Avocados – The Sensuous Fruit

Known by the Aztecs as the fertility fruit, and named ‘ahuacatl’ by their neighbors, the Nahuati, after their decidedly ‘male’ shape, avocados are as sensuous as their reputation. Smooth and creamy, and nowhere nearly as caloric as so many claim, they are full of minerals, essential fatty acids, and healthful antioxidants such as lutein.

Think about using avocado instead of cheese, mayo or butter. A portion of avocado has half the fat and calories of an equivalent portion of mayonnaise or cheddar cheese and ¼ that of butter. They have no cholesterol and their skins are so convenient for holding single portions of salads – what more could you ask?

Avocado and Crab Salad
zest of ½ lemon
1 Tbsp lemon juice
1 Tbsp olive oil
1 rounded Tbsp good real mayonnaise
1 clove garlic, minced through press
1 Tbsp minced chive
1 6-oz can crabmeat, drained
2 ripe avocados

Place zest and juice of lemon in a bowl. Add olive oil, mayonnaise, garlic, chive and crab and mix well. Cut avocados in half lengthwise, and remove the pit. Carefully run a sharp knife through the avocado at ½-inch intervals, in a criss-cross pattern, without cutting the skin. Carefully scoop out the avocado dice and fold into the crab mixture. Salt and pepper to taste. Return the crab salad to the empty avocado skins and sprinkle with chili powder.


Tortilla Soup with Avocados
½ fresh jalapeno pepper, minced
2 cloves garlic, minced
½ tsp cumin seeds
1 quart clear chicken stock
1 whole boneless, skinless chicken breast, halved
1 avocado, pitted, peeled and sliced
corn tortillas
2 green onions, sliced
1 lime, quartered

In a soup pot, sauté the jalapeno, garlic and cumin in a bit of olive oil for about 2 minutes. Add the stock and the chicken and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to a simmer for about 5-8 minutes or until the chicken is cooked through. Remove the pot from the heat and remove the chicken to a plate. Allow chicken to cool enough to shred by hand and return shredded chicken to the soup.

Distribute avocado into four soup bowls. Add a handful of corn tortillas to each bowl and ladle in a generous portion of broth and chicken. Top with green onions. Serve with lime wedges.


Avocado and Dill Omelet
3 eggs
1 Tbsp. milk
¼ tsp. dill
salt and pepper to taste
shaved Parmesan cheese
½ avocado, sliced

Whisk the eggs, milk, dill salt and pepper together. Spray a non-stick skillet with a bit of canola oil and heat almost to smoking. Tip in the eggs and let a layer set as the eggs bubble vigorously. Pull in the cooked layer towards the center with a spatula as you lift and roll the pan to allow runny eggs to fill the empty space. Do this several times until there isn’t enough runny egg left to fill the void. You should be making delicate folds throughout. Pull the pan off the heat – omelets will continue to cook off the heat, so they are like scrambled eggs and should be taken off the heat just undercooked.

Place avocados and shaved Parmesan onto half the omelet and carefully fold the other half over. Carefully slide omelet onto plate.

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I like guacamole, period. I like it creamy and I like it chunky. This creamy version is great not only as a dip, but as a topping for fish or as a spread for sandwiches or panini.

Creamy Guacamole
2 ripe avocados, finely diced
juice of half a lime
1 clove garlic, pressed through a garlic press
¼ tsp chili powder
¼ tsp powdered cumin
dash Cayenne pepper
dash salt
1 Tbsp good real mayonnaise (or sour cream)

Mix all guacamole ingredients together, mixing well to achieve a creamy consistency.


Tilapia with Avocado and Curry Cream
4 Tilapia fillets
1 ripe avocado
1 lemon

Curry Cream:
½ cup yogurt
¼ cup light sour cream
¼ cup real mayonnaise
1 tsp curry powder
½ tsp. cumin powder
½ tsp. chili powder
½ tsp salt
½ tsp. minced cilantro leaves (or parsley)

Mix together the curry cream ingredients and let them meld as you cook the fish.

Meanwhile, heat a large non-stick skillet (ideally a ridged grill pan), sprayed with Canola oil, just until smoking. Turn heat to medium and sauté the fish on one side for about 3-4 minutes. Flip carefully, and salt and pepper to taste. Cook another 3-4 minutes, just until cooked through.

Seed, peel, and thinly slice the avocado. Plate each fillet topped with 2-3 slices avocado and a dollop of curry cream. Serve with lemons.

Grow Fresh Basil

If you can – grow fresh basil in your garden. It's cheap and adds a million bucks to most dishes you add it to, and looks great in your garden.

