Avocados
The avocado has become wildly popular in the past few years. While it's famously used in guacamole, now it's become widely used in everything from desserts to smoothies.
Definition
- Avocado
- Pronounced a-voh-KAH-doh
- The fruit of the avocado tree which is native to the tropics and subtropics. The skin is not edible. The flesh is creamy with a nutty flavor. Most of the avocados grown in the U.S. are grown in California.
The alligator pear is neither a pear nor an alligator! It's actually a nickname for the avocado, which is pear shaped with a rough alligator-like skin.
Varieties of Avocados
There are two main types of avocados that are typically available in most grocery stores: the Haas and the Fuerte.
The Haas avocado is very dark, almost black when ripe, and has a rough, pebbly-like texture to it. The flesh is very creamy and buttery tasting.
The Fuerte has a smoother green skin that does not darken when ripe. The flesh looks the same as a Haas but it's not as creamy and has a slight sweetness to it. It's also significantly lower in fat.
Other avocados that are less common include the Zutano, Bacon, and Cocktail avocados.
Buying and Storing
When buying avocados, you can't judge their ripeness by color alone. The best way to check ripeness is to gently squeeze the fruit in your hand. If it's ripe (and ready to eat), it will be firm but will yield to gentle palm pressure. Typically you'll find UNripe avocados at the store. You can either let them ripen naturally at room temperature, or place them in a paper bag and let sit for 2-3 days at room temperature. Once ripe they can be refrigerated. If you refrigerate an unripe avocado it will not ripen.
Don't buy an avocado with the stem missing. Air can get in if the stem is removed, causing rot and discoloration.
Do not cut the avocado until you are ready to use it or it will turn brown and look very unappealing. It's best to use it right away but if you need to store it, you can brush any cut, exposed sides with lemon or lime juice. This is why guacamole doesn't typically turn brown, because it has lime juice in it. For many years we were told to keep the pit of the avocado in it to keep it from turning brown, but this really doesn't work so go ahead and toss that out once you slice into the avocado.
To keep mashed avocado from turning brown follow these tips
- Stir in some lemon or lime juice. Simply brushing exposed areas aren't enough.
- Pack it densely so no air pockets exist.
- Cover it with plastic wrap so the wrap is touching the surface. Press down to remove air.
- Cover the container with another piece of plastic wrap or tight fitting lid.
Need to ripen an avocado in a hurry? If you don't have time to let it ripen naturally then simply heat a pitted avocado half in the microwave on HIGH power for 1 minute. The flesh will be soft and mashable.
Peeling, slicing, and dicing
To cut an avocado in half, place it on a cutting board. With a knife, slice into the avocado from top to bottom until you hit the pit. Once you hit the pit, carefully rotate the avocado to slice all the way around. 
Now, grasp each half of the avocado and gently twist. The pit will be left in one half.
They make gadgets that will help you get the avocado flesh out of the skin but you really don't need one (unless you love gadgets, then go for it, we like this one!). You can simply use a spoon to loosen the skin around the edges and then the flesh should come out easily.
To remove the pit from the other half, the best method is with a sharp, heavy knife. Place the avocado pit-side up on a cutting board. Firmly smack the blade of the knife into the pit so it sticks into it. Gently twist the knife to loosen the pit and pull it out. VERY CAREFULLY remove the pit from the knife. If you prefer not to use the knife method you can also use a spoon to remove the pit but it won't come out quite as cleanly.
The avocado flesh can be sliced, cubed, or mashed and used in recipes (or eaten simply sprinkled with a little salt - yum!).
Recipes using avocados
A new twist to bagels and lox. Warm bagels are topped with an avocado spread, rocket or mixed salad greens, cucumber, smoked salmon, and capers.
Made with lemon, cucumber, garlic, shallots, green bell pepper, lettuce, fresh cilantro, red wine vinegar, chicken stock, avocado
Milk and honey transform the wonderful green avocado into a creamy, satisfying smoothie that'll keep you full for hours. Also fantastic with light coconut milk instead of whole milk.
Made with vanilla extract, salt, sugar, all-purpose flour, avocados, medium or whipping cream, tequila or light rum, egg yolks
Eggs mimosa is the French name for deviled eggs. This recipe changes things up a bit by adding mashed avocado to the egg filling.
This version of avocado salsa goes easy on the avocados to reduce the fat content, but has plenty of flavor to make up for it. Serve it with your favorite tortilla chips or with an entree like grilled shrimp or fajitas.
Splashes of tequila and triple sec or Cointreau add an eye-opening pop to some guac, which is already zesty thanks to fresh jalapeno and cilantro.
