eG Cook-Off #81: The Avocado - Finding new popularity in the kitchen

[jimb0]

I have a sweet tooth and enjoy avocado in just about any form, so I was thinking about custard. Simple (over-)baked custard; not exactly enthused with the results. The flavour is nice enough, though it could have used another avocado, but the texture is almost a set foam (my fault for blending them in the vitamix; another time I wish I had a vac sealer) like meringues rather than a custard. At least it doesn’t taste bad, but neither do I particularly wish to eat six bowls of it. 

 

edit: overnight these collapsed into what is basically avocado mousse in the fridge. they're frankly delicious, cold and creamy. I have changed my opinion on the matter, haha.

Edited April 28, 2019 by jimb0 (log)

[Shelby]

Another frozen avocado update:

 

I'm simply amazed at how well these freeze.  I am so grateful to @Smithy for enticing me to freeze the halves and I'm so grateful to myself for being too lazy to finish the recipe 😂

 

We had taco salads last night and I remembered that I had 3 more halves in the freezer, so I thawed them out and made guacamole.  I didn't even add any lime juice--just a few spoons of salsa.  Guacamole stayed nice and green!

 

[SLB]

I'm amazed too, and also thrilled.  I don't ever want a huge amount of avocado at once, so this freezing business is gonna mean good things over here.  

[MetsFan5]

They may freeze well but, IMO, unless you use the brown bag trick to ripen, heating an avocado makes it grossly foul to my palate. I got a Haas delivered a week ago. It looked and felt like it would be fine for guac in a few days. I forgot about it then thawed meat for tacos last night to have tonight. It felt ok. NOPE!  It was impossible to cut. I tried the “microwave trick and felt sick looking at the oil slick it produced, plus it tasted nasty. 

 

  Really? A week old Haas avocado delivered to NJ isn’t ripe in a week? 

 

  It was so bad I probably won’t have anything with avocado for a few weeks and I love them. 

Edited May 8, 2019 by MetsFan5 (log)

[JoNorvelleWalker]

8 minutes ago, MetsFan5 said:

They may freeze well but, IMO, unless you use the brown bag trick to ripen, heating an avocado makes it grossly foul to my palate. I got a Haas delivered a week ago. It looked and felt like it would be fine for guac in a few days. I forgot about it then thawed meat for tacos last night to have tonight. It felt ok. NOPE!  It was impossible to cut. I tried the “microwave trick and felt sick looking at the oil slick it produced, plus it tasted nasty. 

 

  Really? A week old Haas avocado delivered to NJ isn’t ripe in a week? 

 

  It was so bad I probably won’t have anything with avocado for a few weeks and I love them. 

 

 

Oops, reminds me I have two avocadoes rotting in the bedroom.

 

[Nancy in Pátzcuaro]

Is it just me, or do all these lists of "things you can do with avocados" almost always involve several versions of salads and almost never something innovative or different? The most interesting recipe I've seen lately is a bean and corn pie with a crust that substitutes mashed avocado for butter. The photo of the crust looked a little heavy, so if you're hoping for a nice flaky crust you may not be happy.

 

On 5/7/2019 at 11:26 PM, MetsFan5 said:

 "Really? A week old Haas avocado delivered to NJ isn’t ripe in a week? "

 

 

We live in avocado country here, and I can assure you that avocados picked for shipment could be used as weapons (if they weren't so danged expensive). I mean, they are rocks. They have to be harvested (by hand), hauled to the processing plant, dumped into refrigerated trucks, driven to the border where they may spend some considerable amount of time at customs before they head off to the distribution center and finally then to individual stores. They are shipped when they're mature but not ripe to protect them, and given the rough treatment they get at all points along the trip it's a miracle that they survive without massive bruising and spoilage. So give avocados a little more time, which doesn't help if you're trying to get dinner on the table. 

 

And I agree about the microwave ripening trick--I think I tried that once and vowed not to do it again. The only thing that works is time, unfortunately. However, you can store half-ripe avocados in the fridge, where they will happily wait until you take them out to finish the ripening process. That avoids the awful discovery that you've forgotten about them until it's too late, which is very disappointing. I've kept avocados like that for well over a week. 

