Dollarama Dinner

[gogoblender 3,071]

4 Avacodos for a buck. On top of some ripped up Spinach for 1.49, and a few drops of herb/oil.

 

We have a winner!

 

 

 

 

And an affordable one too.

 

I used to hate avocodos. I think out of all my family, it was only my mom who dared to buy this strange, seemingly-alien vegetable, and bring it to the house. I remember her always halving it, removing the seed, and finally pouring Ceasar Salad dressing into the hollow, after which she'd sit down in front of the TV and happily settle into a luxurious treat.

 

Took me this long to figger out what she was eating actually tasted good.

 

 

gogo

[Dragon Brother 619]

Avacado's are great...Ive never had them in anything as simple as that however...usually theres more stuff when I eat them...looks good tho

[wolfie2kX 528]

Very cool... Tho... Avocados are fruit - not veg. Fruit grows on trees, veg generally grows underground or is the plant itself. People make this mistake mainly because avocados are generally savory, not sweet - like oranges, pears, peaches, etc...

 

If you're getting 'em that cheap - might as well go for some home made guacamole. And that's still dirt cheap. I picked up a couple of jalapenos for like 15 cents USD. Throw in a small, firm tomato, a clove of garlic, maybe some onion, cilantro (aka Coriander leaf) and a small bit of salt and you're good to go. A bit of lemon juice helps keep it the right color. Avocados do turn a rather nasty shade of brown if left exposed to air.

 

Chop the jalapenos into a fine dice. The cilantro leaf should be chopped fine. Crush the garlic and mash the avocado. The tomato should be seeded and chopped into small bits.

 

Combine everything in a bowl and add the lemon (or lime) juice and salt. Add some black pepper (fresh ground, of course) if you like. Cover tightly and let it sit in the fridge for about an hour or so.

 

So what can you do with it besides eating it with corn chips? You can put it on burgers, or as a topping for rice. Or you can serve it with taquitos or anything you really like.

[gogoblender 3,071]

Very cool... Tho... Avocados are fruit - not veg. Fruit grows on trees, veg generally grows underground or is the plant itself. People make this mistake mainly because avocados are generally savory, not sweet - like oranges, pears, peaches, etc...

 

If you're getting 'em that cheap - might as well go for some home made guacamole. And that's still dirt cheap. I picked up a couple of jalapenos for like 15 cents USD. Throw in a small, firm tomato, a clove of garlic, maybe some onion, cilantro (aka Coriander leaf) and a small bit of salt and you're good to go. A bit of lemon juice helps keep it the right color. Avocados do turn a rather nasty shade of brown if left exposed to air.

 

Chop the jalapenos into a fine dice. The cilantro leaf should be chopped fine. Crush the garlic and mash the avocado. The tomato should be seeded and chopped into small bits.

 

Combine everything in a bowl and add the lemon (or lime) juice and salt. Add some black pepper (fresh ground, of course) if you like. Cover tightly and let it sit in the fridge for about an hour or so.

 

So what can you do with it besides eating it with corn chips? You can put it on burgers, or as a topping for rice. Or you can serve it with taquitos or anything you really like.

 

Ah ha...that's how you make it! The chinese grocery store down the street always has bargain store bins... packs of all kinds of vegetable (even fruit!) goodness for no more than a buck. Next time they have the avocodos on sale, I'll pick 'em up and give your recipe a go.

 

 

gogo

[chattius 2,533]

1 avacado= 89 europan cents. So more than 4 times in price. But I get Spelt of only a quarter of your price.

[gogoblender 3,071]

Chattius, how do you eat them there... raw, or in any kind of special preparation?

 

 

gogo

[wolfie2kX 528]

Very cool... Tho... Avocados are fruit - not veg. Fruit grows on trees, veg generally grows underground or is the plant itself. People make this mistake mainly because avocados are generally savory, not sweet - like oranges, pears, peaches, etc...

 

If you're getting 'em that cheap - might as well go for some home made guacamole. And that's still dirt cheap. I picked up a couple of jalapenos for like 15 cents USD. Throw in a small, firm tomato, a clove of garlic, maybe some onion, cilantro (aka Coriander leaf) and a small bit of salt and you're good to go. A bit of lemon juice helps keep it the right color. Avocados do turn a rather nasty shade of brown if left exposed to air.

 

Chop the jalapenos into a fine dice. The cilantro leaf should be chopped fine. Crush the garlic and mash the avocado. The tomato should be seeded and chopped into small bits.

 

Combine everything in a bowl and add the lemon (or lime) juice and salt. Add some black pepper (fresh ground, of course) if you like. Cover tightly and let it sit in the fridge for about an hour or so.

 

So what can you do with it besides eating it with corn chips? You can put it on burgers, or as a topping for rice. Or you can serve it with taquitos or anything you really like.

 

Ah ha...that's how you make it! The chinese grocery store down the street always has bargain store bins... packs of all kinds of vegetable (even fruit!) goodness for no more than a buck. Next time they have the avocodos on sale, I'll pick 'em up and give your recipe a go.

