- My favorite time of year is finally here, tomato season.

I've got three recipes to share with you, so we can make the most of it.

I'll show you how to elevate classic fried green tomatoes.

We'll make the ultimate southern sandwich right off the vine, and finally, we'll visit our friends up at the Wildflower Cafe, who have perfected the decadent tomato pie.

(gentle music) If you're craving a little south in your mouth, my fried green tomato stacks with pimento cheese, drizzled with Alabama white sauce are just oozing with southern charm.

Meet me in the kitchen and we'll fry 'em up.

Today, we are utilizing all the southern food groups.

You've got your fried green tomatoes, creamy pimento cheese, tangy white Alabama sauce, and lots of smokey bacon flavor.

If that doesn't encompass all the things that southerners love, I don't know what does.

So first things first, we need to start with our green tomatoes.

And if you're like me, you're probably struggling on whether you should pick them now or wait until they turn red, and you don't want this flavor to go away.

So I have washed our green tomatoes here, and I'm just going to remove each end.

Look how pretty that is on the inside.

So when you're looking for green tomatoes, if you're buying 'em at the farmer's market, you want them to be uniform in shape, no blemishes, no bites, no bruising, nothing like that.

And you want to cut them in 1/4 inch thick slices.

No more, no less.

If you cut your green tomatoes too thick, they're gonna act like a sponge and just kind of absorb all of that grease when we fry them.

And if you cut them too thin, they're just gonna almost disintegrate when we're frying them and just become a crunchy, hard thing.

And you really want that happy medium in between.

So this is a step you do not want to miss.

And you want to take your green tomatoes and you want to line them in a colander over a bowl.

You can do this over your sink as well.

But what we really want to do is we want to pull out all of the excess moisture that's kind of hanging out in our tomatoes.

So fit them in there the best way you can.

I usually toss these once.

We're gonna let these just hang out in their little salty spa experience for about 10 minutes.

So about the halfway mark, I'm gonna just kind of toss these over, just to make sure all the moisture's out on the other side.

So while I'm letting these just hang out for 10 minutes, let's make our pimento cheese.

(gentle music) Now let's make our pimento cheese.

Let's start with a cup and a half of shredded cheese.

So I'm using just a sharp cheddar today, and this is gonna be the kicker.

I know that there's all those packaged cheeses out there that are already ready to go, already measured, I never use those for my pimento cheese.

And the reason being is they pack a little bit of cellulose in there, cellulose, cellulitis, something, cellu-something.

So if you use that for your pimento cheese, it's essentially not going to marry together.

It's all gonna wanna come apart.

I would, you know, throw in just a little bit of white cheddar, too.

That looks like about a cup and a half, although I don't think you can ever have too much cheese.

Give our cheese a little toss here.

And pimento cheese is one of those great dishes that you can just make up and have hanging out in your fridge, too.

So half a cup of cream cheese, a fourth a cup of mayonnaise.

I really love a pimento cheese that just seems like it's swimming in mayonnaise.

Of course, you can always adjust if you think your pimento cheese needs a little bit more oomph.

Give that a good stir.

And it's already looking kind of how I want it.

I like mine fluffy, almost like a cloud.

So I'm not gonna overstir it here at the beginning either.

So to our cheese, let's add the pimentos, the star of the dish.

I have drained these and I've also gave them just a tiny chop.

You want about half a cup.

And I'm just tossing that to kind of coat everything together.

Now I'm gonna add just a little bit of garlic powder, salt, pepper, just to round out that flavor there.

Garlic didn't want to go in, wanted to stay with the plate.

And look how pretty that's becoming already, too.

Now, like I said, you don't want this to form like a big clump or a ball in your bowl.

You want it to be light, fluffy, airy, and ready to go in a stack.

Let me give this a taste here.

Of course, don't tell anybody I'm eating with my fingers.

Mm, perfect.

All the flavor you want in pimento cheese, and it's just so easy.

Now, let's fry some tomatoes.

So the 10 minutes are up and our green tomatoes are ready to go into our batter.

