Deviled Eggs with Avocado & Paprika
Some people won’t eat them because they’re green. Some people like to eat them because they’re green. Some of us wouldn’t care if they were striped with orange and purple and accented by yellow polka dots — we eat avocadoes because they’re delicious. No other vegetable, fruit, grain, nut, or even dairy source can match an avocado for smooth creaminess. Its perfect blend of sweetness and refreshing green-ness makes it an ideal companion for any dish: on salads, in wraps, chunked into soups, mashed into dips, even blended into puddings and ice creams.
You can also use avocado in place of mayonnaise — not only does it taste better, it’s much better for you. Layer a sandwich with slices of avocado instead of mayo. Make deviled eggs by smashing hard-boiled egg yolks with lemon, avocado, mustard, and perhaps a bit of dill-pickle relish. Make a salad dressing out of mashed avocado thinned with lemon juice and buttermilk. (Just add freshly-snipped herbs and cracked peppercorns for a “ranch” flair.)
The only tricky part about using avocadoes is knowing when they’re ripe…and even that’s not too difficult to figure out. Next time you’re near a display of avocadoes, notice how the skins differ in color — some are medium-green, some are darkish-green, and some are purple-green. Lightly squeeze a few of them. The purplish ones will be very soft (if they almost burst when you pick them up, they’re too ripe) while the medium-green ones will be rock-hard. If you want to use the avocado right away, choose one that’s purplish and soft but without bruised spots that almost give beneath your fingers. If you don’t want to use the avocado for several days or maybe even a week, choose one that’s rock-hard and leave it out on the counter to ripen. In either case, if your avocado seems ready to use and you don’t want to use it that day, just stick in the refrigerator — that will retard its ripening process and keep it ready-to-use for another three or four days. You can also store cut avocadoes for a few days if you wrap the halves securely in plastic wrap. (Store the half with the pit.) Just shave off the browned surface before using.
Another interesting thing about avocadoes: their name stems from ahuacatl, which means “testicle” in Nahuatl, an indigenous Aztec language still spoken in Central Mexico. Perhaps avocadoes should have been the original Forbidden Fruit!
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Tags: avocado, condiment, deviled eggs