 

 

gogo

 

Yah.. It ain't rocket science... Here's something you might want to bookmark - www.foodnetwork.com - I think there's even a Canadian version at www.foodnetwork.ca - or something similar. If you have an ingredient and you want to figure out what to do with it - just look it up on that web site and more often than not, they'll give you a bunch of recipies for it.

 

Two things about avocados...

 

1.) More often than not, when you find 'em in the store, they tend to be hard as rocks as they're not quite 100% ripe. They need to have give to them when you give them a firm, yet gentle squeeze. If they feel like if you hit someone upside the head with one, their skull would get cracked, they're not ready to eat. You can stick them in a paper bag (very important that it can breathe) with a banana (it gives off ethelyne gas which helps fruit ripen) until they are the right consistency.

 

2.) If you found them in the bargain bin - chances are they are fully ripe as they've been sitting around the store too long. Most markets, btw, have such bins for fruits and veg. They paid for the produce and tossing it out isn't good for business. Best to sell it for a bit of a loss than to lose out entirely.

 

Most markets these days also have means for doing stuff with their meats that are on the verge of expiration. One local chain takes such meats and roasts/BBQs them in small aluminum trays. They sit under the heat lamp most of the day and go for much lower prices than when it was fresh. The sad part about it is that such meats are generally half past well done - And while they're still edible - it's generally overcooked.

 

Ralphs/Kroger in our neck of the woods doesn't bother cooking the soon to be expired meat.. They simply stick a reduced price sticker on them and sell them as is.. I've bought some seriously good and hideously expensive meats (Porterhouse steaks, Filet Mignon, etc..) at 50 to 60% discount.. On rare occasion - even up to 75% off.. The meat is perfectly safe - as long as you eat it that day or freeze it. It just can't be left out in the chill box for very long.

 

@ Chattius -

 

At times, avocados can get expensive here as well. Depends on the time of the year and if they're in season or not.

[chattius 2,533]

Avocado/Sauerkraut Sandwich

 

You do not want to know what barbaric stuff I mainly do with avocados:

 

cutting the avocado flesh in small cubes: 5*5*5 millimetres or so.

 

2 slices of our selfmade spelt/millet bread (see inglenook thread at darkmatters)- perhaps you can buy Pumpernickel as replacement

 

1 slice is smeared with mustard (Löwensenf, very spicy mustard)

1 slice is smeared with horseradish paste

 

the slice with mustard is covered with avocado cubes

the slice with horseradish with Sauerkraut -- did you really exspect I would give a recipe without it

 

The slices are put dry sides down in a pan with a bit olive oil for 4-5 minutes and then formed as a sandwich

 

With 5 kids, 1 au pair girl and 2 parents; doing them in my big pan is fastest for me.

 

 

To estimate how hot it is -from german cuisine, wikipedia:

Mustard ("Senf") is a very common accompaniment to sausages and can vary in strength, the most common version being "Mittelscharf" (lit. middle-hot), which is somewhere between traditional English and French mustards in strength. Düsseldorf and the surrounding area is known for its particularly spicy mustard, which is used both as a table condiment and in local dishes such as Senfrostbraten (roasted steak with mustard). In the southern parts of the country, a sweet variety of mustard is made which is almost exclusively served with the Bavarian speciality Weißwurst. German mustard is usually considerably less acidic than American varieties.

Horseradish is commonly used as a condiment either on its own served as a paste, enriched with cream ("Sahnemeerettich"), or combined with mustard. In some regions of Germany it is used with meats and sausages where mustard would otherwise be used.

 

For the younger kids we use Sahnemeerettich and middle-hot mustard.

 

Edit1: it proved best to have the Sauerkraut part down to prevent the avocado cubes from falling out.

Edit2: @wolfie: yes I normally do seasonal cooking since 90% of our food is from garden or local farmer. Currently we do a lot of Rutabaga. I do not know for other countries, but I found 50 recipes from my grand-grand-mother. During the first world war germany was blockaded and a misharvest in nearly everything was in 1916. But it was an exceptional good year for rutabagas. And the winter 1916/17 is named Kohlrawwewinter (rutabaga winter) in my area. Rutabaga in bread, as coffee and meat replacement, ... So the housewives had to be creative with rutabaga recipes. In towns people started to hate the word Steckrübe or Kohlrabi. For my grandfather who was a small kid it became his favourtite food for life time and so my father grew up with it too.

Edited January 23, 2011 by chattius

[wolfie2kX 528]

Sounds like you'd probably like Phillipe's atomic mustard. For the uninitiated - Phillipe's is a small restaurant in Los Angeles that is purported to be home of the French Dip sandwich.

 

Their mustard is of their own concoction and is best not eaten by itself. It's got a LOT of horseradish in it and is known to be a good decongestant. It will clear your sinus cavities better than most over the counter products. It's good stuff - in moderation.

[chattius 2,533]

I am used to mix mustard, chilli, pepper, horseradish only when preparing food. 'Löwensenf Extra' (Löwe= lion, senf = mustard) is among the most spicy mustard's in europe which gets its spice just from mustard. No chilli, pepper or horseradish added.

 

I lack a bit the words:

Hot is chilli - it directly affect the nerves in the tongue which are used for heat.