So I'm gonna discard all of that water there.

And it's just amazing how much water can come out of a tomato.

So it's pretty simple and straightforward when you're battering a green tomato.

And I use this same batter when I'm doing squash, zucchini, any kind of vegetable that I'm frying.

So in our dry bowl here, I have a cup of cornmeal and half a cup of flour.

And in this little happy plate here, we have little garlic powder, onion powder, salt, pepper, and then we have a little bit of smoked paprika, papa.

That's hard to say, paprika.

And sprinkle that in there.

All that's gonna give us a little bit of color and it's also gonna give us a lot of flavor.

You just don't want to go.

And this is the secret ingredient here, which will give us that really light, crunchy, almost tempura effect in our batter.

And this is just a couple tablespoons of corn starch, directly into our dry bowl there.

All right, so you want to stir this just to incorporate everything, all of those really good spices in there, flour, cornstarch, looks perfect to me.

And then we're gonna pour a cup of buttermilk into our other bowl.

And you know, this is one thing in the south.

So a lot of people will dredge theirs in buttermilk and then into the dry, or you can simply just take them and put them directly into the batter itself.

I'm a person who really loves a good crunchy batter, so I'm definitely a dredger in buttermilk, and then into the flour.

So we want to coat both sides of our green tomato really nicely in the buttermilk, and I'm just gonna kind of shake that.

And then I'm gonna put it right in to our dry ingredients here and just give it a pat, because that's really gonna ensure that we're not gonna lose any of our, all the good stuff on the outside.

And that looks like the perfect battered up and ready for the oil green tomato.

Now let's do 'em all.

All right, let's get these maters in some hot oil for a few minutes.

Now we're at the stove, and let's fry up these mater masterpieces here.

I've heated some oil, just regular old frying oil in a cast iron skillet.

If you don't have cast iron, I have no words.

If you don't have cast iron, stainless steel is another great option.

And you want just enough oil to just cover the bottom of your pan.

You don't really want them floating around in the oil here.

So I'm just gonna fill up our pan.

And we want to let these cook two to three minutes on each side.

We really are just looking for a good golden brown color and for the batter to really crisp up here.

Now, if you put too much oil in your pan, it's just gonna cause them to get soggy.

They're also gonna cook a little bit more unevenly.

Evenness is the really important factor when you're cooking fried green tomatoes.

(oil sizzling) All right, now's the time that we flip our tomatoes and use a good pair of tongs for this, so you have a lot of support.

Oh, my God, they look so pretty.

(oil sizzling) Let's take these tomatoes out.

And the key here is you don't want soggy fried green tomatoes.

That is just not acceptable.

So be sure and use a wire rack, and I've lined it on the bottom with just some parchment paper or paper towels if you have them.

And just set your tomatoes on that, so they're not swimming around in all of the grease that's in the bottom of that pan.

(gentle music) (oil sizzling) All right, while we're letting the second batch cook, those are cooling.

Let's go ahead and make our sauce.

Let's make our Alabama white sauce.

So we'll start with a mayonnaise base.

And this is just half a cup of mayonnaise, a couple tablespoons of apple cider vinegar.

That's just gonna help break down and marry everything together.

Got a little Dijon mustard, little prepared horse radish, and simple seasonings.

The sauce is super simple and easy to make.

We've just got salt pepper and then just a little garlic powder.

And now, just a little lemon juice.

Really good to have that bright, citrus-y flavor.

Use a whisk and give that a good stir.

I'm gonna put in a little more lemon juice.

So this is a great thing to make up ahead of time.

It stores super well in the fridge.

Let me just give that a taste.

Exactly where we need to be.

I'm gonna pop this in the fridge, let it hang out just until our tomatoes are ready, and then we will assemble our stacks.

So all of our components for our stacks are ready.

And now's the time to layer them.

So let's start with a green tomato first.

I'm gonna put that directly on the bottom.

And let's put a generous dollop of pimento cheese.

That don't quite look generous enough to me.

