When you hear “green tomatoes,” does the word “fried” come to mind automatically? Aside from that Southern classic of breaded green tomato slices fried golden, few people have any idea of what else to do with hard, unripe tomatoes. Last week at a blustery farmers market, there were green tomatoes for sale. But nobody—vendors or customers alike—had the foggiest idea what else to do with them, beyond the obvious.
On that almost-last market of the year, I decided to add green tomatoes to a stew of the most colorful nuggets of produce I could find. Waxy golden potatoes, orange-fleshed squash, fully ripened red Anaheim peppers, and dark green kale. I cooked this farm-grown bounty with wild rice, a deer bone, and locally foraged chanterelles and lobster mushrooms. The fungus gave all of its earthy flavor to the broth. And the slices of green t0matoes from the pile on the counter did what a squeeze of lemon could otherwise have done—cut through the butter, oil, and meat juices and sharpen the flavor….