Avocados need to be seduced. You can’t just pick one up, cut it open, and have at it. No, that would be too simple. Avocadoes are a complicated fruit that demand perfecting timing, a little coddling, and a few sweet caresses. Undress an avocado too early and they’re less appetizing than styrofoam, too late and they’re nothing but a pit in an oversized avocado hide.
Here’s my quick and dirty guide to avocado courtship
Which kind of avocado?
Over the past few years different cultivars have started showing up in North American stores, from the oversized behemoths to the “slimcado” that promises all the flavour with half the fat, but which avocado’s best?
Hass, Fuerte, and Bacon are the three most common store varieties. Hass has a rich taste and strong flavour, whereas Fuerte and Bacon have subtler, lighter taste. Hass has a robust flavour and a long shelf life, it is best to have around the house for sandwiches and salads, but both Fuerte and Bacon make a meaner avocado milk shake. For the casual ‘cado consumer I recommend picking up the Hass. One great thing about the Hass is that it’s communicative; unripe Hass is a dull green, but when it’s ready to be peeled it darkens to a purplish-black. The Gwen variety is similar in shape and taste to the Hass, but doesn’t change colour when ripe. For a comprehensive avocado glossary visit avocado.org.
this hass is unripe
Patience Is A Virtue
I know you want your avocado ripe and ready at the store, but store ripe often means black and blue. Fruit etiquette is slipping, and most store goers have no problems poking, prodding, and squeezing. If you select a firm ‘cado you’re less likely to end up with a fruit that suffers from a history of store abuse.
Strategy
But now I have a rock hard fruit and the party’s in two days! Don’t fret; there are ways to coax your fruit into ripeness.
- The easiest strategy to induce ripening is to close your avocado in a brown paper bag with a few apples, bananas, or tomatoes, and store in a warm, dry, place for 2-3 days (like on top of the fridge). Why does that work? Well, the aforementioned fruits naturally produce a lot of ethylene gas allowing you to trick your fruit into ripening. Ethylene is a hormone in plants that regulates life functions. Ethylene gas is also synthetically manufactured to help the agriculture industry increase yields by producing speedy crops.
- Even faster? I don’t particularly love this trick because it’s a little sloppy, but some people rave about it. In a small zip lock bag place your avocado and half a banana peel. Close in a drawer for one to two days.
- Faster still? Some people will tell you it’s ok to put your avocados in the microwave on the defrost setting. This is not okay. Make another recipe and wait until the avocados naturally ripen. Microwaving avocados may soften them slight, but they’ll be flavourless.
- Not in a Hurry? Or maybe you just don’t have time, a paper bag, or spare apples? You can leave your avocado out and wait 3-5 days, or just wrapping the an avocado in newspaper, and placing it in a dry, warm place, will help aid in speeding up the ripening process.
Is it ready yet?
You can always do the pressure, or squeeze, test. The skin should be firm, but the flesh underneath should yield to pressure. Another way to get your avocados to confess their ripeness is the stem test—this test also avoids unsightly bruising. If the stem gives when you poke it gently the fruit is ripe.
this hass is ripe
Oups You told me to leave them in a brown paper bag on top of the fridge and now I’ve forgotten them. If you allow your avocadoes to over ripen they will develop dark veins and brown age spots, but they’re still usable. Especially for guacamole purposes.
Leftovers I don’t want to eat the entire avocado, but if I put it in the fridge it’s destined to turn brown and unappetizing. The avocado starts to turn brown due to oxidization. A quick and dirty way to keep your avocado fresh for later is to spread a thin layer of lemon juice, just a squirt, on the exposed flesh and wrap fruit in cling film. Make sure that the cling film is pressed tightly against the exposed flesh, keeping air out and flavour in.
- It’s a kitchen myth that putting the avocado pit with the fruit will help it stay fresher longer. Leaving a pit in a halved avocado will keep it fresher longer because there is less fruit exposed to the air; however, if you take the pit out and put it back in it will have no impact on the fruit’s freshness.
Tags: Avocado, cooking, ethylene, fruit, fruit and vegetable, Hass avocado, Home, Produce, Shopping, tips, unripe
Ordering hot and sour soup is always a bit of a gamble. I’ve had brown hot and sour soup, red hot and sour soup, hot and sour soup with pork or with shrimp, some as viscous as honey. Often too sweet, or too sour, or not hot enough—it seems so rare to find the perfect bowl of hot and sour soup. Spadina Gardens, which is nowhere near Spadina, has been consistently serving perfect bowls of hot and sour soup for the past twenty six years.
Spadina Gardens is a family run restaurant specializing in Szechuan, Hunan, and Peking cuisine. But, don’t come in expecting disposable tablecloths and mystery meat. This hidden gem isn’t a diamond in the rough, but a brilliant diamond without any rough edges (well– sometimes it takes forever to get a bill). For prices comparable to those in Spadina enjoy, perhaps, the city’s best hot and sour soup in an elegant environment. Spadina Gardens is gracefully decorated with dark wood furniture, Chinese lantern inspired lighting, and selective splashes of red.
The menu is large with over 200 different dishes. So far I haven’t tried one I didn’t like. Dishes of note are their fantastic general tso, which comes in both chicken ($10.95) and prawn ($13.95) manifestations. Their bean curd in black bean sauce ($8.95) is sure to fly with any vegetarian and most meat eaters will have to acknowledge that it’s pretty freakin’ delicious. Stepping away from the deep fried, the stir-fried chili squid ($11.50) was well cooked to perfection, in a spicy chili, green onion, and green pepper sauce.
andapinch 