Avocadango Walnut Salad

As you know, avocados and mangoes are not native to New England, so this post kind of flies in the face of my whole local theme, but oh well. It’s winter in New England. Fruit must come from somewhere and mangoes and avocados are among my favorites.

I devised this salad a few years ago when I was on a bit of a pine nut kick. I’ve since decided to cool it on the pine nuts until more information comes out about “pine nut-associated cacogeusia” – a disorder that came to light last winter that causes some people to experience a metallic taste in their mouth for up to two weeks after eating some pine nuts. It’s yet undetermined which pine nuts cause the disorder. That’s scary stuff and I’d rather not take any risks. I now make this salad with walnuts and the soft texture works just as well.

Refreshing, sweet mango and creamy avocado offset the greens’ coy bitterness and the walnuts bring texture. In addition being absolutely ambrosial, this salad is so absurdly nutritious, it’s radicchio. Walnuts are rich in omega-3, avocados contain plenty of potassium and vitamins B6 and K, mango is heavy on vitamins A and C, and greens offer a good source of folate.

And yes, I’m taking poetic license with the name.

Avocadango Walnut Salad – serves 2

1 mango
1 avocado
1 T lemon juice
1/3 C walnuts
5 ounces mixed baby salad greens (arugula, spinach, radicchio, etc)
2 T olive oil
2 T balsamic vinegar

Peel the mango and cut into 1 inch cubes.

Halve the avocado, remove pit and scoop either side from its shell. Cut into 1 inch cubes and toss with lemon juice.

Using tongs, in a large serving bowl (or whatever, it’s your kitchen) toss the salad greens with olive oil and balsamic vinegar. Add the avocado, mango and walnuts, being careful to not squish the avocado or allow the walnuts to gather at the bottom.

Ingredient origins: Organic mango – Chile; Organic avocado – Mexico; Organic lemon – Florida; Walnuts – California; Organic salad greens – Maine; Olive oil – Italy; Balsamic vinegar – Italy. I know. The whole local thing was completely thrown out the window for this recipe, but all of my readers in sunny California would be able to pull it off in good locavore fashion!

Tarragon Chicken Salad

Whenever I roast a chicken, we always have lots of meat left over. Reheating is fine, but not ideal because the meat tends to dry out.

This recipe makes good use of the leftover dark and white meat from roasted chicken without the need to reheat. Tarragon’s mellow flavor is a good match for the balsamic vinegar’s sweet tang, and the mayonnaise holds down the fort. Tarragon Chicken Salad makes a great lunch when served on bread with spinach.

Note: I like to finely chop the dark meat and cube the white meat to preserve its texture.

Tarragon Chicken Salad – makes 4 – 6 servings

2 1/2 – 3 C chopped roasted chicken – dark and white meat
2 T chopped fresh tarragon
2 t balsamic vinegar
1/3 C mayonnaise
salt to taste
In a large bowl, mix the mayonnaise with tarragon and balsamic vinegar. Add white and dark chicken meat. Combine thoroughly until the mayonnaise mixture is well incorporated into the chicken.

Serve on the bread of your choice or with a salad.

Panko Fried Hake with Spinach Avocado Salad

Thursday was fish share night and we got a big, headless, gutted hake. There was a lot of meat on this one. My husband once again, kindly filleted it. The fish yielded six large servings. I cut the excess into fillets, oiled them, put them into zip-top bags and stored them in the freezer for later use. I also made a lovely fish stock from the bones, fins and other fish parts and vegetable trimmings we had storing in the freezer.

With the remaining two hake servings, I made lovely panko fried fillets to go with a salad of spinach, avocado and sun-dried tomatoes. It was a luscious little contradiction of a meal. I’m categorizing this under “Regional Cuisine” despite the use of avocado and panko, because fried fish with any type of breading is as ubiquitous as clam chowder on the New England Coastline.

Panko Fried Hake – Serves 2

2 fillets of hake
1 egg
1 T water
1 1/2 C panko crumbs *
1 t salt
oil to cover the bottom of pot, 1 inch deep

Heat oil to 360 degrees in a heavy pot if on stove top. Or, if you’re all fancy-pants and have a fryer, go that route. It’s safer than having a big pot of scalding oil on the stove. I use my trusty cast iron pot because it seems less likely to spontaneously flip off of the stove than a stainless steel stockpot. If you’re using a pot, be sure to use a thermometer and adjust the burner, making sure not to let the temperature get below 300, under which the breading will absorb too much oil.

Beat egg with water in a large bowl.

Mix panko crumbs with salt in a large, deep dish.

Dry the fish pieces with a paper towel. Dip fillet in the egg mixture and allow all excess egg to drip off before dredging in panko crumbs. Here’s my trick with frying breaded things – you want the dry stuff (breading) to soak up the wet stuff (egg, milk or batter) where they meet on the surface of whatever you’re cooking. This helps the breading stick and not peel off as it fries. Press the crumbs into the fish and let it soak in a for about 10 seconds until you feel a little moisture on your hand. Flip it over and do the same. Once it’s breaded, try not to move it around too much. Repeat with the second fillet.

Gently slide the fillets into the hot oil. Keep an eye on the thermometer. Cook on one side for 4 minutes. Using tongs, flip and cook another 4 minutes.

Remove fish from oil and drain on paper towels.

Spinach Avocado Salad - serves 2

2 C baby spinach
1 T olive oil
1 T white wine vinegar
2 T sun-dried tomatoes, diced *
1 avocado, peeled and sliced *

Toss spinach with oil, vinegar and sun-dried tomatoes. Divide in half and plate. Top with avocados.

* A note on ingredient origin: The avocados were obviously not local, but they were organic. So at least it fit some of my criteria. The panko crumbs were purchased in bulk from a local natural food store. Minimally processed (or at least fewer than 5 ingredients), but the label only said that name of the store, and not it’s origin. That bugs me, but what bugs me more is that I didn’t ask. Not a huge deal. The sun-dried tomatoes were also minimally processed and imported from Italy by a local distributor as was the olive oil and the canola oil used for frying supposedly comes from US and Canada. Can’t win ‘em all, but I do try to keep things at least 90% local, organic or minimally processed. Everything else used in this meal (and all posts) are made within 200 miles unless otherwise noted in a gripe section like this one.