Welcome now into our Great Day
Kitchen as today we are making a
signature dish of crazy Aunt Helens
which is fried green tomatoes with
pimento cheese and hot honey flavors.
Really sounds good. Yeah well,
the show us how it's done, Chef.
And an owner, Shane Mason, are both here.
Was so glad to have you guys with us.
I'm so excited to be here.
Thank you for having us so
show us how the magic is done.
I haven't had fried green
tomatoes since my grandmother,
so this is such a treat.
Well, let's hook you up so right.
We start with our dry dredge.
Could you help me out here?
Yeah, so this is the cornmeal,
a cup of cornmeal,
cup of flour, the seasoning,
which is like Old Bay all the time.
Oh yeah, salt pepper,
garlic powder, onion.
Garlic powder, onion powder.
So we Add all of
that together and all the officially yeah,
why not? We're gonna make it home and
then we take the fried green tomatoes.
We slice them about 1/4 inch.
OK so that they have a nice
can you find those in the grocery store?
I've clearly never looked for them.
Woman in my life. Except for when it's
on my plate, your best bet is like
Whole Foods are like specialty grocers.
Yeah, they're harder to find
out like Giant or Safeway.
Yeah yeah. Specialty stores
probably definitely would have it.
So while Ellen stirring that tell us more,
you know so you just sort of take
your green tomatoes and set them in
buttermilk and let them buttermilk.
He also gives that little extra Tang.
Then you take your tomato,
dredge it into the dry
dredge it, let's see. It says be messy.
It's a messy process
at home and you look too good,
too good. You look too good. I don't want
you to mess up.
I'm gonna do my best.
Right, I do it work too to the pros.
He's passed on with your hands in a sink.
That way you can actually really coat them,
but you're making it look like you
know we're making it look cute.
For TV. You're gonna just try
and get it as clean as you can.
Just one coding.
You should go back and forth.
You can go back and
forth if you want extra crusts on it,
as with breading, pretty much anything,
and then you're gonna pop that
in the oil you want your oil.
If you have a candy thermometer.
That way you can measure the heat of the oil.
If not, once your oil is like nice,
shimmery, hot, basically going to
cook this until it's golden brown
and then we go to the plating. Wow,
she looks amazing
and this is what it looks like in the end.
So what we do is we put our House
made pimento cheese house on the
I know right? So this is it.
This is our our local pimento cheese
and then we put the tomato on top.
We hit it with some hot honey
boom boom boom boom boom. Loving
it Ellen samples that I just
want to say just looking at the
pictures of the restaurant.
I feel like I'm being transported
into a lovely little village town.
This looks it.
I feel like and then I don't know
the Hampton somewhere like I feel
like I'm being transported and
all the icons on the wall, right
right? So that was local
artist David Amoroso.
Every two months we hang a new artist
that's local and so when we opened,
David Hung his stuff up. Yeah, like
the name, crazy aunt.
I did, I did. She was the good crazy,
right? So the kind who would like
put on that red lipstick and give
you sugar all over your face.
You know when you showed up she
said she just wanted to eat you up.
She had amazing laugh.
She was just really warm
and fun and great cook.
So I wanted that feeling and people
came into the restaurant restaurant.
Crossing the restaurant that sweet.
Keeping that going.
We like that and it smells amazing.
I was just gonna also say I like that
this is a chip using that taller pot
because that when that grease hits
you don't want it splashing out.
Very smart tip.
See, this might listen to the pros.
You can also do this with your air
fryer because everybody bought an air
fryer right during COVID pandemic.
So just 400 degrees, 8 minutes,
then flip it for another 4
minutes. Alright, I can do that.
I know you have Paul specials coming up,
so you got to go.
I'm crazy Aunt Helens.
They're on 8th St in Southeast DC and
say hello and see the new artwork.
They'll be out there on the wall.
Thank you all so much for joining us.
Good. Thank you.
We're so excited to be here
and we'll be right back.