Mustard, horseradish is 'detected' in the nose and uses different sensors/nerves. So is 'hot mustard' decribed spicy or hot, if it is just mustard?

 

And then there are different mustard plants: white, brown ,black, ... Black mustard is a cabbage while others are not. Black mustard oil is forbidden in european community for food purposes.

 

There is a trick to heat black mustard seed to crack the 'poisonous' molecules, ....

 

So when I want it strong spicy but no hotness, I use Löwensenf. Mainly if I need my tongue 'unburned' to get the taste of all the herbs in a food.

 

Most people get their first experience with Löwensenf when eating Bockwurst which is normally served with Löwensenf.

[Bondbug 32]

Hmph. Viv sometimes uses them in salads, but usually we cut them in half remove the stone (obviously) fill the centre with peeled prawns/shrimps, Marie Rose sauce, and eat them as a starter. Yummy.

[gogoblender 3,071]

but usually we cut them in half remove the stone (obviously) fill the centre with peeled prawns/shrimps, Marie Rose sauce, and eat them as a starter. Yummy.

 

Excellent idea! I'm going off this lunch to buy a few prawns to dump into my next half. Great seeing you here again Bond, we always miss your cullinary notes.

 

As well, lol with so many avocodos hanging around, we decided to see if could stuck some of them in water. We put some nails through the middle of it to help it stay up in the glass above the water line, and the other we planted in a pot of old soil.

 

Hope they take!

 

 

gogo

[wolfie2kX 528]

Excellent idea! I'm going off this lunch to buy a few prawns to dump into my next half. Great seeing you here again Bond, we always miss your cullinary notes.

 

As well, lol with so many avocodos hanging around, we decided to see if could stuck some of them in water. We put some nails through the middle of it to help it stay up in the glass above the water line, and the other we planted in a pot of old soil.

 

Hope they take!

 

 

gogo

 

I hope you realize that avocado trees get to be pretty huge. Think oak tree huge. They take about 15-20 years before they start bearing fruit too.

[chattius 2,533]

How big are oak trees at your place?

 

 

Doubt that avocados will survive in my weather. Can you use grafting? Attach twigs to more robust trunks of another tree sort? I did this with my mirabelle plums which are grafted on wild plums.

 

10-15 years: Yes that's the problem with trees. If you want a nice tree house you have to plan it for your grand children, not your children. When I read the diaries of my grand grand father: "planted oak tree's, north western part of Salzlecke (would be a place where animals lick salt from stony ground). Will be good ship wood in 150 years." Former generations did their planing for upcoming generations. Now we are used to see companies who do not plan for even 5 years because managers want a high win before dividends are sold out. So outsourcing or selling buildings and renting them back are common.

[wolfie2kX 528]

Egad.. Nowhere near that big... Most oak varieties around this neck of the woods (pardon the pun) are maybe a yard/meter in diameter and can get to 45 - 60 feet tall (approx. 15 - 20 meters)

 

And you're right. Avocado trees generally insist on a nice, warm, tropical/subtropical climate, though there are a few varieties that can survive freezing weather. And yes, Avocado trees are generally grafted with other avocado trees to produce a consistant crop. Don't think you could do a cross species graft by putting an avocado branch/twig on a plum tree..

 

Wikipedia has a bunch of interesting information the plant, the crop and such.

 

A friend of mine from high school had a neighbor who had an avocado tree in his back yard. It was quite huge. Last I looked it was still there.

Edited January 25, 2011 by wolfie2kX

[chattius 2,533]

Cross species grafting isn't working. I do grafting with apples, quinches, Speierling, Mispel , pears,... but they are all rose plants more or less. I read that there are wild variants with smaller fruits but they don't tolerate frost too.

 

So I have to stick to my normal fruits trees.

 

 

The oak on the above picture is so big because in my state people did wood pasture.

 

 

Some trees weren't coppiced by people but rather by cattle eating them. In decades 'tree' grew more and more in diametre but not in height. Then at a certain diametre the animals were not longer able to eat all the coppice. The ones in the mid survived and grew to trees. With further growing the coppices melted in one tree trunk with extreme diametres. It needs 600 year for a tree to become so big. Germany never had a big wooden navy, and the tree being a mix of several grown together coppices, noone wanted this wood. So the main use of these trees was wind/sun shelter for cattle or to hang people. The tree is in my state's first national park Sababurg. But to have tree's of this shape in future: it needs centuries of cattle eating coppices, so just doing a national park is not enough. Old traditional wood pasture cattle farming has to be protected too.

 

The national park is at the Sababurg:

 

Many people in germany believe that this is the place where the sleeping beauty faerytale took place., one of the other faerytale names is the princess in the woods.

[wolfie2kX 528]

Ah.. I see.... So that's how the tree got so huge. That sort of thing would not work with avocado trees. The leaves and bark are quite toxic - especially to most domesticated critters like cats, dogs and birds. And I'm fairly certain cattle would be quite ill from eating it as well.

 

In fact, according to the wiki entry above, the avocado is fairly ancient. Probably going back to the era when giant ground sloths and other megafauna roamed the earth. Nothing alive today can eat the fruit whole and pass the giant pit in the middle.