(gentle music) And let's top that with another fried green tomato, and just a little bit more pimento cheese.

And to go big or go home, let's just add one more fried green tomato.

And let's just let all of that marry together with our Alabama white sauce.

I'm just gonna drizzle some of that directly on top.

Top it with a little chive, and a little bit of crumbled bacon.

You can also do slices of bacon, too, but I really like the crumble.

Garnish it with just a little pretty chive blossom.

And there you have it.

That's like southern architecture dish.

All the food groups, everything you want, and crunchy, creamy, deliciousness, all stacked into one.

Let's dive into our masterpiece.

It's almost too pretty to eat.

All right, here it goes.

I'll get some pimento cheese in there, too.

Mm, it's almost just like overwhelming.

You've got everything you want in there.

All the crunchy, all the pimento cheese, all stacked in a stack.

Every good southerner knows about the magic of a simple, yet classic tomato sandwich.

Once the tomatoes are rip, this is hands down, one of the best ways to enjoy tomato season.

Let's have a little garden party right out here amongst the tomato plants.

You can't get any fresher than right off the vine.

Now is the time of year where every gardener is so excited to smell and taste that first slice of tomato.

And to start your sandwich, you're gonna need really good, fully ripe tomatoes.

The next thing you're gonna need is a tomato knife.

I think a lot of mistakes people make when they're cutting their tomatoes is they use a knife that's not serrated.

Now the thickness of your tomato is really gonna depend on the person.

Like sometimes, I like a smaller, thin slice like that.

And then, sometimes, I like a real big, thick slice.

But you can see that a serrated knife helps you really control the thickness of your tomatoes.

And who really cares what the slice looks like anyway when it's on a piece of white bread.

Now, while I'm getting my bread all ready to go, I'm going to just sprinkle some salt right on our tomato there.

And I'm gonna go ahead and put a little bit of black pepper on there, too.

Now in the South, you have to have a tomato sandwich directly on white bread.

So that's what we're using today.

And you can't really skimp on the mayo either.

I like to do both sides of the sandwich because I don't want my tomato to be running off out the side.

And now we just plop our tomato right there.

Optionally, you can definitely add any kind of herbs that you might want.

You can even add cheese, but I like to keep it pretty simple.

And there you have it.

Summer's ultimate treasure, tomato sandwich.

(bright music) That's when you know it's good when the mayo gets all over your beard.

Mm, that's what I've worked all spring for.

(bright music) Now it's time to talk about a southern delicacy.

And our friends up in the other corner of the state have pretty much perfected this one.

Wildflower Cafe in Mentone, Alabama is a charming destination with tons of southern flavor on the menu, and they're famous for their tomato pie.

We took a little field trip to try it out and learn how they make this indulgent tomato specialty.

(engine revs) (car screeches) (enthusiastic music) Hello, Moon.

- Oh, my gosh, Trace, it's so good to see you.

- I am here for some pie.

- Oh, well I'm here to give you some pie and some magic, you ready?

- Let's go.

- All right, let's do it.

- Moon showed me around Wildflower Cafe, and then we met the general manager, Alexis, who showed me the ins and outs of making the perfect tomato pie.

All right, so tomato pie's y'all's thing.

- Yep.

- I have a little experience with tomato pie and I'm so excited to hear all about yours.

And plus, when someone else is making a tomato pie, that always makes it taste better.

- Definitely.

It is our staple, so let's get started.

So to start, I slice my tomatoes.

They'll be about a quarter inch thick, and I just take the ends off.

- [Trace] Do you have a preference of tomatoes that you use for your tomato pie?

- We use Romas here, and we use probably eight to 10 per pie.

- Okay.

- And it's a nine-inch pie shell.

- And I think, a lot of times, when people are making a tomato pie at home, they tend to make the slices sometimes a little too thick.

- Yeah.

- And you don't want to bite into that tomato.

- No, I love a thin one.

It really marinates and absorbs all of the balsamic we're gonna end up adding to it.

