Fried green tomatoes with creamy egg salad, pickled shrimp, petit mustard greens, and piccalilli at Big Jones

Fried green tomatoes with creamy egg salad, pickled shrimp, petit mustard greens, and piccalilli ($8)
Fried green tomatoes are one of those dishes our regular customers look forward to every year, and so do we. We get really nice fruit from Growing Power and give it a quick dip in a mixture of buttermilk and Crystal hot sauce before breading it in Henry Moore cornmeal from Spence Farm. It gets a fairly quick flash fry at 425, we're looking for toothsome tomatoes, not breaded mush. The highly acid tomatoes naturally have an affinity for acid is why most people dress them in mayonnaise-based sauces or other acidic concoctions, but we go a different route here, looking to play on the flavors of a summer picnic, going for richness with a mustard-laden creamy egg salad and use golden frills mustard greens also from Growing Power to add piquancy, and pickled shrimp are both rich and have that refreshing acidity. Shrimp are actually one of my favorite ingredients with green tomatoes, working really well with their natural fruitiness. Finally a little drizzle of picalilli echoes both the flavor and acidity of the tomatoes while also contributing a little sweetness.
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tomatoes (local/specialty), dairy (local), farm-raised, farmer (local/regional), farmers' market, heirloom ingredient, and Henry Moore corn
Posted 06/15/12
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