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Half an Avocado...
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Avocado
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Parmesan, Green Asparagus,
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Oil and Vinegar
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Tom Fitzmorris's New Orleans Food: More Than 250 of the
City's Best Recipes
to Cook at Home
Half an Avocado...
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La Belle Cuisine
Avocados
 
Feast of Santa Fe:
Cooking of the American Southwest
by Huntley Dent, 1985/1993, Simon & Schuster
“The avocado is a winter fruit, which means it is cheapest beginning in
February
or thereabouts and expensive in September. The best kind to buy are black ones
from
California, their skin crinkled enough to justify the old name of alligator
pear. Usually bought hard and unripe, they can ripen quite satisfactorily in
three to five days if placed in a closed bag and stored in a dark place. You
can
interrupt the process at any point by putting the fruit in the
refrigerator.
Underripe avocados are hard to peel; their flesh is unyielding and
soapy-tasting.
Ripe ones are easier to peel, aromatic, and buttery in texture - hence the
other
old name, ‘Indian butter.’ If, as often happens, you want an avocado
on the spur
of the moment and run into those in the supermarket that are
mushy to the touch,
do not
be deceived. They are unripe ones which have been mashed by other in- quisitive customers and left to a dismal fate – pulpy, but still not ripe.
It is better
to do
without avocado altogether than to buy those. Cut-rate cooks sometimes
carry
home the hard young avocados or the squashy unacceptable ones hoping
to palm
them off in a guacamole heavily spiked with onion and garlic. That is
a very
bad practice best left to restaurants.
Avocado flesh oxidizes and turns brown on contact with air, so it is wise to
peel
and slice it at the last moment, just as you are ready to garnish a
dish. Prematurely
cut slices can be kept reasonably fresh by submerging them
in ice water – another
restaurant practice. Rubbing the cut surfaces with
lemon juice, which one sees as
the usual cookbook advice, is tedious and
mostly ineffective. Half an avocado left
over can be preserved by leaving
the pit in, wrapping the half in plastic wrap,
and pressing the wrap
directly onto the flesh so that it is not exposed to air. So
protected, the
half can be kept in the refrigerator for a few days at most, where it
will decline in flavor slightly day by day. Although some may find them
tolerable,
off-season green avocados from Florida, shaped like smooth
gourds, seem to be
inferior overall – tougher to peel, slower to ripen,
quicker to rot and, because of
their lower oil content, ultimately less
flavorful even at their best. Frozen avo-
cado spreads are generally watery
and without flavor, and not worth their cost.
Once encountered in its ripened state, the avocado easily turns into an
obsession. Feel free to embellish practically any soup or main course with
it if you are among the addicted. People who are primarily attracted to the
‘designer’ green shade of
the avocado sometimes make it into
cold avocado
soup, avocado mousse or avocado
ice cream, recipes for which most definitely
do not appear in this cookbook.” [!!]
Ripe-Avocado Appetizers
“Now that the avocado is permanently established as a fixture in New Mexico
cooking, it seems a shame to restrict it to a few uses only. There is more
to do
with
it than make guacamole or garnish tostadas. Avocados can be capricious
about
how long they take to ripen once you get them home, particularly if
they are
late-winter ones, so you may find yourself blessed with two or three
perfectly ripe ones a few days after you had planned to use them. Here are
some ideas about serving them as an appetizer. I am assuming that one half
is enough per guest (an underestimation if
the fruits are small or have
unusually large pits).
These preparations are meant to show off the avocado itself, so I have not
gone into the various garnishes that are possible. However, among the
best
of the traditional ones are:
-
Boiled shrimp
made into salad or simply moistened with
salsa. (The shrimp
are
usually placed in the cavity of the avocado.)
-
Shaved
country ham or prosciutto, cut as thin as possible by the butcher
-
Raw beef
tenderloin, cut as thin as possible by the butcher; moisten with
fresh
salsa or green chili
relish. (The meat slices are rolled up and placed
on the side. Present
with lime wedges on the side.)"
All the
following avocado recipes are for 4 people.
Avocado with Avocado Sauce
4 ripe avocados, cool but not chilled
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 tablespoon lime juice
2 small green onions chopped into 1-inch lengths
2 generous dashes Tabasco
Salt and pepper to taste
First cut 3 of the avocados into thin slices in the following
way: Halve each avocado, unpeeled, remove the pit, and slice each half in
half again. Peel
the quarters by slipping your thumb between flesh and skin,
just sliding
down to separate the two. Now slice each piece into 4 slices
lengthwise
and gently fan them out on small salad plates. Allot 2 quarters -
that is,
8 slices - per person.
Quarter and peel the remaining avocado. Place it in the jar of an electric
blender with all the other ingredients. Blend into a smooth sauce, taking
time to scrape down the sides of the jar as necessary. Taste for seasoning
and spoon a ribbon of the sauce down the center of the avocado slices.
Serve
cool and as quickly as possible so that the avocado does not lose
its fresh
taste and color.
This green-on-green appetizer satiates even a fanatic [I plead guilty!], and
the presentation is lovely enough in it simplicity to suit a dinner party.
