Avocados reign king this weekend

I have loved avocados since before I can remember. I still do today.

While my mother never said so, I’m fairly confident avocados were a part of my toddler diet. I cannot remember a time when we didn’t have them at home and eat them as commonly as one might an apple or orange.

Now, Mother was not a fancy cook, so she didn’t think to make them into a soup, or a salad dressing, or even, I don’t believe, guacamole. We just ate them.

As an adult and cooking professional, I saw them as the beginning of all kinds of good foods. And so have many, many fine cooks.

Today, as the Avocado Festival draws near, we have a selective roundup of interesting, off-beat, delicious and simple recipes from some of my favorite cooks.

From “Perfect Vegetables” (published by America’s Test Kitchen) here is a solid hit: avocado teamed with adobo chiles in sauce for a memorable dip. This one will have folks referring to your culinary repertoire as “never boring.”

Smoky, Spicy Avocado Dip

¾ cup sour cream (regular or light)

¾ cup mayonnaise (regular or light)

1 medium-size ripe avocado

1 tbsp. fresh lime juice

½ cup packed fresh cilantro leaves

1 ½ chipotle chiles in adobo sauce

1 tsp. adobo sauce

2 medium scallions, sliced thin

Salt and fresh ground black pepper

Combine sour cream and mayonnaise in the bowl of a food processor.

Cut avocado in half, remove pit and scoop flesh into food processor bowl. Add lime juice, cilantro, chiles and chile sauce. Process until smooth and creamy and the cilantro is chopped fine, scraping down the sides of the bowl once or twice.

Transfer the mixture to a medium-sized bowl and stir in the scallions. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Cover with plastic wrap and chill until flavors meld, at least 1 hour and up to one day.

Makes 2 ¼ cups of dip.

Avocado, naturally, receives its due in “Melissa’s Great Book of Produce,” created for Melissa’s World of Variety Produce, our country’s largest distributor of fresh fruits and vegetables. Here is an interesting combination that makes a dip… or a salad dressing.

Melissa’s Green Goddess Dip or Salad Dressing

4 tbsp. anchovies, drained

1 tbsp. fresh chopped Italian parsley

¼ cup chopped fresh chives

3 tbsp. tarragon vinegar

1 cup mashed ripe avocado

1 cup sour cream

¼ cup mayonnaise

1 ½ tbsp. fresh lemon juice

Few drops hot pepper sauce

Salt and fresh ground black pepper

Milk, if using for salad dressing

Place all ingredients (except milk) in blender and whirl until smooth. Or, using food processor fitted with metal blade, process anchovies, parsley and chives until finely minced.

Add remaining ingredients (except milk) and pulse until smooth. Taste and adjust seasonings as needed. Place in bowl and cover tightly. Refrigerate and use as a dip.

For salad dressing, stir in enough milk to reach desired consistency.

Makes about 3 ½ cups.

Mr. James Beard was a consummate and experienced host known in all the right culinary circles. His version of guacamole is a classic.

In “James Beard’s Menus for Entertaining,” he wrote, there are “many versions” of guacamole: “some people add a little tomato paste; others, garlic. If you get fresh coriander (cilantro) by all means add a good deal of it to the recipe. Use your imagination and your taste buds.”

James’s Beard Guacamole

3 soft, ripe avocadoes

1 cup thinly cut green onions

2 tbsp. lime juice

¼ tsp. Tabasco sauce

1 tsp. salt*

Peel and pit avocados. Crush avocados and blend with the green onions. Add lime juice, Tabasco and salt. Correct seasonings. Serve as a dip or spread.

*In my opinion, Mr. Beard was a little heavy-handed with salt. You may want to use less as you start and add more if necessary for your personal taste.

From Barbara Kafka’s “Vegetable Love” comes a fanciful avocado dressing that hits square at the “bad rap” avocados take for containing fat.

As she notes, the fat in an avocado is entirely monounsaturated (“good” fat), just like olive oil. In her own creative way, Barbara developed a salad dressing using avocado and buttermilk that, when analysis came through, was only 14 calories per tablespoon.

Barbara Kafka’s Avocado Salad Dressing

1 large Hass avocado

3 tbsp. fresh lemon juice

2 cloves garlic, smashed and peeled

1 tsp. hot red pepper sauce

1 cup buttermilk

1 tsp. kosher salt

1 cup water

Halve, peel and pit avocados. Put in blender with remaining ingredients. Add water.

Cover and blend until smooth. Store tightly covered and refrigerated.

Makes three cups.

It would be unthinkable not to include Alice Waters – whose absolute commitment to simple, fabulous-tasting food is legendary – in a feature about avocados. This recipe comes from her book “The Art of Simple Foods.”

Grapefruit and Avocado Salad

2 medium ruby grapefruit

1 tsp. white wine vinegar

Salt

Black pepper, freshly ground

2 tbsp. extra-virgin olive oil

2 medium Hass avocados

Peel the grapefruit with a sharp knife down to the flesh, removing all the rind and membrane.

Cut the sections, free, slicing carefully along the partitioning membranes. Squeeze the juice from the membranes.

Measure 2 tablespoons of the juice into a small bowl. Stir in the white wine vinegar, salt and black pepper. Then, whisk in the extra-virgin olive oil. Taste and adjust the acid and salt.

Cut the avocados in half and remove the pits. Peel the halves and cut into ¼-inch slices. Sprinkle lightly with salt.

Arrange grapefruit sections and avocado slices alternately on a plate and spoon the vinaigrette over.

Makes 4 servings.

In “Great Recipes from the New York Times,” Raymond A. Sokolov provides readers with “diversity for their palates. It ranges spiritually and geographically from Peking to Woodstock.

Raymond uses avocado in this interesting and unusual soup with a Puerto Rican heritage.

Puerto Rican Potato and Avocado Soup

6 tbsp. butter

3 tbsp. flour

1 onion, grated

2 tsp. salt

½ tsp. pepper

6 cups whole milk

2 cups mashed potatoes (about 4 medium potatoes)

1 tbsp. white rum, optional

1 avocado, peeled and cubed or sliced

Melt butter in a saucepan; add flour and grated onion and cook, stirring until beginning to brown. Season with salt and pepper.

Scald milk in a double boiler (or at low simmer). Add flour paste and mashed potatoes and cook over boiling water (or at low simmer), stirring constantly until mixture become the consistency of cream.

Just before serving, add rum, if using. Spoon into soup plates and float avocado section or cubes on top of each.

Six servings.