Avocado – from garden to plate 2

Avocado babies.

Avocados. Who doesn’t love them? Served savoury or sweet this unassuming fruit is adored worldwide. Even though avocados are from Central America they feel like home to me. Growing up on an avocado farm means comfort food for me is avocado on toast, and I don’t mean the thin swipe you get in a Sydney cafe, I’m talking 2cms of roughly mashed avocado, oh yeah.

More avocado babies.

Avocados mature on the tree but don’t start to ripen until they have been picked, and dependent upon conditions will ripen in about 10 days. Dad grows green skinned fuerte whose fruit are ready for picking around Anzac day, and the small dark skinned hass that come on a little later and last through to November. It gets too hot up here for them to stay on the tree very much longer.

Avocado ready to be picked.

Speaking of heat, do you ever see avo’s with funny skin discolouration? Maybe dark red patches, or strange brown areas on an otherwise unblemished fruit? Well, this is sunburn. Avocado trees have plentiful large leaves which shield the growing fruit from the sun and without which leave fruit damaged from too much UV exposure. This may cause the fruit to stick to the skin a little, but doesn’t result in too much visible damage. The real issue with sunburnt fruit is that they are mostly grown on trees that aren’t healthy enough to grow sufficient leaves, causing the fruit to likely be deficient nutritionally and also taste-wise. So if you see an avo with funny coloured skin in the fruit shop, pass over it.

Although I am starting to see the beauty in eating avocado sweet (I wasn’t against it, just had never tried until recently), seasoning it with salt, pepper and lemon juice still holds the highest place in my heart. Though sometimes I do fancy it up a little, adding finely diced spring onion and capsicum with a squeeze of lime (and a corona!), or middle easterning it up in a very unorthodox fashion. My Lebanese friend Fouad on avocado recently “Some people like it sweet, and others just like it revolting” – blended and sweetened with honey is the way these creamy fruits are eaten in Lebanon.

Anyway, for my mishmash of avocado here I fried a diced clove of garlic in some olive oil, and then stirred through some toasted and roughly pounded cumin seeds and a pinch of cayenne pepper. Peel an avocado taking care to remove any hard pieces that may sit just underneath the skin which are caused by fruit spotting bug (these little critters inject something into the fruit to make it flow more freely. When they’ve had their fill this substance calcifies just under the skin). Mash avo roughly and season with a little salt, lemon juice and a tablespoon or so of finely sliced coriander stems and some of the leaves. Mix the garlic and spice mixture into the avocado and leave for a few minutes for the flavours to develop and mingle. Serve with ripe tomato, toast or crackers.