Avocado Addiction

 Something very strange happened about 3 months ago.

After not having eaten more than a handful of avocados since the late 90's, I suddenly could not get enough.

At our local farmer's market, there was a stall selling Guacamole and salsa.  The man who made them was American and he told me that his wares had the So-Cal twist to them.

So-Cal (Southern California) guac was awesome!!  I was hooked with one mouthful.  

 I was instantly addicted to avocado.

I went home and started googling guac recipes and So-Cal versions of guac.... and after some playing around, I found the perfect recipe.

In the last few months, most days involve having guac for lunch.  I found these awesome blue corn, organic, corn chips and it's a quick, tasty lunch for a mumma with a baby and kids and no time to feed herself when she is busy feeding everyone else.

not pretty, but very tasty

Here is my quick and easy lunch-time guac recipe-

Ingredients:

1 avocado flesh scooped out 

1 small red onion diced finely (or 1/4-1/2 large red onion)

1 clove garlic crushed or chopped fine

1 small tomato diced into small cubes

red chilli to taste (i usually use about a 1/4 of a long red chilli)

juice of 1/2 lime

small handful of coriander chopped roughly

2 pinched of a really good quality, smoked paprika

3 pinches of ground cumin

salt to taste

Mix all the above ingredients together with a fork and eat with corn chips.

If you get interupted and have to leave your lunch, cover the  guac with glad wrap.  Don't just cover the bowl, but push the glad wrap down into the bowl and have it touching the guac and squish it around til there is no air between the guac and the glad wrap. Then refrigerate.

It will last til the next day and not turn brown and gross if you have it covered like this.

pineapple Salsa - just swap pineapple for avocado

 Another new and exciting lunchtime avocado favourite is a creamy avocado style of sauce for pasta.

I first found this recipe in another blog and then tweaked it a bit for my taste.

Apart from the fact it has avocado in it and that it tastes AMAZING!!!!!  the reason I love this recipe is because it's soooo easy that you can make it with one hand!  like for Realz!!!!  I usually have the baby on one hip and can whip this up with the other hand.

If you are doing the Raw food thing or the vegan thing, this is a great recipe to have in your pocket!

ok, here we go!

Creamy avocado sauce

Ingredients:

1 medium ripe avocado, pitted

½ lime

2 garlic cloves

¼ jalapeno or red long chili

¼ cup parsley

1 cup spinach

1 teaspoon salt (I use Murray River pink salt flakes)

2 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil

Put all ingredients into food processor or a jug that you can use the bamix in (or similar blending type contraption) and blend til it makes a lovely green coloured creamy sauce.  That's it!  Soooo easy!!  

You can add the sauce to any type of pasta or noodle and it is super tasty!  My personal fave is either a penne or bucatini 

If you are doing the raw food thing, well..you can add it to all sorts of things.

If you are not doing raw or vegan, you can add Parmesan, either to the ingredients when you blend them or grated on top of the pasta.... or both   :)

bucatini with creamy avocado sauce

VIVA LA AVOCADO!

I'm BAaaaack!

So I've been MIA for a while.  babies and what not keeping me busy.

but it's not like I stop cooking or eating and really... I kinda miss blogging so I'm back.


This morning I got an email from a friend asking me if I've even used juniper pepper before.  I had a google because I wasn't sure if juniper pepper and juniper berries were the same thing.  I think they are... apparently back in the day, juniper was used in place of pepper as Pepper was a very expensive spice form India, and juniper grew all through Europe.

So, yes!  I have used Juniper berries in cooking, but only once.

When I was in high school, my family and I went to dinner at this little restaurant in the Perth suburb of Mosman Park quite often.  I can't recall the name of the place but it was just down the road from Rose Hancock's mansion Prix d'Amour.
I always ordered the same thing.  Quail in a juniper cream sauce with linguini.   It was really delicious.
Even though I was only in my teens, I can still remember the smell of the juniper and the juicy quail.  It was a great dish.

This got me thinking about the dish and I did some googling and I think I found the recipe.
Because I no longer cook with dairy and because word on the street is that you shouldn't give juniper to children under 12 or eat it if you are pregnant or breastfeeding.... that pretty much excludes my whole family. 
But here is the recipe if you would like to give it a go.

Quail With Juniper and Gin    

Serves 4    

 

Instructions 

50g/2oz Plain Flour 

Salt and Black Pepper

1 teasp Thyme Leaves

4 large Quail, split down the back and flattened out

3 tbsp Butter

1 small Onion, grated

16 juniper berries, well crushed

120ml/4fl.oz. Gin

240ml/8fl.oz. Dry White Wine

240ml/8fl.oz. Double Cream

4 tbsp freshly chopped Parsley

Instructions

1. Place the flour and thyme in a bowl, season with salt and pepper and mix well.

2. Roll the quail in the flour mixture to coat on all sides. 

3. You will probably have to use 2 large frying pans so it will be easier to divide all ingredients in half, and cook in 2 batches. 

4. Heat the butter in the pans then add the onions and quail and sauté for 4 minutes on each side over medium-high heat. 

5. Add the juniper berries, gin, and wine, bring to simmering point and continue to simmer for about 10 minutes to reduce the liquid by half.

6. Add the cream and continue to cook for a further 10 minutes or until sauce thickens and the quail are cooked through.

7. Adjust the seasoning, sprinkle with the parsley and serve immediately.

I would serve it over linguini or some kind of flat pasta/noodle.  YUM!