The grocers produce section often feels like the home of the pricey crapshoot. You want to be careful before you drop $3 for an avocado, which may or may not be ripe or may very likely be past its prime.
Each bin in the produce section requires a different skill set for picking the best quality. Thumping, sniffing, pressing, squeezing, and I always imagine the poor produce manager watching from behind a curtain as people inflict damage on their goods before rejecting them and heading for the canned aisle.
But before you spend the money for out-of-season apples or a few precious blueberries, youre smart to make sure you arent buying something youll have to throw away within 24 hours. Still, some things remain mysterious about giving up their ripeness secrets, and youll just have to take a chance or spend a lot of money on failures before you learn the ropes. When unsure ask the person in charge of the produce section for help.
You know what? Avocados will mess you up every time, and those things dont come cheap, often two or three dollars each. Naturally theyre costly but nutritious little devils. Why cant iceberg lettuce be packed with nutrients?
Recently I made a big batch of guacamole, and the avocados I used were just perfect. Not too soft, not too firm, releasing their pit with just enough protest to let me know they were at an ideal stage of ripeness. They held their color, mashed to just the right consistency and were full of flavor. The dip was so perfect and was such a hit with family that I tried again at home a few days later to disastrous results.
The guidelines for choosing an avocado say the fruit should yield to gentle pressure. That leaves a lot of room for error as you might well find something that yields to gentle pressure at the store only to find a rapidly browning mess when cut open at home. If you can press on it and it doesnt feel soft, yet does feel, well, not actually hard, you should be OK.
The second round of avocados turned out to be very under ripe, something not readily discernible until they were cut open. They were too hard to mash and even time in a food processor brought about something akin to ground-up baseballs. The simple solution is to just give them a few days on the counter to ripen, but once theyre cut open, youre committed.
One thing to note when cutting avocado for any use: they oxidize quickly in the open air. To avoid this give them a little squirt of lime or lemon juice as soon as theyre sliced, chopped or mashed.
To separate fruit from seed and peel slice the avocado around the pit lengthwise separate into halves by twisting and stick the blade of your knife into the pit, pulling it out. Score the flesh in a crosshatch pattern with a knife and then scoop it out of each half with a spoon.
Here is my recipe for guacamole. Add things you like or leave out things you dont. This is a good dish for experimentation. ingredients are two ripe avocados (good luck); one clove garlic, smashed fine; one Roma tomato, seeded and diced; 2-3 tablespoons mayonaise; 2 tablespoons sour cream; 1/2 to 1 jalapeño chili, diced, to taste; 1/2 teaspoon ground cumin; 2 tablespoons cilantro, chopped; a dash of hot sauce; salt; mash the avocado and add the remaining ingredients. Mix well. Add lime juice to taste until its just right.