Avocado with Grapefruit Dressing
“Usually the unctuousness of avocados is set off by a sweet or sour
dressing,
but
there the accent is bitter and therefore more sophisticated. The use of
grapefruit
and Belgian endive takes us leagues away from Santa Fe.”
2 ripe avocados
1 tablespoon frozen grapefruit juice concentrate,
thawed but not diluted
4 tablespoons olive oil
3 tablespoons chopped parsley
Salt and pepper to taste
Fresh grapefruit sections and/or
Belgian endive leaves
Place half an avocado, whole or in slices, on small salad
plates and garnish with the grapefruit sections and/or small Belgian endive
leaves (3 or 4 per serving). Using an electric blender or whisking by hand,
make a dressing
from the grapefruit concentrate, oil, parsley, salt and pepper. Drizzle over
the avocado and serve cool.
Avocado with Roasted Red Pepper Sauce
2 ripe avocados
2 or 3 roasted and peeled red peppers, either
homemade or bottled
as “sandwich peppers”
4 tablespoons olive oil
1/2 teaspoon lemon juice
1/2 teaspoon powdered mild red chilies
Salt and pepper to taste
Quarter, peel and slice the avocados as described in Avocado
with Avocado Sauce [above]. Mix the remaining ingredients in the jar of an
electric blender and purée into a smooth sauce, stopping as needed to scrape
down the jar
with a spatula. Place a ribbon of the richly red sauce down the
center of the
sliced avocado and serve, cool, as soon as possible. Unlike
the other sauces, this one improves if kept for a few hours in the
refrigerator, so it can be
made ahead if you like.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Carmen's
Infamous Avocado Salsa
Makes 4
cups
One 16-ounce package frozen corn kernels, thawed
Two 2 1/4-ounce cans sliced ripe olives, drained
1 red bell pepper, diced
1 small onion, diced, or 1 bunch
scallions, thinly sliced
5 cloves garlic, minced
1/3 cup extra-virgin olive oil
1/4 cup lime juice
3 tablespoons wine vinegar
1 teaspoon dried cilantro, or
1 tablespoon fresh, chopped
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
Cayenne pepper or Tabasco sauce, to taste
4 avocados - peeled, pitted and diced
In a
large bowl, combine the corn, olives, red bell pepper and onion.
In a small bowl, combine the garlic, olive oil, lime juice, vinegar,
cilantro,
salt, pepper, and cayenne or Tabasco. Pour this into the corn
mixture and
toss
well to coat the ingredients thoroughly. Cover the salsa and refrigerate
8
hours, or overnight.
Just prior to serving, stir the avocados into the salsa.
Serve with corn
chips.
Avocado Salad Dressing
Tom Fitzmorris
”One of the best things about eating at LeRuth's [New Orleans] was the
avocado dressing
they served on their salads. One day, I had a few extra
avocados and
decided
to
see if I could improvise something similar (like
most of LeRuth's
recipes,
this
one was a secret). Here's what I came up
with, which I thought
was pretty
good,
if I say so myself.”
1/2
cup mayonnaise
1/4 cup buttermilk
1/4 cup cider vinegar
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon tarragon
1/2 teaspoon dill
2 tablespoons Tabasco jalapeno
pepper sauce
1 dash Worcestershire sauce
2 medium size ripe California
Haas avocados
1.
Mix all the ingredients except the avocados in a bowl with a wire whisk.
2. Slice the avocados in half, remove the pits, then scrape out the contents
with a spoon. Avoid the stringy parts at the stem end. Add the avocado
to the other ingredients and mash it in with the whisk. Add 1/4 cup cold
water,
and whisk until smooth. Add a little more water to thin the texture
as
desired.
3. Right before serving, toss greens (red and green leaf, romaine, Boston,
or Bibb lettuces recommended; watercress makes a nice accent) with
the
dressing. Garnish individual salads with thin slices of avocado and
tomato.
Makes enough dressing for about eight side salads.
Gigi’s Avocado and Roquefort
Salad Dressing
1 large ripe avocado, quartered
1 cup sour cream
3 tablespoons half-and-half
1/4 cup crumbled Roquefort cheese
2 tablespoons lemon juice
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
Pinch cayenne pepper
Mix all dressing ingredients in food processor until well
blended.
Keeps well
in the refrigerator.
The Awesome Avocado,
continued...
Holy Guacamole!
Featured archive recipes:
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Gigi's Avocado Mold
Gigi's Herbed Avocado Cheese Spread
Avocado Mousse with Radish
and Coriander
Avocado and Chicken Salad
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Avocado Fruit Salad
Avocado and Hearts of Palm Salad
Avocado Salad with Gazpacho Dressing
Chicken, Avocado and Papaya Salad
Crab and Avocado Salad with Louis Dressing
Seafood-Stuffed Avocado Salad with
Creamy Artichoke Dressing
Shrimp on a Mousse of Avocado
Tomatoes Stuffed with Avocado
Tropical Fruit Salsa with Avocado
Avocado Gazpacho
Gazpacho with Shrimp and Avocado
(Wolfgang Puck)
Avocado Lobster Chowder
Avocado Vichyssoise
Gigi's Chicken and Avocado Casserole
Pork with Smoky Tomato Sauce, Potatoes,
and Avocado (Rick Bayless)
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