It was one of those days. The Sunday after a busy Saturday after a busy week. Rain on the way. I almost didn't make it off the couch. But we had Bobby Flay on. (Yes, I read Mr. Pollan's article. He makes some interesting points, but I guess, once again, I'm not like most people. I find cooking shows inspiring enough to actually get up and try what I see.)
I was knitting, not really paying close attention. Then he made an avocado salad that sounded really, really good. Unfortunately, it only caught my attention about half-way through, so I didn't get the whole recipe. He used some kind of crumbled cheese - Mexican, I think. And pine nuts. I LOVE pine nuts. (He also added red onion, my husband informs me. I seem to have blocked it out, because I don't really like raw onion - red, white, or even vidalia. Cooked, carmelized, bring it on! But not raw. It's too strong a taste, to me, plus they make my stomach hurt about half the time.) There was fresh basil and tomatoes. What's not to love? It just so happens that we harvested a whole slew of tomatoes yesterday from Claudia's backyard. Heirloom Black Princes. Oh, so good!
Anyway, later this afternoon we found ourselves at the grocery store.
Guess what we had for dinner?
We wandered the aisles, with a vague idea in mind based on what we'd seen on television, and then adding to it as we found interesting ingredients. It ended up being a great night in the kitchen, with my husband and I each making part of the dinner, which then became a really wonderful whole. My favorite kind of night.
I had decided to do my take on the avocado salad, so I had to make up the recipe, based on what I remembered of what I saw. But once I tasted it, I wanted to write it down as soon as possible, so I wouldn't forget what I did. It was that good. Thank you, Bobby!
Flay-Inspired Avocado Salad
Ingredients
For the salad:
2 ripe avocados, cut into chunks
2 medium heirloom tomatoes
1/4 cup pine nuts, toasted
6 or 7 basil leaves, hand-ripped
crumbled feta cheese (I couldn't find the stuff Bobby used - cojito, I think it was)
sea salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
For the dressing:
2-to-1 extra virgin olive oil to red wine vinegar (if I ever write a cookbook, I'm going to have to start measuring)
1/4 teaspoon or so ground coriander
1/4 teaspoon garlic, minced
1-1/2 teaspoons or so raw honey
sea salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
Directions
- Chop tomatoes and set aside in colander or fine-mesh strainer to drain. This will help keep your salad from getting too watery (you may also want to consider removing the seeds and pulp, but I hated to waste any part of those beauties).
- Gather the rest of the salad ingredients together in a bowl.
- Add all dressing ingredients together and whisk until well combined.
- Add drained tomatoes to salad and toss with dressing.
- Refrigerate for at least 20 minutes before serving (okay, this only happened because my husband started making the shrimp when I finished the salad, but I think it really helped).
- Season with more salt and pepper right before serving.
