Hot Stuffed Avocado

It has to be said that the avocado is one of my favourite vegetables (sorry fruit), so much so that whenever asked to supply a username for a website, I invariably type in RicardoAvocado. However, I had never cooked one having always assumed that it would turn instantly to an oily green liquid as appetising as canal water.

Poor Louie examines an avocado before losing a leg and drifting off into space.

It’s not always easy to get hold of a ripe avocado in this country as supermarkets prefer to stock prematurely picked fruit which, once taken home, can take up to 3 years to ripen (the alternative being to buy their even more hilariously priced ‘ready to eat’ produce). As with all things, try to avoid supermarkets and shop locally. I get mine from an excellent stall at the end of Leather Lane market – they sell bowls of 4-6 ripe avocados for a quid. Anyway, this recipe comes from ‘The Vegetable Book’, published by Conran Octopus.

Preparation time: 15 minutes
Cooking time: 25 minutes
Skill level: Easy

Ingredients

• potatoes – 225g
• 2 ripe avocados
• 1 tin of anchovies
• sour cream – 150ml
• 1 green chilli
• 2 garlic cloves
• Parmesan – 55g – grated
• olive oil
• salt & pepper

Boil the potatoes and when cooked dice and set aside. Finely chop the garlic and chilli and lightly fry in oil for a minute or so. Then add the anchovies (including oil) and diced potatoes and cook gently for a few minutes until the potatoes have taken on a little colour. Add the soured cream, season (go easy with the salt as the anchovies are very salty) and remove from the heat.

Halve and de-stone the avocados and place cut side up in a baking dish. Spoon the potato mixture over the avocados, filling the cavities and covering all the cut surface. Sprinkle with the grated parmesan and place in a pre-heated oven (190ºC, gas mark 5.) for 4 minutes.

Serve immediately with a green salad.

Verdict: Cooked avocados are delicious. The subtlety of the avocado went very well with the rich creamy potato filling. This dish would be too substantial for a starter.

Drink: Overdid it last night somewhat, so home squeezed apple juice and fizzy water.

Entertainment: ‘Silent Running’ on DVD. An excellent film as long as you remember to hit the mute button whenever Joan Baez cranks it up. Huey, Dewey and Louie (RIP) have to be the best robots in cinema history and proof that little men in plastic suits and a bit of imagination can kick the ass of cold clinical pixel-perfect CGI.

Not sure Bruce Dern would approve of cooking avocados though.