Avocado Week

Before my domestic helper went back on her home leave, I told her that if she can, bring back some mangoes and avocados from her hometown. By the way, she is from Siquor in Philippines. I understood from her that her hometown has a lot of black magics. *scary* Anyway, I was elated when she opened her luggage and took out a bag full of green avocados! She told me it was avocado season, and that in their hometown, avocado is only harvest once a year! Aren't I lucky? *grin*

"Avocados provide nearly 20 essential nutrients, including fiber, potassium, Vitamin E, B-vitamins and folic acid. They also act as a "nutrient booster" by enabling the body to absorb more fat-soluble nutrients, such as alpha and beta-carotene and lutein, in foods that are eaten with the fruit."-defined from Avocado Org.

More nutrition information about avocados can be found here. Even though avocados contain fats, they are good monosaturated fats. Actually in mandarin, avocados are known as 牛油果, which literally means "butter fruit"! The avocados that are sold in our supermarkets usually come from Australia, NZ, and lately Mexico (as far as I know!)


Some tips about choosing avocados from my experience and what I read. Unripe avocados are usually green and when lightly pressed, it's stone hard. Keep it in room temperature for a few days and it will slowly turned dark brown and soft. That's when it has ripen and really to consume. However, some avocados do not turn dark brown when it's ripen, it just turn soft. So you need to check on it constantly, don't wait eternally for it to turn brown! If you don't want your avocado to ripen so fast, keep it in the fridge. It lasts longer and takes a longer time to ripe. Even when it ripens, it can still be kept in the fridge for a longer period of time compared to being in room temperature.


To learn how to cut and store avocados, refer to this site. It's very simple. Now, back to the bag of more than 15 avocados that I have, I was hunting high and low for recipes to make use of it. As far as I've tried, I usually blend avocado with milk and ice. Sometimes I add honey, other times I add gula melaka or chocolate syrup! Whichever I add, it just tastes good! Having an over supply of avocados, I decided to bake with it. After a chat with Eelin, I decided to make Avocado and Chocolate cupcake (vegan). The recipe was adapted from Not Quite Nigella. I halved the recipe and made it into cupcakes instead.

The verdict? I don't quite like it. It's not the usual cupcakes that I tasted. I think cakes without butter and eggs do taste a bit weird...something like "kueh" taste. Luckily there was avocado frosting that covered the cupcake texture.

Being not satisfied with the avocado cupcakes, I decided to try the Avocado Creamcheese Cookies, originated from Angie, and then Anncoo. I used Anncoo's recipe and halved it. The final batter was quite thick, a lot of strength was required to pipe out the cookies. The verdict? I thoroughly don't like it! The cookies just tasted...bland and floury! It's not the usual cookies that one will like!

Through my two attempts of baking avocados, I concluded that this fruit is not meant to be baked! It is meant to eat fresh as it is, regardless of blending or mashing it (to become Guacamole Dip), but not to bake them! Perhaps cheesecake might be different. This is one recipe I've not tried (and maybe I should). When mixing avocados to the batter, you can smell the fragrance. However, once the food is baked, all traces or taste of avocado completely disappears! I shall stick to the convention way of enjoying avocados - shakes and salads!