Fried Green Tomatoes Benedict

Yolk oozing out of an egg on top of fried green tomatoes.
Jon and Aubrey taking a selfie in nature.
Jon and Aubrey taking a selfie in nature.

Jonathan Moore and Aubrey Janelle

28 & 26, Portland, Oregon

Jon is a commercial and documentary photographer, Creative Director at The Beans and Rice, and advocate for environmental responsibility. Aubrey Janelle is a lifestyle photographer living in Portland, Oregon, with a passion for journalism and creating narratives. Jon and Aubrey toured the Blue Ridge Mountains in a Thor Motor Coach Class B.

A Taste of Wild - Blue Ridge Mountains

Jon and Aubrey return back east to visit Jon's family in North Carolina, cooking up all of his favorite Southern-inspired meals from his time growing up in the South.

Fried Green Tomatoes Benedict

My grandad had a “mater garden.” Tomatoes, he meant. I didn’t dare pick em’ myself. You see, he also had a pet snake that lived in the garden. A harmless little Eastern Garter.

But when he told me about his pet snake, my young ears heard “GUARDER snake”. I took this to mean that this slithery friend watched and protected the tomatoes, and grandad never bothered to correct me. I think he got a kick out of it. To this day, I still don’t like snakes. But grandad would be proud to know I love fried green tomatoes.

Ingredients to make fried green tomatoes benedict.
Hollandaise sauce is all about preparation. Get your ingredients measured out and set aside before beginning. (The French call this mise en place.)

As a society, we’re well acquainted with the charms of ripe, red tomatoes. They’re one of the pleasures of late summer, arriving in local gardens in almost comical abundance. Even people with no gift for gardening are likely to have desperate neighbors offloading bags and baskets of ripening tomatoes on their doorstep. They quickly turn into familiar dishes––marinara sauce, gazpacho, caprese salads, ratatouille. There’s a recipe in every kind of cuisine for tomatoes bursting with juice.

But eating green tomatoes is a less familiar concept. Eating any kind of produce before it’s ripe seems less than ideal, and green tomatoes are both visibly and palpably unripened. Except anyone who’s had a plate of freshly fried green tomatoes knows that something magical happens between plucking a green tomato off the plant and sliding it onto a plate.

Sliced green tomatoes stacked one one another.
Don’t be afraid to slice your green tomatoes thick. About a fingers width should do fine.

First, because very few foods aren’t improved by a quick breading and deep fry, health be damned. Second, because the firm green tomato stands up well to heat, keeping its shape but transforming into something a little tart, chewy and satisfying. Once you’ve had a bite of fried green tomatoes, you may find yourself scanning the supermarket produce section for a humble selection of your new favorite fruit.

Green tomatoes frying in a pan.
Your tomatoes are perfectly fried when they’ve reached a golden brown.
Fried green tomatoes out of the fryer.
Set the finished fried tomatoes onto a plate lined with a paper towel.

This recipe does one better, using fried green tomatoes to reinvent and improve upon the brunch classic of Eggs Benedict. Why use an English muffin when you could use a fried tomato? The hollandaise and the runny egg play perfectly off the crisp cornmeal coating, and we’ve even thrown in some collard greens wilted in bacon grease just for Southern flair.

It may not be an easy weekday meal, but if you find yourself with a green tomato and some weekend motivation, this breakfast is well worth the effort

Fried Green Tomatoes Benedict

Fried Green Tomatoes Benedict

Yield: 2 Servings

Fried Green Tomatoes:

  • 2 green tomatoes, sliced ⅔-inch thick
  • ½ cup flour
  • 2 eggs, whisked
  • 1 cup dry grits
  • 1 tablespoon store-bought Cajun seasoning
  • Vegetable oil for frying

Hollandaise Sauce:

  • ½ teaspoon vegetable oil
  • ½ teaspoon minced shallots
  • ¼ cup lemon juice
  • 2 tablespoons heavy cream
  • 2 egg yolks
  • ¼ cup of butter (half a stick)
  • ⅛ teaspoon cayenne pepper
  • Salt

Sauteed Collards:

  • 2-4 slices of bacon
  • 3 leaves of collard greens, sliced into ½-inch strips
  • Salt and pepper

To Assemble:

4 eggs, poached

Cooking Tools

  • Three bowls
  • Two plates for breading
  • Whisk
  • Wooden spoon
  • Two small pots
  • Saucepan
  • Knife
  • Cutting board
  • Paper towels

Method

Tomatoes and greens:

  1. Season sliced tomatoes with salt.
  2. Set up a three-step breading station, with one bowl of flour, a bowl of whisked eggs, and a bowl of grits mixed with the Cajun seasoning.
  3. Coat the tomato slices in the flour, then the eggs, and lastly in the dry grits. Use the palm of your hand to press the grits into the tomato to ensure it sticks. Store tomato slices on a clean plate while you heat the oil.
  4. Add oil to cover the bottom of a medium pan and heat until it shimmers. Fry the tomatoes until they’re golden brown on both sides. Remove from the pan.
  5. Dump the oil from the tomato pan into a heat-safe container. Wipe out the pan. Put the pan back over medium heat and saute the bacon until it’s cooked to your satisfaction. Add the collard greens, season with salt and pepper and cook until wilted. Set aside.

 

Hollandaise:

  1. Pro Tip: Read all the following steps and neatly set aside all of the pre-measured ingredients for the hollandaise before starting. Hollandaise can be tricky but with some solid preparation, you’ll do fine.
  2. Saute shallot in oil until translucent.
  3. With a small pan on medium heat, add lemon juice and let simmer for 1-2 minutes, then turn heat to the lowest setting.
  4. Prepare for making the hollandaise by whisking together egg yolks and cream, then set aside in a small bowl.
  5. Remove the pan from the stove top, and once the lemon juice has stopped bubbling, whisk in egg yolk mixture. Do NOT stop whisking until the last step.
  6. Add the pan back to the stove top and keep whisking. The sauce will cook slowly as you whisk. Allow this mixture to cook for no longer than one minute. The sauce shouldn’t even come to a simmer, so if it begins to bubble, remove from the heat for a couple of seconds.
  7. Add butter in one large piece and remove the pan from heat. Keep whisking until all the butter is completely mixed in.
  8. Season the sauce with cayenne pepper and salt to taste.

 

Poached eggs:

  1. To poach your eggs: Boil water in a saucepan. Once it’s boiling, turn the heat to its lowest setting. Crack each egg into separate ramekins or mugs one by one and place into the water, giving each a bit of room. Set a timer for three minutes and let the eggs cook in the still water. Then remove each egg with a slotted spoon and dab gently with a paper towel to remove excess water.
  2. Assemble each plate as follows: lay down a fried green tomato, top with collard greens and bacon, add the egg, and cover with hollandaise sauce.
  3. Eat immediately while watching the movie Fried Green Tomatoes.

Jon and Aubrey made their latest trip in a Thor Motor Coach Class B.

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