My Kitchen, My World: Fried Green Tomatoes with an Indian Twist

Things have totally gotten away from me lately. I totally spaced last week's My Kitchen, My World blogging event. I also totally forgot all about the dishes I was supposed to make for Barefoot Bloggers. I bought the supplies and totally just never thought about it again. ::sigh:: I attempted to whip up the wonderful soup and the delicious sounding apple turnovers at the last minute but found that my mushrooms, all those yummy wild (and expensive!) mushrooms were spoiled. And all the apples had been eaten. But fear not! I've restocked the supplies and tomorrow we'll be enjoying Ina's Cream of Wild Mushroom Soup for lunch and scarfing down those yummy-sounding Apple Turnovers with dinner.

I came across an Indian-inspired dish while browsing through a few blogs today and decided to jump up and make it for lunch. With a title like: Fried Green Tomatoes with Warm Indian Spices, how could I resist? The tomatoes fried up perfectly: crispy on the outside and tart and juicy on the inside. And the Mango chutney? An inspired addition! This was delicious and definitely inspires

A perfect way to participate in MKMW (even if it is a little late) and use up that jar of Mango Ginger Chutney that I picked up on my last trip to Trader Joe's and some of the Garam Masala that I bought at Penzy's on that same trip!

Fried Green Tomatoes with Warm Indian Spices
Recipe from Spice Lines

4 medium to large green, unripe tomatoes
Salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
1 cup flour
1 tablespoon (or more) garam masala, to taste
1 large egg
2 tablespoons milk
1-1/2 cups breadcrumbs
1/3 cup ghee, clarified butter or canola oil (enough to fill the frying pan ¼ inch deep)
Chutney of your choice

1. Core the tomatoes and cut a very thin slice off the top and bottom. Cut each tomato into 3 horizontal slices, about ½-inch thick. Season the tomatoes lavishly with salt and freshly ground black pepper. Be liberal with the salt—the tomatoes need a good sprinkle to bring out their flavor.
2. Set up an assembly line of three medium-sized bowls. In the first bowl, mix 1 cup of flour with 1 tablespoon or more garam masala. The mixture should be quite fragrant. In the second bowl, briskly beat the egg and milk until frothy. In the third, put the breadcrumbs.
3. Prepare the tomatoes: Dredge each slice of tomato in the flour mixture, shaking off any excess. Next, dip the tomato in the egg and milk, and finally in the breadcrumbs. Be sure that the tomatoes are well coated with bread crumbs. Set aside.
4. In a heavy 12-inch cast iron frying pan, heat the ghee, clarified butter or oil over medium heat. When it is very hot, put four tomato slices in the pan. Fry them for 1 to 2 minutes per side, until the crust turns crisp and golden brown. If the ghee starts to smoke, lower the heat slightly. Do not overcook or the tomatoes will be mushy. Drain on a stack of paper towels. Proceed with the rest of the tomatoes.
5. Serve at once, with a generous dollop of sweet-tart mango chutney.