Avocado ginger coconut soup

 This is a recipe based on this month's Fine Cooking magazine. The result was very good, but I used too much lime juice, so it got the "We can serve this to people if you reduce the lime juice" accolade from Madame. The texture is very thick and creamy. It is best served cold - after being in the fridge overnight. 

We had it for dinner one evening, and then I had it for lunch the next day - where I tweaked it to tne down the lime juice. The tweaks will be in the description at the end, not in the main recipe

Ingredients

2 Cans full fat coconut milk (equivalent amount of home made - i.e. 3 1/2 cups #1)

1 stalk of lemon grass, roughly chopped

1 Makrut leaf (Thai Lime) roughly chopped

3" knob of ginger, washed and sliced very finely. No need to peel as it will be discarde

Handful of basil leaves

1 Thai hot pepper

Juice of 4 small limes

4 Avocados - dual use

1 Peach, diced

Salt to taste

Croutons or other crispy things to garnish

Method

Place the coconut milk, lemon grass, makrut leaf, and ginger into a saucepan and bring to a simmer. Simmer for a couple of minutes, and turn the heat off. Add the basil and allow the mixture to cool (ideally at least an hour).

Strain out all of the solids and discard them. Slice the hot pepper and add to the liquid. Peel and deseed the avocados. Mash 3 1/2 of the avocados and add to the coconut liquid, along with the lime juice. Blend until smooth. Add salt to taste at this stage. Chill the soup in the fridge for at least an hour, preferably 2 or ovrnight.

Serve the soup garnished with the remaining avocad, diced and the diced peach and coroutons.

The Promised Tweaks

If, as ours was, your soup is too acidic tasting (i.e. too much lime in our case), then that can be mitigated with some mirin and (surprisingly) balsamic vinegar. Even though balsamic vinegar does add some extra acidity, it also adds sufficient sweetness to counterbalance the lime. Weird, I know. 

GuacaTuna Redux

A while back (in 2009) I created a dish called Guacatuna. The idea was to replace the mayonnaise in tuna salad with mashed avocado. The texture was about the same, but the flavor was better. The mango added a little behind the scenes sweetness.

A couple of weeks I improvised on the idea and combined the avocado with a little mango - keying off this dish . Another success, I am pleased to say.

Ingredients

8oz Fresh Tuna

2 Avocados - flesh scooped out

1 mango - peeled and diced

2 pickling onions - minced (you could use 1/2 red onion, minced if you prefer)

1/2 habanero pepper

1/4 cup olive oil (you may not need all of it. It depends on the avocado)

1 bunch cilantro, chopped finely, Save some small leaves for garnish

a few cherry tomatoes halved

Pomegranate arils for garnish

salt/pepper to taste

coarse salt for crunch

Lettuce for serving, (Butter lettuce leaves or grilled romaine)

Method

Salt and pepper the tuna, then grill it over charcoal until the interior is light pink. Allow it to cool, and then flake into bite sized pieces.

Meanwhile, place the avocado, mango, habanero into the blender and pulse a few times. It will clog up, so thin with a little high quality olive oil. You want it to be smooth and the texture of mayonnaise.

Combine the tomatoes, cilantro, minced onion and tuna with the avocado mixture. Season the mixture to taste.

Serve on a bed of butter lettuce (or as we did with some grilled romaine). Garnish with the pomegranate and cilantro. Sprinkle a little coarse sea salt over the salad and serve immediately.

The wine that evening was the Spier Chenin Bland - which at < $10 per bottle is terrific value for a midweek supper.

Mango and Avocado salad

A dinner party dish. It's all about the prep! It can be varied a bit too, depending on which accents you want. This time we used pomegranates - they are just coming back into season, it seems. Thanks Dana, for the prep.

Ingredients

1 large ripe mango, peeled and cut into 1/3" chunks

1 shallot, finely diced

2 ripe avocados, peeled and cut into the same sized pieces as the mango

Juice of 2 limes (divided use)

1 Pomegranate (arils only)

High quality olive oil (amount varies depending on the ripeness of the fruit, but around 2T)

2 green lettuce leaves per person

1/2 cup roughly chopped roasted pistachios

Coarse sea salt

Freshly ground black pepper

Method

Ahead of time, prepare the mangoes, avocado, pomegranate and onion. Make sure you cover the avocado with the juice of one of the limes.

