My Avocado Tricks

I love avocados. Guacamole reigns supreme… sliced avocado’s in a maki roll are the best… avocado on a salad (sigh) – heaven. For a long time I would pick up a few Haas Avocados and feel like I was taking a gamble – would they be brown and spotted on the inside when I cut them open or would they be pristine green. Then I learned that if I bought them rock hard and let them ripen up at home they were almost guaranteed to be perfect.

A lot of people avoid avocados because they contain high levels of fat, but that is a mistake. Avocados are high in fat, but it is the “good” kind that helps lower your LDL and raise your HDL levels. I’m not advocating going on an all avocado diet or anything, but if you find yourself avoiding them all together for health reasons, maybe you want to do a little more research and rethink that plan.

I started buying them in mesh bags from Trader Joe’s or from Costco and hanging up the bags on a hook in my kitchen until they were perfectly ripe. The only problem I had was that all four or six would be ripe at the same time and we would have to rush to get them all eaten up before they went downhill.

Then I learned something that has really changed my life: once avocados are ripe you can store them in the fridge where they will keep in their perfectly ripe state for a long long time. This new discovery blew me away. Now, I could have perfectly ripened avocados on hand all the time.

So to reiterate:

#1 – buy your Haas Avocados rock hard

#2 – hang them up in a mesh bag until they are ripe (I determine ripeness by pressing gently around the stem end – if it is soft and yielding the avocado is ripe)

#3 – once they are ripe, put them in the fridge and use them one at a time as needed for up to a week.


Jill’s Orange County Quick Guacamole
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My friend Jill taught me this quick and easy guacamole recipe. She always tasted her guacamole on a corn chip to judge if the seasoning was right – since the chip itself adds some salt I thought this was a sensible notion plus it made for some tasty snacking in the kitchen for the chef.

2 ripe Haas Avocados
your favorite salsa (I like Green Mountain mild, but give me a break I’m from New England)
salt and pepper, to taste
juice of 1/2 a lime if you have it
chopped cilantro (optional)
finely sliced scallion (optional)

1. Peel 1 avocado and mash with a fork in a medium bowl.
2. Peel the 2nd avocado and cut into small cubes and add to mashed avocado.
3. Mix in 1/2 cup of your favorite salsa and lime juice (if using) until well combined.
4. Taste and adjust seasonings.
5. Sprinkle with chopped cilantro and scallions if using.
Serve

Lemony Chickpea-and-Tuna Spread

I ate this delicious spread on slices of fresh sesame ficelle years ago after driving up to my mom's with friends and arriving completely famished. This simple spread is satisfying and slightly different than the usual hommous dip that everyone puts out these days. The recipe had been found and clipped-out of the New York Times food section, but one day the original was lost and never found again. Of course, we could make it from memory or even shell out $5 to buy it from the Archives of the paper on-line, but I was not keen on any of these solutions.

And then one day, while looking for a book on Bed & Breakfasts at my local library I discovered something truly amazing. The library has a vast collection of cookbooks - shelves and shelves of them... and, wonder of wonders, I can check them out and take them home. This may seem quite unspectacular to you, but to me this was a revelation. All these cookbooks that I can read and try-out and not have to purchase... I was delirious with joy.

Since that time, I've been taking out two at a time and reading and cooking out of them. The latest was a collection of 300 rediscovered recipes from Pierre Franey's classic New York Times Column, "60 Minute Gourmet" and lo and behold, while flipping through I found the recipe for this yummy nibbble between the Gazpacho Mousse and the Baked Clams with Garlic Butter.

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Lemony Chickpea-and-Tuna Spread

Ingredients:
1 15 ounce can of chickpeas, drained
1/3 cup sesame paste (tahini), stirred well
1 clove garlic, peeled
2 scallions, chopped
1/4 cup water
1/2 teaspoon toasted sesame oil
1 teaspoon cumin powder
1/4 cup chopped cilantro
1/3 cup canned water-packed tuna, drained
2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
Tabasco to taste
Salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste

1. Combine all ingredients in the bowl of a food processor (or in a blender). Puree to a coarse texture (you don't want it too smooth). Cover and refridgerate until ready to serve.

Yield: 4-6 servings

Homemade Croutons - the easy way

I made a batch of these this morning from a very stale loaf of french bread and they came out so crisp and delicious that they are already almost all gone. I like to put them in my soup or eat my tuna salad on them. My husband likes them in his daily salad. They would also make a good substitue for crackers if you were doing a little wine and cheese thing one evening.

