Hello! My name is Shannon Overmiller. Executive chef of The Majestic in Old Town Alexandria.

Today I’m preparing for you fried green tomatoes. And this is the stuff. We’ll all show you how to properly bread a fried green tomato.

The fried green tomato, simply an under ripe tomato. Very popular in the eastern shore – Maryland, Virginia…all of the eastern shore, upstate New York. Tomatoes usually in season, fried green tomatoes is the summer months, especially early summer for the fried green tomatoes, and now all the regular tomatoes are starting to really ripen. This is the probably the final step in the fried green tomatoes once you’ve done all your garnishes.

So you want a nice firm tomato, green, bright in color, before it’s turning too orange, because this is the texture you want when you’re frying your green tomato. Means that will hold the heat of the oil. So, when cutting tomatoes, you should always use a serrated knife with teeth, because a flat knife, the acid from the tomato will dull your blade immediately. Begin cutting your tomatoes, save this for salads, stocks or pickling. Pickling green tomatoes is a wonderful method to use, you utilize your scraps of tomatoes. You want your tomatoes sliced about ½ an inch thick, maybe a little thicker, depending on what you like. I like them about a ½ an inch. The end, mindful of your hands. Reserve. So at this stage with your tomatoes, what you want to do… you have 3 components to breading.

This is a classic breading technique. Always the same, always, always. For one, you want to have your seasoned flour, I like to season my flour for fried green tomatoes with salt, black pepper, a touch of cayenne, a little paprika, a pinch of cinnamon, and a pinch of nutmeg. A little bit of semolina or even whole yellow cornmeal because it gives it that nice texture. Second, in a mixing bowl, you want to take 2 eggs, 2 whole eggs. This is the perfect time to utilize the whites that I reserved from the aioli. And buttermilk. Just make enough amount you need. I like to add a little salt to this stage too, again layering, very important. And a black pepper. Maybe a touch more of, that’s good, and just mix with a whisk. Your 3rd component is just simply fine breadcrumbs. You can use scrap bread and grind them up. Or purchase just plain breadcrumbs. I don’t like seasoned breadcrumbs. I like the breadcrumbs just to be plain, because if you season it affects the texture. Doesn’t come out quite as crispy. And I don’t like anything else that’s seasoned ahead of time anyway. So, when breading, you simply dredge lightly your flour mixture, release excess flour, dip into the egg mixture, coat, and then into, with the other hand that’s dry, the breading. And you want this to be compact, so it adheres to the fry oil. And that’s how you bread a green tomato. Repeat.