When ready to serve, combine the fruits and shallot into a bowl and add the juice of 1/2 the second lime. Add 1T of olive oil and taste - checking for consistency.  You may need more, so check carefully.

To plate, lay 2 lettuce leaves on the salad plate, spoon the salad mixture onto the leaves, sprinkle a little more olive oil over the dish, then top with the pistachios and add some coarse sea salt (for crunch). Grate a little pepper on each plate, and serve immediately. 

Duck Salad

Madame and I were too lazy to go to the store - or even anywhere last Sunday. So fridge and freezer diving we went. What did we find?

Some left over frozen (raw) duck breasts, mushrooms, scallions, lettuce, avocados and oranges. Easy - let's make some pan fried duck with an orange/mushroom sauce that will serve as a dressing over the lettuce leaves. Served with a ZD 2001 merlot and we were in heaven. Sadly the 2001 ZD merlot is not easily available. They only made 1470 cases of it. We were lucky to find a bottle or too.

I would have preferred it if the duck breasts had had some fat on them, but beggars cannot be choosers. We made do!

Ingredients

3 T vegetable oil (divided use)

2 duck breasts - skin and fat removed, lightly seasoned with salt on both sides

Segments of 2 oranges

5 scallions, white and green parts only, sliced into 1/4" pieces

4 oz cremini mushrooms, sliced - about 6 slices per mushroom

1 avocado, diced 

a handful of lettuce leaves, torn

salt and pepper to taste

Method

Heat 1 T of oil in a large skillet until very hot. Add the duck breasts and leave undisturbed for about a minute and a half - essentially until they release from the pan. Turn them over and repeat. Set the duck breasts aside.

Add the remaining oil to the hot pan, followed by the scallions and mushrooms. Turn the heat down to medium low and cook for a few minutes - until the mushrooms have wilted. Add the orange segments and any juice, return the duck breasts to warm up.

To serve, make a pile of lettuce n the plate. Pour over the pan juices. Slice the duck breasts thinly, mound on the lettuce and add the mushroom/scallion/orange pieces. Decorate with diced avocado. Grind a little black pepper over the dish.

Voila - about 25 minutes start to finish. It got the "We can serve this to people" accolade. Amazing what can be done with weird looking stuff in fridge and freezer. 

Ceviche adapted from Stephan Pyles

It's getting warm here in TX now, and we now want chilled, light, flavorful dishes. Especially those that go well with summer drinks - spritzers, margaritas and the like. Also we needed to take a dish to Madame's faculty party yesterday evening. In hunting through various recip books, I came across a scallop ceviche in a Stephan Pyles cookbook. We messed with it a bit, since we didn't want to overpower with heat. However, being cinco de mayo yesterday, we did want to make sure it had some tex-mex-ness.
Ingredients (Makes 50 little tostadas)
3/4 lb sea scallops (preferably dry) - cut into 1/4 inch cubes
1/3 cup freshly squeezed lime juice
3T orange freshly squeezed orange juice
4 medium tomatillos - husk removed and finely chopped
2 cloves garlic - minced finely
1/2 cup finely chopped cilantro
1/2 serrano pepper - minced
6 green onions - white and light green finely chopped
2 avocados, peeled and sliced into 1/4" cubes
Cayenne seasoned salt - to taste
50 corn chip shells (we used "scoopers, white corn chips")
Method
Our method was a little unorthodox. We placed the scallops and 1/2 cup of the lime/orange juice juice into a chilled bowl and carried that mixture in the bowl in an insulated bag over an ice pack to the party. It was about a 45 minute drive. That's the perfect time for the scallops to "cook" in the citrus.
The other ingredients (except for the corn chips!) were combined, and the remaining lime added to make sure the avocado would not brown. This mixture was placed in a separate bowl, also inside the insulated bag.
On arrival at the party, drain the liquid from the scallops. Gently mix the scallops into the other ingredients. Spoon the scallop mixture into the chips and serve immediately. Add a little seasoned salt at this stage if desired.
These go extremely well with margaritas, by the way!