I know, LBGT is not the right order, for some reason. However, if you’re referring to the incredible sandwich that Wif’s pregnant brain put together, with a couple of my mind grapes thrown in, then those letters are nothing but perfectly correct.
Except we didn’t have lettuce either. So no “L. “ So the acronym is pretty much ruined by now. But I assure you, the sandwich was incredible.
We planned to make BLTs with fried green tomatoes. Wif, in her infinite pregnant wisdom, which tells her “fat = yeah!” picked up some burger patties on her trip to get thick cut bacon. So the idea became BLTs with thick cut bacon, fried green tomatoes and a burger patty. The result was resplendent. Yeah, I wrote “resplendent.” What, you need a thesaurus? It means really, really good, jerk.
The only tricky thing about this sandwich is the timing, because properly crispy bacon takes a while to render the fat without burning the bacon, and every other part of the sandwich takes under six minutes. My suggestion, if you have time, is finish cooking the bacon before you do the rest of the sandwich components. The problem is that bacon tends to disappear when not immediately added to its intended source. My solution: cook extra.
Bacon- So first, cook the bacon in a pan on low heat, inching towards medium-low. Be patient. Don’t burn it. Let it get nice and brown, then remove it and place those tasty slices onto a paper towel to drain.
Burgers- I know, I’m out of order again. Get over it. Preheat grill to really, really hot. Liberally salt and pepper each patty on the outside only. Grill each patty for 2-5 minutes on each side, depending on how thick they are and how moo-ey you want your meat. When you flip the burgers, start toasting both sides of your buns. When you take the burgers and rolls off the grill, let them rest and go to the tomatoes.
Green Tomatoes- Preheat pan at medium high. Cut green tomatoes (regular tomatoes will not hold up to cooking this way) into 1/2 inch slices, and dredge in cornmeal (or breadcrumbs or flour). Shake off the extra stuff, add a little neutral oil to the pan (canola, corn, safflower, vegetable, or peanut), unless you use the extra bacon grease, which is also awesome. Saute each side of the tomatoes till they’re brown. Don’t move them in the pan. Let them sit and form a crust. Moving them pushes out moisture, causing the tomatoes to steam and break apart. All of this is bad. These should take 6 minutes at most, i.e. 3 minutes per side. Salt them on both sides after you remove them from the pan. They can be cooked after you take the burgers off the grill, because the burgers can rest for 10 minutes.
Assemble- Smear some mayo on the bottom bun. Then stack your patty, your bacon, then your tomatoes. Smear some more mayo on the top bun, slap them together, and get after that bad boy. Don’t be shy. You have to control the burger. You cannot let the burger control you.
Ingredients for Two Burgers
- Two rolls (brioche rock, though we used thick slices of chala)
- 1/2 pound of burger meat, shaped into patties
- 1/4 pound of thick cut bacon, or a little more if you don’t trust your self-restraint. Each burger needs two full, thick slices
- Two green tomatoes (depending on their size) cut into 1/2 inch slices
- 1/2 cup of cornmeal (or bread crumbs, or flour)
- Neutral oil (or use the bacon grease! Yeah!)
- Salt and pepper