There are all different ways to make croutons that involve sauteeing bread cubes in oil which puts me off entirely - too messy and oily for me. This method is so simple that I've even enlisted my kids to help me. In fact, it was my youngest who discovered that if you "paint" both sides of the bread with oil they turn out even better.

I used to put the grated cheese on them, but I've stopped. It's a whole extra step in the process and they seem to be just as amazingly good without.

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Croutons
adapted from Ina Garten's "Barefoot Contessa"

1 loaf stale baguette
good quality extra virgin olive oil
freshly ground sea salt
freshly ground black pepper
freshly grated pecorino romano or parmigiano-reggiano(optional)

Pre-heat oven to 400 degrees.
Slice bread into 1/4-inch slices. Brush one side with olive oil. Arrange in rimmed cookie sheet in single layer. Salt and pepper generously. Sprinkle with cheese if using. Bake for 10 minutes or until lightly golden brown.
Let cool completely. Store in a heavy ziplock storage bag.

The Best Teriyaki Chicken Wings

I used to make Teriyaki Chicken Wings at home but they never seemed to be as yummy as the ones we'd buy from Whole Foods. For one thing I was using a bottled teriyaki sauce and that just wasn't doing it for us. Another problem was true for my wings and for the more pricey ones at Whole Foods - they ended up floating in a greasy liquid by the time they were done cooking which looked bad and didn't do much for their taste either.

Then one day, we discovered these amazing teriyaki chicken wings at a local produce and prepared foods store called Russo's. These were the best wings we'd ever tasted. First of all, they were completely coated in a very tasty and sticky sauce. The flavors of the sauce were so fresh and clean you could actually taste the fresh ginger which led me to believe they were making an in house teriyaki sauce from scratch for these wings. In my mind these were the best wings, but recently I started to to recoil at the price. Do I really want to splurge once a week on $8.00 a pound teriyaki chicken wings? Couldn't I figure out a way to make these at home just as well? I even considered getting a job there so that I could learn their secret. Hey, they are great wings.

My family will tell you that I've been slaving away for the last week trying to replicate these wings at home - and they have been loving it. This has been a week long teriyaki-chicken-wing-festival at our house with me trying and tweaking and re-trying my recipe and my technique and my family happily testing out each version. What I was looking for here was a simple, not fussy recipe that I could throw together quickly, but that delivered in flavor and texture. I'm pretty sure that the chefs at Russo's - who must be making hundreds of pounds of these wings a week - aren't doing anything complicated or too time consuming and they are getting fabulous wings. Why can't I? First I checked out how much money I'd be saving - for motivational purposes. I can buy Bell & Evans party wings for a mere $2.99 a pound - so it seemed that if I could just get the finished product right I'd be saving some money without sacrificing quality. The big "if" here was getting the recipe right.

The first step was that I had to make a fresh, home-made teriyaki sauce. I wasn't about to let that scare me off. My sauce has five ingredients - I threw all the ingredients in my blender and in 60 seconds it was ready. I marinated the wings in the sauce a minimum of four hours and a max of 24. I have to admit that I didn't notice a huge flavor boost from the marinating, but I did get excited about the fact that the marinated wings didn't stick to the broiler pan - so if you are in a hurry don't marinate just toss the wings with the sauce before you move on to broiling. I opted to broil the wings first which gives them a great burnt-around-the-edges flavor and also rendered a good portion of the fat so that the final product would be a lot less greasy. While the wings were broiling I reduced the marinade by half so that is was thick and syrupy. Then I put the wings in a roasting pan and poured the thickened teriyaki sauce over them, covered them with foil and roasted it all together. I'm pretty sure it is not fussy and I'm absolutely positive that it is delicious. Just ask my family.

The Sauce

1/2 cup soy sauce
1/2 cup dry sherry
1/2 cup light brown sugar
8 garlic cloves, chopped fine or put through a garlic press
2 " fresh ginger root, peeled and coarsely chopped

Measure all of the above ingredients into your blender. Blend on high (I used the puree button) until sauce is a uniform color. Makes about 1 1/4 cups.

The Wings:

Buy 2 lbs party chicken wings. Put them into a resealable plastic bag. Pour freshly made sauce over them. Squeeze out extra air from bag and seal. Let chicken marinate for at least 1 hour and up to 24.