- I love that little bit of bite the balsamic adds - Yes.

- To that little bit of vinegar.

- For sure.

- And I mean, if there's ever a marriage that's just made perfectly, it's tomatoes and balsamic.

- Tomatoes and b, yeah.

- Had you made a tomato pie before you came to Wildflower?

- I had not.

- The recipe for the tomato pie here at Wildflower Cafe, it's from a customer?

- Yeah, so a customer brought in a recipe for it and the chef at the time made it for her.

She said, "Could you make this?"

He did, and then he served it to guests.

So like his adaptation of it.

And then the guests loved it, so we had to have it.

- Winner, winner - Yeah.

- Tomato dinner.

- Yeah, we had to keep it.

- And so you're throwing all of your tomatoes in a large container here?

- Yes.

- What happens next?

- After this, I am just going to cover it with our balsamic and then our dried basil.

- Gotcha, so you're gonna go ahead and impart this with a ton of flavor before you drain it?

- Yes.

- Do you ever mix tomato colors in your pies ever?

- We don't here, no.

But I love the beautiful heirloom tomatoes.

- I do, too.

Real hard to grow.

- Yes.

- I usually mix tomatoes in mine, just depending on what I have in the garden.

- Yeah, of course.

- [Trace] So dried basil?

- Yes, it's dried basil.

- Any other herbs in there?

This is it.

- You don't need anything else?

- No, it's very simple.

- Tomatoes.

- Which I think, sometimes, simple recipes, they can be the hardest to execute.

- [Trace] How long do you let these marinate for?

- These are gonna marinate for maybe five minutes, maybe just under.

We've noticed that if you go longer than five minutes, they tend to.

- Like break down a little bit?

- Yeah, and be like very vinegary.

The balsamic matched with the tomato can be very acidic.

- Gotcha.

- So if you do it too much, it changes the flavor.

- You just want that little bit of (clicks tongue).

- [Alexis] Yes.

- [Trace] Perfect.

- All right, while these are marinating, we are gonna combine mayonnaise and this is shredded cheddar and mozzarella.

- Oh, I love the mozzarella edition.

You know, and I think tomato pies are one of those things, where everybody's just like, "I'm gonna add this cheese and then I'm gonna add this cheese."

- Uh-huh.

- And it's really the classic staples that really make it.

- Yeah, definitely.

And this is probably about eight cups of cheese to like two cups of... - Mayo.

- Yeah.

- So that's a good ratio.

- Yeah.

- Now I have to ask you this, 'cause I ask every tried and true southerner.

Is there a certain mayo that you use for your pie?

Are you loyal?

- Now, it's a secret, which mayo we're using.

- Most of them are secret.

- Yeah, definitely.

- The mayo's always the one under lock and key.

- Yeah.

- And you don't add anything else in here?

No seasonings or anything?

- Nope, no sir.

So this looks pretty good right now.

- It's fluffy.

- It's fluffy, but it's just like coming together to form a paste.

That's what we're looking for, yeah.

- Because the filling's next second most important thing.

- Yeah.

- Other than the tomatoes.

- The dough, oh.

The dough!

(both laughing) - We'll flip a coin.

- Yeah.

All righty.

- All right, so five minutes is up.

- Yes, sir.

So now we are going to strain off the balsamic from our tomatoes.

- All right, woo.

(liquid sloshing) That is some balsamic there.

- Oh yeah, and I try to get all of these tomatoes out just to make sure that the balsamic has drained.

That way, it doesn't affect the crust at all.

It doesn't become soggy.

- You don't want no slop pie.

- Nope.

- I'm gonna try a little bite.

- Yeah, definitely.

- Mm, perfect amount of time.

- Good, good, good, good.

- Mm, delish.

All right, now comes the assembling part.

- Yes.

- And you're preheating your oven to, what are we gonna bake this at?

- We bake this at 400 for about 10 minutes.

- Okay, so you pre- - You par bake it.

- You par baked it, yeah.

- Yes.

