Eggplant and Green Tomato Parmesan

I just can't take enough photos of my tomatoes. They're my personal supermodels! The other night I realized there were eggplants in my fridge and needed to use them. It was then that one of those ideas struck me- the kind where you can't tell if it's horrible or brilliant. Combining the cultural history of my neighborhood, Idora Park I would construct an eggplant and green tomato Parmesan! Idora Park originated as an Italian neighborhood (hence the eggplant Parmesan) which shifted in the 60s to an affluent African-American neighborhood (hence the green tomatoes).


I used Mark Bittman's recipe in How to Cook Everything as a jumping off point, although I dipped the eggplant and tomatoes in flour first, then egg and milk, then finished off with seasoned breadcrumbs before frying to make a more substantial crust. I also omitted mozzarella mostly because I didn't feel like going to the store, but apparently it's authentico without.
The green tomatoes added a nice acidity and contrasted nicely with the eggplant. I'd recommend!

Plant of the Week: Baby Tomatoes!

I just can't help it. It's that time of year when all you can do is wait in anticipation for harvest time (cut short by a few weeks by frying up some green tomatoes). This little one is an Early Girl who got a late start. (Does that make her a Punctual Girl?) For information on growing tomatoes, check out my very first post to this blog. This week I'm not detailing growing information, just getting lost in daydreams of too many tomatoes and not enough recipes! However, here's a few places to get some great seeds and starts: Spiral Gardens, Kassenhoff Growers, or the Seed Savers Exchange.

And hey, why not? Let's throw in a recipe for fried green tomatoes:

Prepare 3 shallow bowls: fill one halfway with milk, one halfway with flour and one halfway with either cornmeal and your choice of spices, salt and pepper OR a cornmeal based fish fry.
Slice 2 or 3 large green tomatoes about 1/4" thick and dredge through the flour.
Dip in milk and dredge through the cornmeal mixture.
Meanwhile, start a frying pan on the stove with high heat and more oil than you want to use (1/4" to 1/2" deep). Any oil is fine, I use olive.
Fry the smothered tomatoes until they're brown on each side. Set them on a little stack of paper-towels and dab them a bit to get rid of the excess oil.
Eat plain, with mayonnaise, or make a fancy aioli.