Paisano: Fried Green Tomatoes

In 1968 I didn't get arrested for skinny-dipping. It was a near thing. It was August and some friends and I were at an anti-Vietnam war rally and when the heat got to be too much we decided to take a dip in the fountain featuring Europa and the Bull on the Humanities Plaza at the University of Tennessee. I don't recall who suggested skinny-dipping (as opposed to just getting our clothes wet) but we'd only begun to strip down when the campus cops showed up. They ran us off so we headed off to a secluded spot on the Clinch river and skinny-dipped there.

To this day I don't know why we got a break. At least one of us was already "nekkit" and Knoxville, Tennessee wasn't exactly a liberal town. I can think of reasons, but the only one that seems to be possible is we were obviously under-age by a couple of years and the cops had soft hearts.

Despite stereotypes to the contrary, Southerners are, or once were (before they became more like the rest of the country), kind and generous people. There's a crusty edge you have to pass, and once past that you might find a hard, and even bitter core, or a soft and sweet one. The trick is, you can almost always find a soft and sweet core if you know the technique:

• Hunker down - this is a squatting position that easily enables drawing in the dirt with your finger, the uptown version is asking them out to a Barbeque joint
  
• Ask about local fishing and hunting - these days talking about stocks also works, but be prepared to actually have to talk about hunting and fishing
  
• Talk about the weather - talk about the weather
  
• Offer vittals - Barbeque again or a meat-n-three
  
• Say, "How's about them..." - and fill in the name of the local college football team

There is a dish that perfectly sums up this Southern heart: fried green tomatoes.

These belles of Southern cuisine have a light crisp crust, a tender (but al dente) bite, and a flavor that makes it clear the tomato really is a fruit and not vegetable. They're as easy to do well as do poorly, which is a lot like fitting into the South.

Fried Green Tomatoes
Serves 4.

4 green tomatoes (no hint of blush, pure green and 3 - 4 inches in diameter)
enough oil to fill a cast iron skillet to 1/4 inch depth
1 1/2 c cornmeal
2 tbsp salt
2 tbsp black pepper
2 tbsp hot paprika
1 1/2 c cultured buttermilk

Heat oven to 200F and line an oven-proof plate with several layers of paper towels.

Cut tomatoes into 1/2 inch slices discarding top and bottom slices.

Heat oil over medium high heat in a large skillet. Pour buttermilk into a pie pan. Dip the tomato slices in buttermilk then dredge in cornmeal. Cook in oil until browned - about 2 minutes - turn and cook until brown. Remove to the paper-towel-lined plate and keep warm in the oven while repeating for remaining slices.

Once cooked, serve, especially with pork.

If you've never had a fried green tomato, you haven't lived. It's an extraordinary vegetable and quite different from ripe tomatoes with a wonderfully complex acidity. The tomatoes in the photo are topped with a smoked tomato sauce my mother made.

And if you've never been skinny dipping, I recommend that too. The last time I did so, almost exactly 20 years after the first time, the park police caught us, and then ignored us. The evening turned out very nicely.

In an alternate life, the Paisano is Kevin Weeks: a Gather food correspondent, personal chef, cooking teacher, and writer in Knoxville, Tennessee who spends too many hours on his feet, cooking. "Paisano" the column focuses on peasant dishes from around the world, Paisano the character is fictional. To read more of Kevin's writings or connect to him click here.His blog,Seriously Good, is read by 100,000 cooks a month and in addition he writes a weekly column for  Spot-Onand is the Guide for Cooking for Two at About.com.