When ready to cook, pre-heat broiler. Carefully remove wings from marinade and arrange in a single layer on broiler pan. Broil between 5 -10 minutes on first side or until golden brown and crispy. Try not to let them get burnt. Flip wings over and broil another 3-5 minutes on second side.

While wings are broiling pour marinade into small saucepan and cook on high until it has reduced by about 1/2 and looks thicker.

When wings are finished broiling turn oven down to 375 degrees and remove wings from the broiler pan and put into roasting pan. Pour thickened sauce over wings and stir to coat thoroughly. Cover roasting pan with aluminium foil (shiny side down) and roast for 30 minutes, basting every 10 minutes with sauce. For the final 5 minutes I remove the foil to crisp everything up a little.

Remove from oven and let cool. Serve warm or room temperature with lots of napkins.

Party Food: Sesame Orange Seared Scallops

This was a little nibble that I was passing around a party I was working at on Saturday night. The majority of the guests were strict vegetarians, which meant that there were a lot of scallops left over after the cocktail hour and I got to munch on more than my share of these little bites. I give you the recipe as a passed appetizer, but unless you have hired a chef for your shindig or you have very nice friends who are helpful in the kitchen you may want to leave the scallops whole and make this as a lovely entree so you are not trapped behind the stove for the first hour of your get together.


Important things to note:

I have you dry the scallops because they will not sear well if they are wet. That is also the reason the glaze goes on after they are cooked. Make sure you get them nice and dry. You can try spreading out a layer of paper towels in a sheet pan and spreading out a single layer of scallops and then putting another layer of paper towels on top just to be sure.

I have you deglaze the pan with dry sherry. If you don't happen to have that on hand you could use an equal amount of white wine or even broth or water in a pinch.

I use my microplane zester-grater to deal with ginger - it is well worth the price and among many other tricks does a great job reducing the fibrous root to a paste in seconds.

I cut the back the oil on this recipe to lighten it up, but you do need a little to keep the scallops from sticking. I've had luck searing in a good quality non-stick pan and also in a well seasoned cast iron pan. If you use a regular pan (in this instance I mean a pan with no non-stick coating) you may need to use a little more oil to keep the scallops from sticking. In either case, it will help prevent sticking if you heat the pan up empty for 1-2 minutes before filming with oil and putting the scallops in.

As far as sesame seeds go, toasted sesame seeds will be tastier and they are very easy to make yourself. You can also buy toasted sesame seeds. There are also black sesame seeds that would look and taste great - usually found at an asian food store. I have a mix of black sesame seeds and seaweed and salt that is used as a seasoning in Japanese cooking that would work well here too. As you can see there are quite a few sesame seed options.

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Orange Sesame Seared Scallop Appetizer

Peanut oil for filming pan
1 1/2 pounds sea scallops, patted dry with paper towels
2 teaspoons ground peppercorn blend, or ground black pepper

For Glaze:
1/4 cup dry sherry
2 garlic cloves, finely chopped (about 2 teaspoons)
1/2 inch fresh ginger, peeled and grated
1/2 cup orange juice
1 tablespoon soy sauce
1/4 teaspoon toated sesame oil
1/2 teaspoon (packed) grated orange peel

For coating:
3 tablespoons sesame seeds
1 tablespoon finely chopped orange zest
1 1/2 teaspoons coarse salt
1/8 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

Combine the ingredients for the coating in a small bowl and set aside.

Pat scallops dry with paper towels. If the scallops are large cut them in half or quarters – bite sized pieces. Heat large skillet over high heat. Brush pan with a film of peanut oil. Working in batches, add scallops to skillet in single layer; sauté until brown on outside and just opaque in center, about 2 minutes per side if the scallops are still whole. Transfer scallops to a bowl, leaving drippings in pan.

Pour sherry into pan and stir, scraping up any drippings that are stuck to the bottom of the pan. Cook until wine is reduced by half then add garlic and remaining oil to skillet; stir 30 seconds. Add orange juice, soy sauce, and orange peel. Boil until sauce thickens to syrup, stirring frequently, about 2 minutes.

Pour glaze over scallops and mix to coat.

When ready to serve, skewer each scallop on a toothpick and dip it in coating so that one side gets covered with sesame seed mixture.

Serve warm as a passed appetizer.