There are as many ways to use pesto as to make pesto. The classic mixture of fresh basil leaves, garlic, pine nuts, Parmesan cheese and olive oil can be enhanced with many flavors. A thick, aromatic sauce, pesto can be used to flavor pastas, soups and sauces. The first step is to get your hands on some fresh basil – expensive enough at the grocer that I grow a half a dozen plants in my garden wherever there is room, amongst the flowers.

Being able to use fresh basil leaves, just a few at a time, is a great advantage of growing your own – I often just want a few leaves for a sandwich or to garnish a pasta dish, or to add to a salad.


Classic Pesto Sauce
¼ cup pine nuts
3-4 cloves garlic
¼ lb Parmesan or Romano cheese
4 cups basil leaves, lightly packed
dash salt
1 cup olive oil

Toast pine nuts carefully over medium heat, in a non-stick skillet, shaking often, just until aromatic.

In a large food processor, process the cheese until very finely ground. Add the garlic and pine nuts and process just until incorporated.


Add the basil, salt and oil and process just until very well blended to a thick consistency.





Sundried Tomato Pesto
¼ cup pine nuts
3-4 cloves garlic
¼ lb Parmesan or Romano cheese
¼ oil-packed sundried tomatoes, drained
4 cups basil leaves, lightly packed
dash salt
1 cup olive oil

Toast pine nuts carefully over medium heat, in a non-stick skillet, shaking often, just until aromatic. In a large food processor, process the cheese until very finely ground. Add the garlic, pine nuts and tomatoes, and process just until incorporated. Add the basil, salt and oil and process just until very well blended to a thick consistency.

Orange Ginger Pesto
¼ cup pine nuts, slightly toasted
3-4 cloves garlic
¼ lb Romano cheese
zest of 1 navel orange
½-inch fresh ginger, sliced
4 cups basil leaves, lightly packed
fruit of 1 navel orange, peeled and cleaned of any extra pith
dash salt
1 cup olive oil

Toast pine nuts carefully over medium heat, in a non-stick skillet, shaking often, just until aromatic. In a large food processor, process the cheese until very finely ground. Add the garlic, pine nuts, ginger and jest, and process just until incorporated. Add the basil, salt orange flesh, and oil and process just until very well blended to a thick consistency.

Farfalle Primavera with Orange Ginger Pesto
1 lb farfalle pasta
1 red pepper, thin;ly sliced
1 green epper, thinly sliced
¼ cup shredded carrot
4 baby zucchini, quartered lengthwise
4 baby yellow squash, quartered lengthwise
2 Tbsp orange and ginger pesto sauce

Cook farfalle al dente according to package directions. Meanwhile, sauté vegetables in a non-stick skillet until softened and slightly browned. Toss vegetables with drained farfalle pasta and the pesto.

You can certainly use small zucchini and squash, cut into matchsticks, if you don’t have baby squash available.

Creamy Basil Ricotta Sauce
1 clove garlic
2 cups Ricotta cheese
½ cup half-and-half
2 dozen fresh basil leaves
2 Tbsp. fresh chives
Dash red pepper flakes (to taste)

Process garlic in food processor until finely minced. Add remaining ingredients until well blended, stopping to scrape sides once or twice. Great served over pasta!


Pear, Tomato and Basil Salad
2 ripe pears, sliced
2 ripe tomatoes, sliced
¼ lb creamy blue cheese (Danish or Roquefort), thinly sliced
6 fresh basil leaves cut in chiffonade
1 Tbsp balsamic vinegar
2 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil

Arrange the pears, tomatoes, basil and cheese in layers. Sprinkle with vinegar and oil. Salt and pepper to taste.

Bisques, Chowders and Gumbos

Living in New England, I have been lucky enough to try dozens of different chowders – from clam to lobster, fish and corn. I prefer the creamy ‘New England’ chowders to brothy ‘Rhode Island’ or tomato-basted ‘Manhattan’ varieties. Interestingly, some of the best of New England creamy chowders can be found on Block Island, a small island off the Atlantic coast of Rhode Island, where a yearly competition keeps the chowder tradition alive and well.

Varieties are endless – whole books have been written on chowders alone. Like New England chowders, bisques are creamy often seafood based – think lobster bisque. Creamy soups of French origin, bisques often include tomato and sherry, and tend to be more richly colored and flavored than the more subtle New England chowders.

These seafood chowders and bisques are based on a roux foundation – flour cooked in oil or butter – making these soups rich and creamy. Gumbos, a southern cousin of the chowder and bisque are also based on a roux. But in gumbos the roux is cooked far longer, to render it nutty and much darker brown.

