Recipe: Avocado Toast

Avocado Toast by Xhico

I've been seeing Avocado Toast popping up as a trend in Los Angeles restaurants lately. I have yet to try one, so I decide to make one today for lunch. Here's how it went:

This toast is basically like a California style bruschetta, using avocado as the base.

For each piece of toast you will need:

- 1 Slice Bread
- 1/2 Avocado (Sliced)
- 2 Tbsp Heirloom Tomato (Diced)
- 1 Tbsp Red Onion (Finely Diced)
- Cilantro (Few leaves or 1/2 tsp chopped)
- Lemon or Lime Juice (Squeeze)
- Olive Oil (Use a really tasty Extra Virgin Olive Oil)
- Sea Salt (to taste)
- Fresh cracked black pepper (to taste)
- Cumin (a pinch)

First toast a thinly sliced piece of bread. I use fresh French bread. I brush it with olive oil and toast it on the skillet. Get your toasts ready and set aside.

Next prepare your other ingredients: Tomato, Onion, Cilantro. Save your avocado for last so it is fresh and doesn't discolor. Dice your tomato to about 1/4" pieces. Give your red onion and fine dice. Pick several leaves off your cilantro. Cut your lemon in half and have your olive oil and seasonings on hand.

Avocados are delicate so take care and treat them with love. First you want to slice your avocado in half. First slide your knife into the avocado running from pole to pole cutting through the stem side. Gently let your knife go into the flesh until it hits the seed. Now slide your knife completely around the avocado keeping the knife touching the seed. After the knife has cut completely around the avocado, remove the knife. Grab the each half of the avocado with your hand and slowly and gently twist in opposite directions. One half of the avocado should then remove from the seed. If you can't get the seed out of the other half, take chef's knife and whack the seed. Be very careful! The knife should stick in the seed, then gently twist. The seed should pop right out.

Now you have two clean avocado halves. To get perfect slices, leave the avocado in the skin. Slice the flesh from tip to tip creating even slices. If the avocado is perfectly ripe, you may be able to slide the skin right off. Otherwise, use a spoon to nudge between the flesh and the skin. Gently remove your slices. The slices can now be fanned out to cover your toast beautifully.

If you're not into all the work, you can scoop the avocado out with a spoon and smear it across your toast.

After putting on the avocado, give it a sprinkle of salt and black pepper. Top with tomato, onion, a few cilantro leaves, a squeeze of lemon and drizzle with good olive oil. Finish with a sprinkle of cumin and a little more salt.

Recipe: Potato Carrot Yellow Curry

Though I love my meat, I can always go for a super tasty vegetarian dish. I made this simple and delicious curry over the weekend and posted it on my Facebook. My friend, Xyla, saw it and requested the recipe. I don't really have a recipe (as usual) but here's how you do it. Remember you can always add more or less of the flavors you like and especially the chili to get the amount of spice you like.

Curry might seem like an exotic dish to many people, but it's super simple. It's a Pan-Asian stew like dish popular in India, Thailand and Japan among other countries. There are many variations of curry and it's hard to put a thumb on what makes a curry. There are curry leaves used for spice as well as many forms of curry pastes and powders in many wonderful colors. This curry I'm making is more of a Thai variation of yellow curry.

You probably have everything you need except for a few ingredients that you can find at your local supermarket or speciality Asian market. You will need a can of coconut milk and yellow curry powder. Other unique spices you can add are turmeric and coriander.

Ingredients:

1 White Onion
3-4 Medium Size Carrots
6 medium size Red Potatoes (any potatoes will work)
3-4 cloves of garlic
1-2 Thai bird chilies (you can use any type of pepper, jalapeño works fine too)
1 can coconut milk (look by Asian food, Thai brand, low fat is cool too)
3 tbsp Yellow Curry Powder
2 tbsp Tomato Paste
1 cup stock (vegetable or chicken)
1 tsp paprika
1 tbsp butter
1 tbsp olive oil
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp fresh cracked black pepper
squeeze of lemon or lime
add more salt to taste

Optional Ingredients, if you want to add some more twists:

