Other things to do with Avocados

[Jenise]

Other than make quacamole, toast or salad, that is. The Haas/Hass thread got me thinking.

Years ago, I had dinner at a little restaurant off Pico on the backside of one of the 20th Century Fox studio in Los Angeles and ordered a main course of a chicken breast that was served with an absolutely to-die-for hot avocado mousse. It was a revelation. Avocados are by reputation impossible to heat, the rep is that they turn a tannic kind of bitter, but there was no downside to the mousse I had that night. I've always wanted to know, but never have, how they did that.

Years passed, during which time I came to understand that avocados, gently warmed, can actually be quite nice. From that period comes a dish I sometimes make for lunch, a Mexican flavored pie where a latin-flavored meat mixture lines the pie plate and becomes the crust, as it were, and which after being baked to done gets filled with chopped tomatoes, cheese, chopped, onions and sliced avocados, and finished in the hot oven.

And Gail Selyam (yeah, Burt's wife) once described a dish that consisted of poached white fish served on avocado pancakes that I believe she had at John Ash's restaurant in Sonoma. It sounded enchanting and I came up with my own version of that which I make from time to time, serving both under a cumin-lemon beurre blanc with a bit of chopped cilantro.

Peter Hertzmann has a recipe for an avocado veloute on his website that's smashing. I often pair it with a seafood salad for an elegant lunch.

I also use avocados a lot at breakfast, placing a poached egg atop a few slices and topping it with salsa as a fresh breakfast for bob. My breakfast will be the rest of the avocado, just salted and peppered.

And that pretty much exhausts my experience with not-your-usual avocado treatments. I suppose I've never been all that prone to further adventuring because I so love this fruit au naturale that most I buy get consumed with a spoon straight out of the skin.

I'd love to talk about what other people do with avocados. And does anyone want to take a stab at that mousse?

Jenise, you introduced me to avocado on toast, and it's been a lovely part of my life ever since.

Here's my favorite avocado recipe; I have it in the fridge whenever the avocados and the mangoes are very good to excellent. The mango/cilantro marriage was made in foodie heaven.

Mango Avocado Salsa

Ingredients:

2 very good mangoes
2 very good avocados
2.5 ounce crystallized ginger
1 bunch cilantro

Technique

1. Chop very fine the cilantro leaves and small stems.
2. Mix well with the ginger in the bowl in which you will store the salsa.
3. Chop the avocados into one inch pieces and mix with the ginger and cilantro.
4. Chop the mangoes into one inch pieces and fold gently into the avocado/ginger/cilantro mixture.

Serve immediately or preferably allow to age in the fridge for 12 hours.

Cook's Notes:

1. I use one bottle of Spice Hunter's Crystallized Australian Ginger -- high quality ginger makes a real difference.

2. The salsa is very good if the avocado and mango are just at the almost ripe stage, but as a practical matter getting both at exactly the right stage is virtually impossible. The mango can be ripe, even over ripe, and the salsa will come out fine. But the avocado can't be soft, or the mouth feel of the salsa is too mushy. [Tastes fine as a dressing, but not good as a side.]

3. The salsa will last for three to seven days in the refrigerator depending on the ripeness of the fruit.

4. This salsa makes a great dressing for salads -- one of our favorites is based on Romaine lettuce with two or three of the following: apple, pear, almonds, broccoli sprouts, cucumber, etc.

5. It is also an excellent side dish with roasted vegetables where the sweetness of the salsa adds a lovely flavor profile.

Regards, Bob

I like to cut them into wedges, batter and fry them. I sometimes scoop out the half and fry it, too. Yum!

rwj

For the purists:

I may have posted this before…or maybe it was on the original website. I don’t remember. In any case, one our favorite ways to eat avocados is :

1) Split each avocado, remove the seed.
2) Salt * Pepper to taste
3) Fill the hole w/ ½ good quality EVOO & ½ red wine vinegar
4) Use a spoon to scoop slices out of the middle, making sure to dip/dredge in the EVOO / vinegar mix and eat.

Yum…..

Richard

For the purists:

I may have posted this before…or maybe it was on the original website. I don’t remember. In any case, one our favorite ways to eat avocados is :

1) Split each avocado, remove the seed.
2) Salt * Pepper to taste
3) Fill the hole w/ ½ good quality EVOO & ½ red wine vinegar
4) Use a spoon to scoop slices out of the middle, making sure to dip/dredge in the EVOO / vinegar mix and eat.

Yum…..

Richard

Hey, I thought I discovered this when I was eleven! How come you know about it?

I've never seen Peter's recipe for the veloute, but cold avocado soup has long been one of my favorite hot day dishes.

I think the combination of hot beef and cold avocado is a particularly good marriage, so I always include cubed avocado on my tri tip sandwiches.

Mexican style shrimp cocktail wouldn't be complete without some diced avocado.

[Jenise]

For the purists:

I may have posted this before…or maybe it was on the original website. I don’t remember. In any case, one our favorite ways to eat avocados is :

1) Split each avocado, remove the seed.
2) Salt * Pepper to taste
3) Fill the hole w/ ½ good quality EVOO & ½ red wine vinegar
4) Use a spoon to scoop slices out of the middle, making sure to dip/dredge in the EVOO / vinegar mix and eat.

Yum…..

Richard

We do that too. Sometimes, we toss shrimp or crab meat in the vinaigrette and stuff the hole with that, too!

[Jenise]

I like to cut them into wedges, batter and fry them. I sometimes scoop out the half and fry it, too. Yum!

rwj

Avocado tempura, then?