Tag: avocado

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on the menu: caesar vinaigrette

Here is the recipe for the caesar vinaigrette I’m putting on various kale-heavy salads lately. I can’t get enough of this kind of salad; handfuls of kale and spring greens with enough variegated debris to make it interesting, doused with a punchy, sour vinaigrette.

kale salad

This vinaigrette is cobbled together from a few recipes and features significantly more vinegar than is usual for anyone, evidently. I don’t really measure any of this, I approximate based on these amounts.

2 T sherry vinegar (champagne or white wine vinegar also works)
1 T Dijon mustard
1 T balsamic vinegar
1 tsp lemon zest (or, in a pinch, juice)
1/2 tsp anchovy paste
1 tsp honey
dash worcestershire sauce
generous pinch of herbs de provence
1/3 c olive oil (Maybe less. I like a vinegar heavy dressing, some would use more like 1/2 or 2/3 c oil.  A nice grassy green oil is excellent here, and one with more of a black olive flavor is lovely, too.)
1 clove garlic, minced
1/2 c freshly shredded Pecorino cheese (or skip this and grate big ribbons over the salad, or do both.)
salt and pepper to taste

Shake it up, dresses two large portions.

For example I pour about half over a mixing bowl full of vegetable matter. I’m not sharing that.

I like to shake rather than employ some tool to emulsify, was recently reading that shredding the olive oil can bring out a bitterness that shaking prevents. This dressing has so many powerful flavors that it probably wouldn’t make a significant difference but shaking is also quick and easy. I use a trusty Ball jar.

Also recommended: pimentón on avocado.

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on the menu: eggs baked in avocado

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This idea comes from The Garum Factory, co-authored by Jody Adams (head chef at the Rialto here in Cambridge) and her husband, Ken, who does the photography and much of the writing, and who I recently met (which is how I learned about the blog).  I find most of the recipes interesting mental exercises, like reading a cool cookbook, but this one for eggs baked in avocado I wanted to try.

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Pillivuyt Brasserie tableware on loan from Didriks

I overbaked them slightly such that the eggs were a bit dry (I would bake them less than the prescribed time for the next attempt, and watch them more closely), but they were really good all the same, totally redeemed by the bright, fresh guacamole/salsa hybrid offered as a side (see link for recipes). I intend to include ginger in [virtually, maybe literally] all of my salsas and guacamoles from now on.

Baked avocado has a pleasing richness, and is a nice way to dispatch an avocado that isn’t quite what it should be when it should be (underripe better than overripe, which can become a bit bitter in the baking I’m told). Weirdly good with coffee, I suppose due to the creamy fat of the avocado/egg situation contrasting with the acidity of the coffee. Will be perfecting these.