Overdue Avocado - Fruit No Waste Food challenge

Using up fruit was this month's No Waste Food Challenge hosted over at Elizabeth's Kitchen for Kate at Turquoise Lemons.  Now it may seem strange but we don't often have fruit that needs using up; I'm more of a 'when I want it I'll go and buy it and eat it there and then' kind of person when it comes to fruit.  A large swathe of the recipes out there for using up fruit seem to focus on bananas as well and as I can't stand the smell of them (it makes me nauseous) they aren't allowed in the house!
However - one fruit I occasionally forget about and then have to use up is avocados.  I love avocados; and I know they're a love it or hate it kind of thing, I think primarily because of the texture for a lot of people.  What I don't like is the whopping price tag stupormarkets seem to put on them, especially when they're often half the price in Aldi or the greengrocers.  As they're massively high in calories too I tend to just have them as an occasional treat.  I will get them when they're reduced on the CFC with the good old yellow sticker on but I find that they're invariably still too hard to eat so have to be stashed for a few days to ripen and soften up.  This is when I sometimes forget about them and end up having to chop some of the more brown portions out meaning any ideas of a pretty fan of slices for presentation has gone out of the window.  (I know, I know - how very 70's eh?!) 

So - a recipe where the avocado makes it's appearance in chunks or mashed would be a good one to utilise.  The obvious one is guacamole which I love but I fancied something different.  A warm cheesy treat on toasted bread... I give you - the avocado melt.  :-)
If you have any 'overdue' avocados to use make sure to chop any brown / black bits out as they will ruin the taste otherwise.  Just use the green bits.  Mash them with some grated cheese to your taste - I use mature cheddar for preference.  Season with some ground black pepper and a little splash of lemon or lime juice if liked.
Toast your bread - I use seeded wholegrain style stuff.  Spread liberally with the avocado and cheese mix and sprinkle a little additional cheese over the top then grill until melty and lovely.  Easy unctuous goodness packed with nutrients that would otherwise have gone in the bin - what could be better?  [Apologies for the lack of photo - having probs getting it off the card.]  If you have a couple of sad mushrooms or a tomato lurking in the fridge to use up then give them a quick slice (and cook in the case of the sh'rooms) and pop them on the toast before covering with the avocado and cheese.  This guy has some other ideas on the same lines.
There's info on the nutritional value and loads of recipes on this site amongst others   Apparently they're not as high in calories as I thought according to that site so if only the price would come down I'd have them more often.  :-)
Another of my fave ways of using up avocados is this lovely avocado and lime ice-cream I made before.  Do give it a try - it's waaay nicer than you might think if you've only had avocados as a savoury item before.

Marmalade Ice-Cream, a No Waste food challenge

There's a No Waste food challenge set up over at Turquoise Lemons new for 2013.  Inspired by the 'love food hate waste' campaign Kate has come up with the spiffing idea of picking a common 'leftover' as the ingredient each month to use up.  This month's theme is preserves.  So I humbly offer - marmalade ice-cream.  I have adapted the original recipe but this came from the Observer Magazine colour supplement sometime in the late 90's; I think most likely to be '95-'97 but that's based on where it appears in my little notebook in comparison to where others are against my memories of what was in there when I went to uni and what got written in later.  If that makes sense.  So with appropriate thanks to the original author* this is my adapted version.  I feel the original recipe which just used orange marmalade and cream could be a little too rich so I use lemon or lime marmalade, or both, plus fresh zest and juice to zing it up.  It will depend what you have in that needs using up though.  This recipe uses nigh on a whole jar.  It's super easy to make and pretty quick; it's also pretty cheap, especially if you get the fruit on Aldi's super 6 or just get the cream only.  Massively unhealthy so enjoy in moderation!
*With thanks to Phil in the comments I am now sure this was originally a recipe of Sophie Grigsons from 'Sophie's Table'.  Originally published in 1990 it seems to have a second edition in '98 so I'm guessing that's when and why her recipe was in the mag I saw it in.

375g marmalade - this time I had lemon to use
2 limes
300ml double cream

Put marmalade in a bowl or - I used the container I will freeze the ice cream in.  This recipe makes one of these standard litre-ish sized containers full.
Zest the limes in then juice them really well into the bowl / container.  I use the 'microwave for 10-20 seconds then roll on the counter top' method before cutting the fruit open to get the most juice from lemons and limes.  Squish the pulp in too - it all means more flavour and less waste! 
Remember that frozen foods dull the taste sense which is why recipes always call for more sugar and more flavour than you'd think in ice-cream.  So don't be worried if you think it's too limey - it needs it.
Beat the cream until stiff - I used my FP here, bit easier on the arm muscles!
Fold it into the marmalade.
Freeze. 