- [Trace] Did you do any kind of holes in this or no?

- We didn't.

- Okay.

- We just want nice golden color on this.

That way, it's not soaking up the balsamic or any of the juices that are being released from the tomatoes.

It stays nice and firm.

- And crunchy, just how we want it.

- Yes.

- So now's the big question.

Do you put a layer of tomatoes at the bottom or do you start with a layer of the, so tomatoes, okay.

- Tomatoes first.

- First we're gonna do a big pile of tomatoes, just to the top of the crust.

- Just to the top, okay.

That is so pretty already.

- Right?

- All that flavors imparted in there.

It's like they're screaming, "Eat me."

And tons of basil, too.

- Yes, I love the combination of the balsamic and the like melty cheese at the end.

- You had me at melty cheese.

- Right?

- You do a ample layer of tomatoes.

- Yes, yeah, we don't want it to be wimpy.

- And you know, I'm in my kitchen like layering each tomato.

- Uh-huh.

- Just gonna throw 'em in there from now on.

- After that, we're gonna do the cheese.

- The cheese topping?

- Yes.

- I'm gonna put on my gloves.

- You're gonna help?

- I'm gonna help smear it around.

Shmear it.

All right, so now comes our filling, right?

- Yes.

- Or our topping.

- Our topping.

- Yours is more of a topping.

- The cheese, yes.

- And do you just go right in and just plop a big old plop on there?

- Definitely.

- Oh, my gosh, look at that.

The beautiful cheese footage.

- Yes, I just- - Is that good or keep layering?

- Keep going.

- And I like how you smush it down with your hands, too.

- Yes.

I wanted to get in those crevices.

- Oh, yeah, and smush all that.

- And we're gonna go all the way to the crust, yep.

- All the way, okay.

- Oh, wow.

- So all of those tomatoes are sealed, yep.

- All covered.

Oh, one little more right there.

I saw a little red.

- And then this is gonna go into the oven, maybe 10 minutes.

- Okay.

- Until the cheese is melted, and like golden brown.

- And ooey-gooey?

- Yes.

- Bubbling?

Let's pop it in the oven.

- All righty.

(light music) - This looks so good.

- Thank you.

- Let's let it cool a little bit, meet you at the table, and we'll slice it up.

- Sounds great.

(light music) - All right, so we've made it to the table with our pie.

It's almost the crowning moment.

- Right?

- When we get to take a bite, but first, what's your tips and tricks on cutting a pie and especially tomato pie, 'cause you know.

- I think a sharp knife.

- Sharp knife.

- To cut through the crust, through the tomatoes.

That way, you're not like pulling tomatoes out or anything.

- You don't wanna lose one.

- So, no, definitely not.

- [Trace] I love how fluffy that is.

It's like cutting in to cloud of cheese.

- We do quarter slices.

We also do offer a four-inch tart.

- Oh, I love the tarts.

- Yes.

- My favorite part of any pie is like the end part where the crust is.

- Yeah.

- And I love the tarts, 'cause it's all crunch.

- The crunchy, yes.

- Oh, here we go.

Look at that big quarter pie there.

Beautiful, it's perfect.

Look at that.

This is just mine, right?

- Just for you.

- Just me.

- And then we were gonna top it with a little Parmesan.

- I like the toppings, too.

Just that little bit of extra nuttiness.

- Yes, definitely.

- And I love the herbs on top too, because gotta have the herbs.

- Yeah.

- This is my first tomato pie of the season.

- Well, I hope you enjoy it.

- My tomatoes are just starting to come in.

- Cheese pull.

- You know when a cheese pulls that pull?

Mm.

It's everything you want in a tomato pie.

- Right?

- Tomato flavor, herb flavor.

- The balsamic.

- The balsamic bite.

- Mm-hmm.

- I just wanna live in that pie.

- I love the melty cheese.

- Mm, melty cheese.

I gotta have another tomato.

I know why you're famous for your tomato pie now.

- Yep.

- Mm.

- Nothing better.

- Cheers.

