My Favorite Green Tomato Recipe

This time of year, everyone who grows tomatoes in their garden around here has green ones sitting around in the kitchen. Here is my favorite green tomato recipe, which I collected more than 35 years ago after a memorable meal with friends.

"MACHUNKHA"
From Margie (I went to college with her)

INGREDIENTS:
¼ cup chopped Spanish onion (or enough to cover the bottom of your pan)
1/8 cup butter
a tiny bit of chopped green pepper (This is optional. Use more if you like peppers.)
1 or 2 green tomatoes, cut into ½ inch cubes
2 or 3 red tomatoes (generally use 3 red to 1 green), peeled and cut into ½ inch cubes
¼ cup milk
¼ cup flour
salt and pepper to taste
small amount of finely chopped garlic, if you like garlic

METHOD:
Melt butter in frying pan over moderate heat.
Add onions and green pepper. Sauté to transparency. Add garlic.
Put unpeeled cubes of green tomato in your pan. Cook until they lose their hardness. Add red tomato cubes. Cook another 5 to 10 minutes. Mix the tomatoes together to confuse them and cause identity crisis yielding unusual flavor. [Yes, that is the way the original recipe read.]
While this simmers at a low temperature, mix your milk, water (to thin), and flour together, beating into a paste with a pastry whip or fork. Pour it into the tomato mixture while stirring tomatoes. Now add salt and pepper to taste (recommended very small amount of salt, more pepper.)
Cook on low temperature until it reaches gravy consistency.
Serve from pan with whole loaf of fresh white bread—Italian or other tearable bread—dunking bread into the machunkha to eat.

If you should happen to have any left over (not likely), thin it with milk when you reheat it, stirring it back to gravy consistency.

2 large green tomatoes and 3 large red ones make about 6 servings.