Abercrombie & Feast

I love going out for breakfast.  There is something simultaneously relaxing and energizing and having your breakfast made for you in a lovely, preferably sun drenched, locale.  However, breakfast out is, for me, often fraught with peril.  You see, I don’t like eggs.

I know!  I wish so much that I could enjoy eggs.  They are a perfect package of food.  I see magazine pictures of poached eggs atop crisp salads or fried eggs leaking out of a bacon sandwich and they look gorgeous.  But I cannot eat them. 

And I have tried!  A few years back, my father and I were driving around Ireland to visit all the “relations”.  At each elderly auntie’s house a large breakfast or lunch would be prepared for us, usually involving a fried egg.  I would try one bite, then cut the rest into tiny ribbons and hide them under my toast.  Even now, at home, I make scrambled eggs for Andy a few times a month.  I try little bites, hoping that this will be the magical moment in which eggs begin to make sense to me.  Never happens. 

So this egg-aversion makes going out for brekkie a real challenge.  I dare you to try to find a yummy menu item that does not involve eggs in some fashion.  It’s hard!  I can usually get toast or yogurt and that’s about it.  Not that there is anything really wrong with toast or yogurt.  I love them both.  But they get old after a while. 

However, we’ve recently found a cafe at Bondi Beach that serves a breakfast I can fully support.  Sourdough toast, topped with a rich, creamy ricotta cheese and slices of fresh tomato.  I order it with a side of avocado because everything in this world is better with a side of avocado.  It’s a gorgeous breakfast, and one that I wanted to recreate at home.  Here are the results:

A slice of toasted ciabatta bread, a layer of ricotta cheese, tomato and avocado and the whole thing is drizzled with some nice extra virgin olive oil, a sprinkling of cracked pepper and coarse salt. 

I can’t really give you a recipe for this, because it’s just a matter of buying good ingredients and stacking them on top of one another.  But I do urge you to try this for brekkie just once.  It’s light but filling, rich but tangy.  A perfect way to start another egg-hating day.

I can’t believe I am doing this.  I am actually about to give you all my top-secret, 100% delicious, world’s best guacamole recipe.  Yes.  It is that good. 

I have been making this recipe in exactly the same way for about 3 years now (with the glaring exception of our first 2 months in Australia when I didn’t know that coriander was the same herb as cilantro, just with a different Aussie name, and thought that it wasn’t available in Sydney… tragic).  I’m sure it’s not very authentic, but it’s so, so good.  This guacamole is my favourite thing to make for afternoon bbq’s, picnic days and any trip to see our friends the Goldbergs. 

The Goldbergs are a charming family who are also from the Atlanta area and have been fabulous friends to us since our move to AU.  We have attended many a horse race, Christmas carol sing-a-long and bbq with them, and they usually request that this guacamole make an appearance.  Last weekend, the Goldbergs hosted one of their semi-regular poker nights, so the guac was in attendance. 

Before I get too far into the guacamole portion of the evening, I’d just like to spend a few minutes quietly telling you about the achievements of one of the poker players on this particular evening.  I WON!  I WON WON WON!  I WAS THE WINNER!  WINNER! CHICKEN DINNER!  I suck at poker and another player had to actually lend me a copy of her cheat sheet, but I was victorious.  A triumph never to be repeated, I’m sure, but I will forever live with the memory of my glory.

Ok.  Just had to get that out of my system. 

So, back to the guacamole.  I started making it like this after a visit to Harry’s market in Atlanta.  I was just about to buy a tub of ready-made guacamole when I decided to read the ingredients list.  It was so simple!  I could literally buy all the ingredients and make it myself more cheaply and more deliciously because I could add ingredients in proportions that seemed tasty to ME.  More chilli!  More garlic! So, on that afternoon, I made guacamole.  And I had to stop myself from eating the whole bowl of it with a spoon.  And the rest is heaven-on-a-corn-chip history. 

The lovely and talented Miss Amanda Goldberg helped me assemble the guacamole for the Goldberg’s poker night last weekend (I didn’t want to make it too far in advance and risk the avocado discolouring) and her adorable friend from London actually took these pictures. 

The girls then proceeded to wow us with their living room gymnastics routine and their multiple costume changes throughout the night.  Thanks girls!!

Greatest Guacamole

3 avocados
2 cloves of garlic
2 red chillis
1 handful of coriander (cilantro)
2 tomatoes
1 purple onion
2 limes
olive oil

It is important to add these ingredients in the order they appear here.  You’re building up the flavour and you want to give the garlic, chillis and coriander some time to infuse with the lovely avocado. 

Start by scooping out the flesh of the avocados into a large bowl.  Mash with a fork to get rid of any huge lumps.

Very finely dice the garlic.  You don’t want any lumps of garlic, so you’ll need to spend a few minutes really chopping this well.  Add the garlic to the avocados and mix.

Finely dice the chillis.  You can use fewer chillis if you’d like.  When I made this for the poker night I used less than 2 chillis, but when I make it at home I use more.  It’s up to you.  Add the chillis to the avocados and mix.

Wash and chop the coriander and add it to the avocados and mix.

Chop the tomatoes and add to the avocados. 

Chop the onions and add to the avocados.

Add a dash (about a tsp) of olive oil and mix well. 

Add the juice of both limes and mix well.  Taste.  Add salt if you’d like (I never do, but if you must, go ahead.) 

Put the guacamole in the fridge for at least 20 mins to let all the flavours mingle and become best mates.  Then enjoy the guac with cold beers, corn chips and some of your best mates!