From Dislike to Like; Opening my eyes to Avocado

In the previous post, I wrote a restaurant review on one of my favorite restaurants. These type of reviews will definitely be a staple of this blog as they are fun and relatively easy to write. The thing is, when I'm not traveling, I don't go out to eat that often, I cook. And it's the stories of my cooking adventures, learning new techniques, experimenting with flavors, that I think will really make this into an interesting and fun blog about my "food journey". But, before diving into the first of this type of post, I have to give thanks where thanks is due. This wouldn't be nearly as interesting and fun if it wasn't for my soon-to-be-wife Jennifer, and her willingness to be the primary taste tester for whatever I end up creating. So far it has been mostly good which I suppose meakes it a little easier to tolerate.

Yesterday actually featured a lot of new and different things (as tends to happen when I have all day to cook).  I decided to do fajitas which up until this point usually consisted of sauteing some peppers and onions, adding chicken and a few pre-packaged spices, and serving on a tortilla with cheese and sour cream.  Good, but not super exciting, and definitely ripe for experimentation.  In the end I did something different with nearly every component, except the cheese (who messes with cheese?), but it was using an ingredient that I am not particularly fond of and never cook with that actually ended up being my biggest success.

If Jennifer has one gripe about my cooking (other than sometimes experimenting too much), it's that she doesn't get things that she likes because I don't like them, and therefore don't cook them.  The top 3 on her list; Avocado, Mushroom, Tofu.  So, feeling adventurous, I decided that this was as good a time as any to experiment with Avocado.   And for those of you going "WTF, who doesn't like avocado?", the answer was "This guy".  There has always been something about the texture that never worked for me, and the flavor was just not that appealing.  But, in the spirit of trying new things, I thought I might as well give it a try.

Previously, while watching Food Network, I remember Bobby Flay doing an Avocado Crema (yes, I like and watch other chefs, leave me alone...).  By smoothing it out into more of a sour cream texture, I thought it might be more palatable to me.  So, I took an avocado and added some lime, honey cilantro, a dash of oil and vinegar, and a little bit of water, many of the primary ingredients of a good guacamole, and blended it right up.  I debated adding a bit of sour cream, but thought I could always go back and mix that in later if I wanted to.  After a couple minutes I pulled the lid off for the moment of truth.  I dipped in the spoon, took a bite, and was pleasantly surprised.  I couldn't believe that what I had just tasted.  It was this nice, sweet, almost silky like Yoplait yogurt texture.  I decided to forgo the sour cream and simply serve it as is.  I can definitely see adding some chopped red onion and tomato to the crema and making a creamy, slightly sweet guacamole.  This may not be something for the guacamole purists, but I know it is something I would sit down and eat with a big bag of blue corn chips.

Being able to take something that I was never a huge fan of in avocado, and turning it into something that I enjoy to eat is the essence of what I love about cooking, and also why this made a great first post.  The avocado crema was an absolute success.  The pickled green and red roasted peppers on the other hand still have a little work, but that's a story for another time.

If you are interested in the recipe I used, feel free to send me an e-mail.  It should be noted that the base recipe is not mine, though I did adjust some ingredients (namely honey and cilantro) to my liking.  I'm still at the point of adapting existing recipes, or trying different tangents as opposed to creating from scratch.  All in due time though.