Thursday, January 24, 2013

Freeze Green Tomatoes







If you still have quite a few green tomatoes hanging on at the end of the gardening season, don't worry. You have lots of options for dealing with the unripe fruit. You can toss them into the compost bin where they will decompose. You can harvest the fruit, wrap them in newspaper, bring them indoors and hope they ripen. Or you can freeze them! This article will go over freeze green tomatoes--it's ultra easy and it ensures that the fruit won't go to waste--because you can make fried green tomato sandwiches all winter long! Add this to my Recipe Box.







Instructions


1. Before your first fall frost, harvest all of the remaining green, unripe tomatoes. Larger tomatoes, including beefsteak, roma and slicing types, freeze best. Bring the fruit indoors, wash them thoroughly in cool water and dry with a clean cotton towel.


2. Stem and core the tomato by inserting a small, serrated paring knife into the tomato right where the base of the stem meets the top of the tomato. Cut the stem free by working the knife around the entire edge of the stem. Pull out the stem and core and discard.


3. Then, using a large serrated knife (I find a bread knife works great), slice the tomato into ? to ?-inch thick slices. Pack the slices into plastic freezer containers, placing a piece of freezer wrap in between each slice. Place the lid on the container and stick it into the freezer.


4. To prepare fried green tomatoes in winter, simply dip the frozen tomato slices in egg, dredge them in your favorite breading mix and immediately fry until golden brown. The breading adheres to the tomato best if it does not thaw prior to frying.

Tags: fried green, green tomatoes