Sunday, June 15, 2008

AVOCADO LIME PIE:

This recipe was found at a cool market described in detail here: California Refugees in NZ
"It has but a subtle taste of Avocado to it..."

The recipe was offered by a gal selling Hass Avocados at the Clevedon Market. My food blog is "morphing" I guess. As I start to develop my cooking skills and learn new things about food and restaurants I also would like to share them on this here blog.

This recipe is interesting in that it utilizes quite a bit of avocado yet tastes like lime. Condensed milk is key to the rich creamy texture as is the crushing of avocado pulp.
This pie is best after a thoroughly spicy meal; the smooth, creamy, richness will calm the most inflamed taste bud:)

Nutrition Facts and Information about Avocado:
Avocado is a fat-rich fruit having a fat content of about 23%. It contains dietary fibers. It is rich in minerals such as copper, magnesium, manganese, and contains some amounts of iron, calcium, iodine, selenium, zinc and phosphorus.

Vitamin Content:
Avocado is well known for its high vitamin K and Vitamin A content. It also contains small amounts of Vitamin B, Vitamin C, Vitamin E, Thiamin, Riboflavin, Niacin, Vitamin B6, Biotin, and Folate.

Calorific Content of Avocado:
Fruits are normally not rich in calories and are eaten for their ability to provide vitamins, minerals and digestive fibrous content. However, avocado owing to its high fat content provides good quantity of calories. A 100 gm of edible portion of the fruit provides about 215 calories.

Health Benefits of Avocado:
The nutritional value of avocado makes it good for indigestion, hair care, heart health, skin care, psoriasis, and bad breath.

Okay satisfied? Note that this is a high fat, high cholesterol recipe.
Negative contributors: Sugar, butter, cookies, avocado; and now...the recipe:

RECIPE:
  • 1 cup sieved ripe avocado pulp.
  • 1 can sweetened condensed milk'
  • 1 tsp grated lime zest
  • 1/2 cup fresh lime juice
  • 2 egg yolks
  • pinch salt
  • 1 sheet rolled sweet pastry- cooked or 15 NICE Arnott's cracker crust (blended with butter).
  • Combine condensed milk, lim zest, juice, lightly beaten yolks of salt, blend until mixture thickens.
  • After that - stir in avocado pulp.
Pour filling into cooled baked pie shell, filling as appropriate and set in refrigerator to chill.
The recipe is easy but the crust is one for you to decide.

From the top:
The recipe called for a sweet flaky crust. I decided to create a graham cracker crust using Arnott's 'NICE' crackers. About 15 or so of these were crushed into fine bits. Then I softened about 1/4 cup of butter and mixed it with the crushed cookie mess:
The cookie crumble was molded into a ceramic pie dish and baked at 200 degrees for 10 minutes. Once that was done it was set aside to cool.

I mashed 3 avocados. There were a lot of chunks n' things and although the recipe called for putting it through a sieve. The thick avocado mash would take work to pass through a wire sieve. Well to get facilitate the process a bit, I added some milk to promote a slight liquefication of the avocado mash:
Thereafter, it was easily pushed through a sieve. An immaculately smooth mixture of pure avocado came through the other end. It was rich, smooth...and so freakin' green!
Next came the lime juice, lime zest and condensed milk. Mix only those and blend until thick!

I actually stuck this along with the avocado pulp into the blender with 3 egg yolks. I blended it until thick. It still looked green, smooth & thick. After the consistency was appealing, I poured the mixture into a cooled cookie crust and chilled for 2 hours. Voila:
Looks good, doesn't it? It sure did taste good! The true test was Steve...let's see...

Saturday, June 14, 2008

SOMETHING OF A JE NE SAIS QUOIS in Auckland


Tonight was dinner at the famous Auckland landmark: French Cafe. It has been rated in the top 10 restaurants in Auckland for the past 4 years at least. As in SF, I've tried to make it a point to check out the top restaurants around town. I usually like to dine with folks that enjoy food and are not concerned about the cost. This gets to be difficult in Auckland unless you are part of the elite. So, my tristes to upscale restaraunts are more by way of celebrations of friendship and experiences.

The decor is light and the staff delightful. As an American living in Auckland for two years, it felt really nice to finally do it up as I used to in San Francisco. We dined with our wonderful Kiwi friends. The last time they enjoyed this restaraunt was a good 20 years ago. I had no idea this restaurant was around for that long! Simon Wright is the Chef/Owner of the restaurant. He has trained in Europe´s top Hotels and Michelin Star Restaurants. Simon changes the menu monthly in order to utilise the best ingredients available. Simon Wright believes he is a better chef for moving to New Zealand. With an eye to the top end, he’d worked in some of London’s best kitchens – “and New Zealand forced me to be more creative”, he says. “It would have been so much harder in London. One must look at several types of menus -
1) Tasting menu - 6 courses - $90/person; with optional $60/person wine matching
2) Chef's tasting menu - 11 courses - $120/person with optional $85/person wine matching.
3) A la carte: appetizers ~$18; First course ~$25; and mains- $40.00

All four of us did the tasting menu. It started off with a tiny dish called an
"AMUSE BOUCHE": Creamy pate stuffed in crispy cannelloni laid on a pear salad. Well, that is all I could recall; my mind was overwhelmed at how this dish was so well put together.
Other courses were:
MARINATED TUNA
picked crab, aromatic herb salad, toasted rice, lime leaf dressing
SEARED SCALLOP
crispy pork, cauliflower and almond puree, apple salad
ROASTED FRENCH GOATS CHEESE
caramelised onion, beetroot and fig tart, red wine syrup
SEARED DUCK BREAST
sweet spices, steamed bok choy, kumara mash, jus of oranges
or
CRISPY-SKINNED SNAPPER
pearl barley and sweetcorn risotto, prawns, crushed basil
ELDERFLOWER AND CHAMPAGNE GRANITA
lemon cream, blueberry compote
BAKED CHOCOLATE SABLEE TART
toffee cream, chocolate sauce, roasted hazelnuts,malted milk ice cream

The whole menu was a gustatory delight! Although the whole menu was well presented and the flavors were tingle to the taste buds -the best of the menu items were the Amuse Bouche, Roasted French Goats cheese, Seared duck breast and elderflower dessert.
The Goat cheese was divine - the cheese was home made - lovely soft and not too strong. The pastry was light and buttery and the presentation a work of art. Here is a picture:

Overall dinner was worth it. The variety of flavors and pairings with wine were fantastic.

The price for all 4 with 6 courses each and 4 different types of wine = $600.
Add to this tip. Now here is where it got funky. As an American the tip calculator should have been ready to calculate; however living in Auckland for 2 years and not required to pay a tip for over two years...well let's just say the tip calculator no longer worked. So when I saw the EFTpos asking me for a tip on the teeny weeny screen for the first time- I stood there dumbfounded trying to calculate it out. Instead of $50 I typed in $5.00 for tip. Restaurant fanatics beware that tips are making a comeback in Auckland.