-egg mixture, then the cornmeal-bread crumb mix. In the skillet, fry half of the coated tomato slices at a time, for 3-5 minutes on each side or until brown. Add more oil to the second batch if needed. Set the cooked tomatoes on paper towels to drain. They are fantastic with some sour cream mixed with sriracha, to dip!