1 Tomato cut into wedges
Add some Mushrooms
1 tsp Turmeric
1 tsp ground coriander
1 tsp cumin


Directions:

Over medium heat, add butter and olive oil in med sauce pan until butter in melted. Add onions chopped in large pieces. I usually cut onion in half first, then cut into sixths. Saute onions until translucent. Add garlic and cook for about a minute, until you can smell it. Add carrot, potatoes chopped in large 1 inch pieces. Also add chilies. Saute for about 4-5 minutes. Add stock and stir tomato paste until dissolved. Add coconut milk and bring to a simmer. Stir in curry, salt, pepper, paprika and any other spices. Add squeeze of lime. Reduce heat to low and simmer for about 35-45 minutes until potatoes are tender.

Enjoy alone or serve over rice. Trader Joe's also sells a great naan bread you can find in the frozen food section. You heat for a minute in the oven. It's great to sop up the curry.

Recipe: Mandarin Ginger Roasted Beets

Mandarin Ginger Roasted Beets

I grew up eating beets but they were usually pickled. One day after seeing them at the farmers' market regularly, I decided to buy some and make a beet dish. Here is the recipe for Mandarin Ginger Roasted Beets I created:

MANDARIN GINGER ROASTED BEETS
Recipe by Larimie Garcia for GrowlerEats.com

Ingredients:

3 Medium Beets, Washed, Peeled and Cut into quarters/sixths
½ Red Onion, Chopped into small pieces
1 Mandarin Orange (can substitute any type of orange or tangerine)
1 Tsp Ginger, Fresh is preffered. Chopped very fine.
1 Tsp Butter, Softened
½ Tsp Chile Powder
2 Tbsp. Brown Sugar
1-2 Tbsp. Olive Oil
Salt, to taste
Fresh Cracked Pepper, to taste

Directions:

1. Set Mandarin Orange aside.

2. Wash, peel, chop Beets into quarters/sixths depending on how large your beets are. Dice Onion into small pieces. Chop Fresh Ginger very fine. Mix with remaining ingredients in large bowl.

3. Add zest of 1/2 madarin orange. Now peel orange and squeeze all the juice out of the flesh and add remaining flesh to bowl. Mix in.

4. Put all ingredients in small, shallow roasting pan.

5. Cook at 350 for 40-60 min. Stirring and basting beets in juice every 10-15 minutes.

Served as vegetarian course or side dish with beef, duck or pork.

Recipe: Salsa Fresca for one

Salsa Fresca makes a great topping for tacos, great for dipping chips
and goes good on eggs for breakfast too.

Making fresh salsa is easy. This salsa fresca is more of a pico de gallo. There's no real recipe, just basic ingredients mixed to your liking. I was making taquitos but needed something fresh to compliment the deep fried crunch. I made this salsa in less than 10 minutes.

Salsa Fresca

Servings: This is a good way to make it for one or two people for a meal or appetizer without having a surplus of salsa leftover.

Ingredients:

1 Tomato - Chopped 1/4 - 1/2 inch
1/4 White Onion - Chopped 1/4 - 1/2 inch  (Red Onion can also be used)
1/2 Jalapeño - Finely Diced  (Use more of less depending on how spicy you like it)
2 Tbsp Cilantro - Chopped
1/2 Lime
1 Tsp. Olive Oil
Salt to taste

Mix Tomato, Onion, Jalapeño, Cilantro in bowl. Drizzle with Olive Oil. A a little squeeze of lime (or lemon). Salt to taste. Toss and refrigerate for at least half and hour so flavors can blend.

Enjoy with mexican food or on your eggs at breakfast.

CostCo and the Onion machine

It's on very rare occasion that I would ever go to CostCo. I found myself there today. I arrived starving and we had to immediately hit up the line for hot dogs. I can't believe you can get a giant hot dog and soda for a $1.50.

They have quite the set up for ketchup, mustard and relish. Not to mention the crazy onion dispener machine. You crank a handle on one end and onions come out a hole on the other. Very strange.

See more from this CostCo on Foodspotting.