New England Style Seafood Chowder
1 onion, finely diced
1 carrot, finely diced
2 stalks celery, finely diced
2 cloves garlic, minced
¼ cup flour
2 Tbsp canola oil
2 Tbsp butter
3 cups milk
1 8-oz bottle clam juice
1 lb fish, such as scrod, cod or halibut
½ lb shrimp, shelled
1 tsp dried dill

Sauté onion, carrot and celery in a bit of canola oil in a pot over medium heat for about 8 minutes, until vegetables soften. Add garlic and continue cooking another minute. Set vegetables aside in a bowl. Add the oil and butter in the same pot and melt the butter. Add the flour and cook about 3-4 minutes with stirring, until the roux bubbles and begins to brown slightly. Add the milk and clam juice and bring nearly to a boil, stirring often as soup thickens. Return vegetables, fish, shrimp and dill to the chowder and cook about another 3-5 minutes, until the seafood is cooked through. Salt and pepper to taste.

Curried Corn and Mushroom Chowder
8 dried Shitake mushrooms
10 oz fresh button mushrooms, sliced
1 Bermuda onion, diced
1½ cups sweet corn, frozen is fine
2 Tbsp butter
2 Tbsp canola oil
¼ cup flour
2 cups milk
2 cups chicken stock
2 tsp. curry powder
1 large Yukon Gold potato, diced into ½-inch pieces

Soak the shitake mushrooms in hot water for about fifteen minutes. Meanwhile in a soup pot, sauté the onion and mushrooms in a bit of olive oil. Put half the corn in a food processor, and purée with ½ cup of the milk. Drain and dice the shitake mushrooms and add to the onions. Sauté another few minutes. Remove mushroom mixture to a bowl.

Melt butter in the pot and whisk in the flour. Fry the flour for a few minutes while whisking almost continuously. Whisk in the milk, and add all the remaining ingredients, including the mushrooms. Bring to a boil. Cover and lower heat to a simmer. Salt and pepper to taste. Cook about fifteen more minutes, until the potatoes are just tender, stirring occasionally.

Seafood Bisque
1 yellow new potato, diced ¼-inch
1 large or 2 small onions
1 clove garlic, minced
2 Tbsp olive oil
2 Tbsp butter
1/4 cup flour
1½ cups milk
1 cup chicken broth
2 8-oz bottles clam juice
1 Tbsp tomato paste
¼ cup Cream Sherry
½ lb salmon, cubed, ½-inch
½ lb pollock, cubed, ½-inch
½ lb small shrimp, peeled
1 Tbsp chives, minced

Lightly boil the potato in salted water only until just undercooked. Drain and set aside. Sauté the onion in the butter and oil until softened, about 5 minutes. Add the flour and cook 2-3 minutes until the flour has been well incorporated and stops bubbling. Add the garlic and continue cooking another minute. Add the milk, broth, clam juice, tomato paste and sherry, and whisk to a boil. Return to a simmer and cooked until thickened. Add the seafood and cooked potatoes and cook for another 3-5 minutes, until seafood is cooked through. Stir in chives.

An alternative to the chicken broth is a cup of water in which the shrimp shells have been simmered for about 20 minutes. This shrimp stock adds a great deal of flavor to any fish soup.

Louisiana Gumbo
½ lb. boneless chicken, cut into ½-inch pieces
2 stalks celery, diced
1 green pepper, diced
1 medium onion, diced
½ lb Andouille sausage, diced
4 cloves garlic, minced
¼ cup flour
¼ cup canola oil
1 can black beans, rinsed and drained
2 tsp Louisiana Essence spice mix
2 cups chicken stock
1 can diced tomatoes
2 tsp. Worcestershire sauce
Dash of Tabasco sauce as desired
½ lb. small peeled shrimp

In a soup pot over medium-high heat, sauté the chicken pieces in a bit of olive oil stirring often, for about 3-5 minutes – just until the chicken is cooked through. Remove to a bowl. Add celery, pepper and onion and cook over medium heat for three minutes, adding a bit more oil if necessary. Add the sausage and continue cooking another 3-5 minutes. Add the garlic and finish cooking another minute. Remove to a bowl, scraping up all the fine bits at the bottom of the pot.

Add the flour and canola oil to the pot and cook over medium heat for about 10-15 minutes, whisking regularly. This roux should become much darker than a roux for a white sauce or a chowder – it should be at least the color of peanut butter, or darker. Stir in the rub spice mixture. Return the vegetables to the roux and add the broth, tomatoes, and Worcestershire sauce. Add the beans. Bring to a boil, reduce to a simmer, and cook, covered for about 20 minutes, stirring often. Add the shrimp. Return to a boil, stirring. Remove from heat and season with Tabasco, salt an pepper to taste. Serve surrounding a mound of white rice in a shallow bowl.

Louisiana Essence
This can be rubbed into fish, chicken or meat before searing in a hot pan. It seasons soups and gumbos as well.

1Tbsp garlic powder
1Tbsp onion powder
1 tsp powdered thyme (or dried if you don’t have powdered)
½ tsp black pepper
½ tsp cayenne pepper
1 tsp salt
2 tsp brown sugar