 

Hope this helps--Nancy in Pátzcuaro

[blue_dolphin]

This is more a report of another cook-off than any actual cooking on my part but I thought I'd mention it here as there has already been some discussion of fried avocados.  The two finalists in the cooking contest at this year's local strawberry festival included both strawberries (obviously) and avocado in their recipes.  I was hoping to find both recipes to share but was only able to find the winner:  

 

Sweet Spicy Savory Strawberry Salsa Drenched Fried Avocado Soft Tacos by Elizabeth Falke (scroll down at this link for the recipe).  Using the word "drenched" in the recipe title makes it sound to me like the avocado was getting soggy, but that's just me 🙃.

Strawberry Salsa:

2 cups fresh strawberries, stemmed, chopped,

1/3 cup red onion, chopped fine,

1/4 cup fresh cilantro, stemmed, chopped,

1 jalapeno pepper, semmed, seeded, minced,

1 tablespoon fresh lime juice,

1 tablespoon fresh orange juice,

1 tablespoon white balsamic vinegar,

1/4 teaspoon salt,

1 teaspoon grated lemon zest,

1 teaspoon grated lime zest,

1 teaspoon grated orange zest.

Tacos:

1/2 cup flour mixed with 1/4 teaspoon salt & 1/4 teaspoon pepper,

1 egg, beaten,

1 cup panko bread crumbs,

1 1/2 large ripe but firm avocados, halved, pitted, skinned and cut into 10 wedges,

10 small fresh soft white corn tortillas,

2 cups vegetable oil,

1/2 cup cotija cheese, finely crumbled.

In the recipe, the avocados are cut into wedges before being dredged in the seasoned flour -> egg -> panko, then apparently shallow-fried for ~ 3 min . I'm just guessing that 2 cups oil in a large, deep skillet isn't going to be too deep, but maybe it is if you're an avocado wedge. 

 

The runner-up recipe was Strawberry Marinated Yucatan Pork Tostadas with Fresh Strawberry Corn Salsa & Avocado Crema by Elizabeth Koseyan. From what I read, she marinated pork shoulder in a puree of strawberries, achiote, cinnamon, cumin and other spices and cooked it in banana leaves.  All the cooking had to be done in a 60-minute, timed competition with no prior preparation allowed so I was curious if she was using a pressure cooker for the pork and how long she was going to be able to marinate it. 

[Darienne]

How I missed this thread is beyond me.  Ed and I love avocados.  Alas we also live outside a small city in Ontario and purchasing avocados most of the time means either eating avocados or selling the family jewels.

 

When they are on sale ...I mean no selling of the family jewels to pay for them...I will buy a bunch, make a guacamole, bag it and freeze it and then so often lose it somewhere in the bottom of the freezer.  Ah the vicissitudes of life... 

[scubadoo97]

On 3/4/2019 at 4:32 PM, David Ross said:

My gosh that's something.  It would be interesting to know the technique they used to coat it in the tempura batter and hold everything together during frying. It looks like lettuce was wrapped around the avocado?  And I might add looks delicious.

Yes it does.   Interesting technique and must have taken a few trials and errors to get it to stay together.  Looks delicious 

[jedovaty]

Hi!  I'm a little late to this.  Finally got a chance to try something I've been wanting to do for a while   Check out my fresh hot noods!  

125g fresh milled durum wheat (bolted, roughly 80% extraction)

125g caputo 00 flour (I was out of everything else)

45g not ripe yet but just barely soft avocado

50g locally sourced tap water

Blitz in food processor to distribute avocado.  Then run through my noodle extractor (it's like a motorized playdoh machine).

 

I tossed them left over sous vide chicken, some veggies from the farmer's market, and left over starchy boiling water + some sort of hard cheese I had at the back of my fridge.  Totally forgot to add the calabrian chilies from my office aerogarden.  DRAT!

 

Verdict?  They smelled like bananas when forced through the extractor.  They were a little mushy after boiling in water.  Taste.. well, they tasted like noodles.  I was hoping they'd be a little more yellow or slightly green, but, I guess it's all in the name of having fun!  Would I do it again?  Hmmmm.  I dunno.  If so, I might try more avocado and less water, and, I might also want to try with a ripe avocado, since this one didn't have much flavor.  I tried searching and searching, but couldn't find anyone else that's done this.  I wonder if anyone will give it a try, too.

 

Now I have to wash the food processor.  Oh, bother.