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Afruit ripe for innovation

Afruit ripe for innovation

No longer just a staple in Mexican restaurants, the avocado has found a starring role on menus throughout the country as chefs look beyond guacamole to find new ways to showcase the fruit’s rich taste and silky texture.

From casual chains to upscale independents, avocados appear in many types of cuisine, including Asian and African, and chefs say they add a lusciousness for which diners pay a premium.

Fried avocados create cool offering

Chefs’ favorite craze of the moment seems to be fried avocados, which have a crisp exterior to counterbalance the fruit’s natural smooth flesh.

At Hector’s on Henderson in Dallas, for example, avocado is stuffed with lobster and then fried. This best-selling appetizer, simply named “The Avocado,” includes two halves and is priced at $13.50. For the filling, chef Blythe Beck mixes cooked lobster with cilantro and diced cheddar and scoops the mixture into a pitted, halved avocado. She coats this stuffed avocado with buttermilk and flour before frying, and she finishes the plate with a lime cream seasoned with chopped cilantro.

In Miami at Azul restaurant, chef Clay Conley serves a signature tuna tasting, $23, garnished with tempura avocado that is lightly fried and flavored with orange-ginger glaze.

“Everything is good fried,” says Jeremy Fox, chef and part-owner of Ubuntu in Napa, Calif.

However, he cautions against overcooking avocado for the optimal flavor and texture.

He applies a standard breading with panko crumbs to half-inch avocado slices, then fries those at 375 degrees, “just to get the outside golden and crispy.”

The crispy fruit tops a cool salad of tomatoes and “fun, obscure” greens, such as amaranth, chrysanthemum and red sorrel.

“It works really well with things that are really sweet and acidic,” he says.

Fox sells the salad for approximately $10.50, depending on what seasonal items he grows and what is available elsewhere.

“In California, we have avocado a good amount of the year,” Fox says.

He says they need little embellishment.

Still, he does often pair the fruit with other ingredients. Fox mixes fork-crushed avocado with small pieces of both pickled and candied watermelon rind, then serves that concoction with blackened watermelon as part of a $125-six-course tasting menu. He blackens the watermelon flesh in a cast-iron pan. To finish Ubuntu’s tasting menu, Fox’s wife, pastry chef Deanie Fox, occasionally whips up sweet avocado mousse with grapefruit granita and blood orange caviar.

Global take

Avocado is showing up in great force on Asian menus. At Highline Thai restaurant in New York, fermented-bean-curd-crusted calamari comes with emulsified ginger and avocado sauce for $5.

Ginger also seasons chilled avocado soup that runs as a special at Hugo’s restaurant in Houston. The $8 soup also has cream, serrano peppers, lime juice and a dollop of house-made crema fresca.

Executive chef Wolfgang Birk of Old Hickory Steakhouse at the Gaylord National Resort in National Harbor, Md., features ahi tuna tartare with avocado and shaved summer black truffle on a tartare tasting plate for $20 at dinner.

Similarly, in New York at the African-inspired Merkato Fifty Five restaurant a “Small Bites” section of the dessert menu includes an avocado milk shake for $3 and avocado-kalamansi citrus sorbet, also $3.

Chains get into the act

Even pizza gets the avocado treatment at San Diego-based Pat & Oscar’s, where the San Diego Pizza is topped with avocado, feta, red onion and pesto at their 19 Southern California restaurants. A 15-inch pie is $17.49.

BJ’s restaurants, based in Huntington Beach, Calif., offers handmade avocado egg rolls with a sweet tamarind sauce at each of the company’s 78 locations. First, avocado chunks are gently mixed with room temperature cream cheese combined with minced chipotle, toasted pine nuts, minced red onions, minced cilantro and lemon juice.

The filling is rolled in spring roll wrappers and chilled for between 30 minutes and 12 hours. They are fried for approximately four minutes or until crisp.

“We want the center to be slightly cool,” says Ray Martin, vice president of culinary development and corporate executive chef for the chain, “because hot avocado takes on an intense, pungent flavor, and it will start to brown very quickly.”

BJ’s egg roll is priced at approximately $9, depending on the location, and is one of the top three best-selling starters.

The Chevys Fresh Mex chain, based in Cypress, Calif., recently rolled out a “Fall Shrimp Fiesta” menu promotion with a Shrimp & Sweet Corn Tamalito appetizer that’s garnished with avocado and a tableside tossed Grilled Shrimp Fajita Salad with diced avocado. The appetizer is priced at $9.99 and the salad is $12.49 at the Lawrenceville, N.J., location.

Timing is everything

But selecting and preparing avocados for consistently high quality at multiple locations is not without its challenges, so corporate chefs have developed their own methods for serving ripe avocados at the peak of flavor.

The most commonly consumed avocado in the United States, the Hass variety, remains hard until picked and softens slightly during shipment, meaning the fruit often arrives at restaurants in an ideal state of ripeness. Still, chains are diligent about making sure they hit the small window of opportunity before the avocados become too mushy.

“We buy just what we need, based on our projected sales,” says Alan Skversky, director of research and development for Chevys Fresh Mex. “We get three deliveries a week.”

If the fruit arrives overripe, the shipment is sent back, he adds.

Steps are also taken to make sure a cut avocado isn’t exposed to air.

“We only use whole avocado and hold them whole on the line” rather than prep the fruit prior to meal service, Skversky says. “When we use just a quarter of an avocado, we place it back together like a puzzle piece. So it doesn’t have a chance to oxidize.”

Chevys tableside-prepared guacamole, avocados “don’t get cut until the order is placed,” Skversky says.

Upgrading the most important meal

B.J.’s also planned to begin a weekend brunch test in Southern California during the last week of August.

In preliminary tests, the most popular brunch dish was the California Scramble, Martin says. Eggs are scrambled with mild green chiles, sautéed red onions and shredded pepper-Jack cheese, then they are placed over fried russet potato cubes. The $8.95 dish is finally topped with crumbled bacon and a fan of cold avocado slices.

“You can always charge more” when you add avocado, Martin says. “It is an upgrade. When I add avocado, it finishes a dish.”

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