All right, we're gonna finish this pie up and I'll meet you out on the porch, and we'll learn a little bit more about Wildflower Cafe from the woman herself.

(gentle music) We are sitting here on the porch of Wildflower Cafe, just rocking away with the woman herself, Moon.

The brains behind Wildflower Cafe.

Thanks for having us.

- Thank you for being here.

- So tell me a little history of Wildflower Cafe.

- Well, the building that we're serving food at, it was built in 1987.

And Wildflower Cafe started on the back porch of the hitching post that burned down.

A lady named Margaret Baker was the original brains behind it.

She wanted to have a little coffee shop.

She decided she didn't wanna do it anymore and asked me if I wanted to buy it.

So I kept the name.

I kept the tomato pie, which was born out of a southern living recipe.

- A southern living recipe.

- Yeah.

- I was gonna ask the inspiration behind the pie.

- Yeah, so there was a lady named Cindy Tyson that brought the tomato pie into a chef at the time.

And he made the tomato pie and he served it to guests before she could ever come back.

And the guests loved it so much, there was no pie left when she came.

So he had to make her another pie.

And then it became a staple on the Wildflower menu.

- Instant hit.

- Yeah.

- I love the menu at Wildflower Cafe because it's pretty extensive and it's also diverse.

- Mm-hmm.

- I love how you have an emphasis on locally grown produce.

- I work with local farmers when and can.

And so when I can get local produce, I do.

We go through about 75 to 100 pounds of Roma tomatoes per week.

So we have not found a local farm that can manage that.

- That's a big old tomato patch right there.

- That's a big tomato patch.

- So what's been one of your favorite memories through the years here at Wildflower Cafe?

- Tony Goggins was here one day and he is a.

- Well.

- What the heck?

- I wonder if it would've made a sound if we were not here.

(Moon laughs) - Tony Goggins, he's a strolling troubadour in town.

And he has this sense, intuitive sense, when he would go up to people.

And so I would sing with him when he would play guitar.

And so he went up to somebody and he said, "You know, Moon, I think we need to play them a song."

And so he said, suggested "You Send Me."

And so I started singing "You Send Me" with Tony, and the woman started breaking down in tears.

And that was the song that they had sang at their wedding and they were here on their anniversary, and he had no idea.

- Oh, wow.

- So that was a big, yeah.

And they've come back since and said, "Do you remember singing "You Send Me"?

And so that was really special.

- And then a tree fell as we were talking about it.

I got goosebumps now.

Can you sing a little bit of it for me?

- Let's see.

♪ I know you send me ♪ ♪ Darling, you send me ♪ ♪ Honest, you do ♪ ♪ Honest, you do ♪ That was about as good as you're gonna get right now.

- That is so good.

Way better than- ♪ Darling, you thrill me ♪ (Moon laughs) - Perfect, beautiful.

Well, on that note, I'll be on my way.

- All right.

- Thanks so much for having us.

- Thank you for coming.

- Thanks for the teens, the tomato pie, and the good company.

- All right, good times, thank you.

- We'll be back.

- All right.

- All right, now you're all set to make the most of tomato season.

Fried and tangy maters layered with pimento cheese, a perfectly simple sandwich bursting with flavor, or ooey-gooey and baked in a pie with herbs.

You can't go wrong with any of these.

Thanks for joining us today, and we'll see you next time on "Garden Party."

(gentle music) I always wanna say wild cow.

I like ooey-gooey in there.

I like anybody that makes a tomato pie when it ain't me.

Card below.

Where's the fly swatter?

Are you craving a little south in your mouth?

There's a gnat this time.

Oh, my God.

(Trace vocalizing) Today, this dish?

I love buttermilk.

I drank two cups last night.

Can we cut right there?

Hey, tell him we're filming, Kalli.

How do you get your airspace restricted over your house?

All right, I'll meet y'all out on the porch.

Meet y'all out there.

See ya.

Cut.

This is the hardest part doing the walk-ups.

We look like we're in our bridal photos right now.

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