Avocado toast!

[Robin Garr]

Avo toast.jpg

This morning I noticed that I had some leftover avocado and thought, hmm, I could make avocado toast! So I squished the two halves with a fork with S&P, toasted and buttered a multigrain english muffin, and spread the avocado mash on top. Hmm, not bad, but it doesn't really say "breakfast" to me.

So I posted it on social media with a crack about how I really did this, it's not an April Fool joke.

And along comes Jenise to respond that she has avocado toast every day!

So where do you fall on the avocado toast spectrum? Always, sometimes, rarely, never? And got any tips to make it even better?

[Jenise]

Well, you already know where I am! But truly, when you grow up surrounded by avocado trees, it's not an unnatural thought.

How to make it better? Two things, don't overly squish the pour fruit. It shouldn't be a whipped consistency, 'chunky' has better mouthfeel. And then: don't season the mix. Add salt and pepper on top, get the vibration of when some bites are a little saltier and some a little pepperier, and better contrast for the avocado's sweetness..

Were your avocados Floridian? The result looks like a Bacon, which is lower in fat but sweeter and more watery than California or most South American avocados.

We eat quite few avocados but usually just cutting them in half and pouring some sort of salad dressing into the half and eat with a spoon.

If I slice them up then I prefer kosher salt on them and for some variety a quick grating of nutmeg or a sprinkle of toasted sesame seeds.

I will be doing an avocado and leek starter salad for my next wine lunch.

My usual breakfast is toast with Vegemite and avocado and black pepper.
I slice or dice the aco and just squish it enough to stick on the toast.
FYI an Aussie chef Bill Grainger is credited with being the first chef to put the smashed avo breakfast thing on a menu.

Basically never have it. Sounds good enough, though.

I eat it often, on a thick slice of milti grain bread, toasted just until crisp. I like the contrast of the crisp bread against the creamy avocado. Avocado must never have any bruised or blackish marks. I slice up enough to fit the bread and lightly mash. I add coarse sea salt and a combo of red and black pepper from Penzeys. Sometimes, a drizzle fresh lime or lemon juice over the top.

Never had, never will.

Don't like avocado.

Breakfast at home is a slice of home-made granary or seeded bread, spread and home-made Seville orange marmalade.
On holiday it's porridge or fried eggs, back bacon*, bangers* and baked beans*

*where available

Avocado toast happens to be a current featured menu item at Dunkin' Donuts.

-Paul W.

[Jenise]

I'm amused by how many people have only just discovered avocado toast, like it's a new thing. For me, the habit goes way way way back. I truly never NOT have avocados on hand. It's a staple, not a special occasion.

I'm not a fan of either the flavor or the texture of avocados.

-Paul W.

Interesting to see the negative reactions from some folks who live far from avocado country! (Not saying that's the only reason...)

When I lived in CA, I ate lots of avocados. Much less so these days, because the available options are not as good. But, I'm a big fan. Many different flavors and textures available, depending on variety and preparation. I never eat avocado toast, even though it seems delicious, but that's mainly because we rarely eat bread.

I love avocados but don’t usually make the toast. On weekends I like to scramble eggs and serve them on top of halved avocados with a little hot sauce in the well!!

My biggest issue with avocados is I let too many go past their prime and end up throwing them out

[Jenise]

John, that's a problem many have. Ripen them on the counter until they just barely offer some give but seem a day or three out, then refrigerate to slow down the ripening. Will give you another two weeks hold time if you get it right. Many people think avocados have to be softer than they do.

Many people think avocados have to be softer than they do.

This probably includes me. But one only has to eat avocado with the texture of poker chips a couple of times before this becomes SOP.

[Jenise]

Generally, 'soft' is too ripe. Especially with a Haas type. It changes the flavor too; like most fruit, overripeness is not a good thing.

Hm. Well, I've gone and bought one that I think is a few days from ready. I'll serve it to myself for dessert tonight.

(But, generally, I like my fruit really ripe and my vegetables really firm.)

I love avocados but don’t usually make the toast. On weekends I like to scramble eggs and serve them on top of halved avocados with a little hot sauce in the well!!

It's not either/or. We have avocado toast fairly often (since way before it was a trend), but usually with a fried egg on top, or scarnbled (if latter a little Cholula).
I like my avocados pretty ripe.

(if latter a little Cholula).

Whew. My first quick read I saw "Chocula" and I rapidly fell into the hole... really? crispy sweet cereal? and where does he still get it?

Hm. Well, I've gone and bought one that I think is a few days from ready. I'll serve it to myself for dessert tonight.

I waited one more day. It was very good, slices held together.

[Jenise]

I long for the avocados of my childhood. Smooth skinned green Fuertes were then the standard supermarket avocado. My grandmother's tree were Fuerte, but they were large fuertes, 7-8 inches average. Even if you find fuertes in stores these days, and you rarely do because they're more perishable, they're small, just 4-5 inches.

There were lots of different types of backyard avocados where I lived. Some small, some perfectly round, some very skinny, some purple-skinned. Most were probably planted by prior residents half a century earlier. They had no names that anyone remembered.

I'm not a fan of the sweet "low fat" Bacons typical of Florida and the Carribean. They look much like Fuertes except the skin is brighter green and much shinier. I adore the huge Reeds but they ripen SO fast stores rarely carry them, you might only find them at farm stands where someone has an old tree. Hawaii grows excellent avocados, and they're often quite large, pineapple sized with prehistorically thick skins.

Haas are now the standard supermarket avocado. But of course, giant agriculture has bred them into something they weren't originally. The original true Haas was very black skinned and yellow, not green, inside. They were amazingly full-flavored, fatty and nutty.

We did not know of them until I found a grove sloping down a hillside behind an old hospital (in fact, the one I was born at, that had been converted into a men's dorm for Whittier College) when a new friend moved into a house across the street from it. The avocados were dropping and rolling downhill, which being short and rounder vs the elongated Fuertes, they did quite well. I took one home to my mom, which we opened and were AMAZED by. I was 6 at the time. So next time I went to Joyce's house, about a mile and a half away, I took my red wagon and filled it with these amazing avocados. (I was a free-range child and born-forager who knew every accessible fruit tree within several miles of home.)

Nowadays I mostly buy avocados at Costco, five to a bag. Hardly the same as finding a whole hillside of free fruit, but the best I can do.

Hm. I think, as Pumpkin would say, that I am a deprived inner-city slum child. I don't think I know any place to get any kind of avocado other than Hass or "Florida" (the awful watery big green shiny ones).

PS. While looking around for the name of the awful cultivar I discovered that the "Haas" avocado -- in fact, all "Haas" avocados -- descend from a single tree planted in CA by one Mr. Rudolph Hass. The "aa" is a misspelling that has become accepted.

I also like avocado oil, with its good properties and high smoke point.

[Jenise]

https://duckduckgo.com/?q=avocado+types+chart&t=chromentp&iax=images&ia=images&iai=http%3A%2F%2Ffarm1.staticflickr.com%2F96%2F265045677_97a213d57d_z.jpg%3Fzz%3D1

Hope this is readable. Nice picture that shows just a sampling of the great variety of avocadoes around.
Look at those queens! Those are like one I remember buying in Hawaii.