Adding an avo

Hands up those who are inventive with avocados in the kitchen. Let?s see ? I make guacamole, I do a nice well seasoned sliced avocado and tomato salad with a lime chilli dressing and torn basil. I?ve made avocado soup. And let?s not forget a perfect avocado half with a little oil and lemon juice. Oh, and those retro prawn entrees served in avocado halves. That?s about it, really.



Australian Avocados thinks it?s time we lifted our game and in addition to running their ?Add an avo? campaign they?ve been conducting masterclasses for food service professionals. I was lucky enough to sit in on the Melbourne gathering at Matteo?s restaurant in North Fitzroy this afternoon where the restaurant?s executive chef Brendan McQueen and guest chef Raymond Capaldi showed us just how avocados could feature in a variety of courses on a restaurant menu.



Avocado aficionado Victor Pisapia set the ball rolling by introducing a tasting plate of the Shepard variety. It?s that green one currently in season with the smoothish skin. He told us the Aztec word for avocado was ?ahuacatl? which means ?testicle tree?. Yes, we got the picture when he held two avocados up side by side.



Pisapia said the Shepard is a creamy fruit. It was served plain, then with sugar and then with salt, demonstrating its affinity for pairing with other flavours. We were offered a shooter where it was mingled with parsley and coconut (lovely combo). Finally there was a piece of sautéed avo with chilli, garlic and rocket.



Avocado is a bit like chicken ? a blank canvas that lends itself to splashes of colour and flavour.





It was Capaldi?s turn and he produced a ballsy ?Ahuacatl? in a golden almond broth (10kg of almonds with three litres of water plus salt) and an accompanying oyster and chunks of fig. His intention, he said, was to make the avocado shine. The oyster was there for the salt ? ?I didn?t want to add more salt.? It was an attractive dish that I would make ? but maybe with my lemongrass broth. His original thought had been a fig consomme, but he changed his mind.





McQueen?s first production was a Japanese plate. There was a king prawn and avocado tempura with grated daikon; a steamed avocado ?chawan mushi? custard - a routine custard of ?eggs, milk, bits and pieces? - with yabby tail and sweet dashi sauce; a semi-cured confit Petuna ocean trout disk with avocado and shiso-spiced panko with chives and seaweed. Many of the chefs present picked the trout dish as the stand-out with its contrast of flavours and textures.





Capaldi?s next dish was simply described as pork jowl, avocado, chocolate, orange jus vin. We couldn?t imagine what the result would be, given such a bald description.



He?d wanted to serve the dish on pork sweetbreads ?but it was hard enough to get the jowls, let alone the sweetbreads?. The avocado in this case was dusted in chocolate and the pork was meltingly soft from long cooking.





McQueen produced harissa-spiced lamb cutlet with a definitely cross-cultural ?chimichurri?  of spiced avocado and crushed peas in a wrap of soya bean and shiso batter. They sat on top of a slice of grilled haloumi. Personally I will play with the avocado and pea combination at some stage.





The finale was Capaldi?s avocado, banana, buttermilk and licorice dessert with lime ash, the latter concocted out of lime oil, something seemingly involving chargrilled eggplant given an overnight treatment (the skins I think being the end product) and further alchemy with lactose powder and maltodextrin. (Yes, he lost me there somewhere?) It was a toothsome end to an interesting avo showcasing that will possibly springboard the chefs present into some experiments of their own.



Most feature avocado only spasmodically on their menus, it seems. The occasional veloute or a brunchy avo on toast.



I wasn?t in great need of dinner at night, but I did manage to grill some herby breadcrumbed chicken drumsticks and whip up a regulation guacamole spiked with finger lime caviar and a good chilli hit washed down with a Mad Fish Gold Turtle Chardonnay. And I have some lovely Shepards to play with tomorrow.