That's it - none of that beating every few hours to keep the crystals small.  Every time I've made this previously I haven't and it's turned out fine, I think because you whip the cream and marmalade first.  It can be a little on the firm side so I'd advocate removal from the freezer 10 mins before serving.**  Yum!

**Edit - it wasn't nearly as solid this time, I think because I used the whisk on the FP where I've done it by hand before so it was undoubtedly better beaten.  As it is now I wouldn't stand it for any time, and 10 mins would make it a bit too melty!

Avocado & Lime Ice-Cream!

Now depending how much you like avocado you'll either be going 'yeargh' and thinking I've taken leave of my senses at the moment, or going 'ooh - interesting concept' or falling somewhere in-between in a mildly puzzled kinda way.  The first time I saw mention of avocado ice-cream on the CSH forum I fell into this final category, despite being a very definite avocado devotee.  I just didn't see it as an ice-cream; or for that matter as a sweet based item of any kind.  I eat my avocado with sour cream and a dash of paprika, or old school with prawns or smoked salmon, or once as a starter in a *pub grilled with goats cheese melted over the top or just plain with a dash of lemon or lime juice and a spoon.  Whichever way most certainly it's a savoury item in my head.  [Totally off topic but does anyone else (and you may have to be fairly specifically of my age group + cultural background here) find that whenever yourself / anyone else says 'in my head' the Cranberries song 'Zombie' pops unbidden into your mind and an overwhelming compunction to sing 'in my head, in my head, in my head, zombie, zombie, zombie' comes over you?  No?  Just me then.  [And yes - I know it's 'in your head' in the song]]  Anyway, to haul this back on track - ice-cream - of the avocado variety.  Having heard about it I found that the more I thought about it the more it a) sounded like a good idea and b) I wanted to try it out myself.  So...having followed back from the original link posted to the David Lebovitz book 'The Perfect Scoop' it came from and having taken a days leave yesterday [it's soooo quiet at work at the moment] I decided to give it a go for myself so here it is - my version tweaked with extra lime and 'English-ified' measurements.  :-)  (The original recipe is USA-centric with cup measurements.)  As an aside if you shop for all your ingredients in Aldi when they have the avocados on special at 29p each as I did, this works out pretty cheap too!

Avocado & Lime Ice-Cream

3 ripe avocados
150g sugar
250ml sour cream
125ml double cream
2 tbsp lime juice
pinch salt

Cut the avocados open and de-stone.
Scoop the flesh out into a blender.
Add all the other ingredients and blend until smooth.  if you have no FP/blender stick them all in a bowl and use a stick blender.
Pour into a freezable plastic container and chuck in the freezer.  (For reference this made just under 800ml for me - will vary depending on the size of your avocados though.)  It's a beautiful light shade of green here.

At this point you will taste it and probably think it's way too sweet but fret not!  Frozen foods impact on your taste buds far less so when making ice-cream / sorbet you need to take this into account and add more flavour and more sugar than you would otherwise.  [Incidentally I presume this is why revoltingly awful lagers like Fosters sell themselves in extra-chilled versions now - so no-one can taste how dire they really are.  That's just my opinion though...]
Over the next few hours I took my ice-cream out of the freezer a couple of times and stirred it round with a fork to 'break up the crystals' as approved ice-cream making methodology seems to suggest but after that I went to bed so it was left to it's own devices.  TBH I'm not sure if that stirring stuff is only for 'proper' ice-cream recipes with egg and stuff in?  I've only made one other ice-cream recipe before and it's even simpler than this one.  :-)
With eager anticipation then I pulled the container from the freezer this morning to test the finished product.  Firstly - it freezes pretty solid - I think like Haagen Dazs recommend it's one that needs to be pulled out 10 mins before serving to soften up slightly.
Secondly - it's absolutely nom-alicious!!  I really really rate this.  From being fairly sceptical at the original idea to thinking the avocado was going to be drowned out by the sweetness (or possible even my addition of extra lime) when I was making it I am now totally converted.  It's lovely stuff.  Very rich as you'd expect with so much cream in it so you only need a little but then tbh avocado and lime is more of a grown up flavour for serving a small portion in a pretty bowl than it is a kids style dessert.  I can picture this in chic simple white tubular dishes on a gorgeous wooden platter at a gastro type pub or similar.

I also think it could safely be left a little bit less smooth when blending as the odd tiny bit of avocado flesh would work here.  If you like avocado that is.  I think avocado is one of those things you either really do get on with or you really don't. I think I read first in Adrian Mole many years ago that it's considered by some people to have a consistency a little akin to that of soap.  I don't agree but I do see where people may be coming from with that observation.  It's certainly an individual in the fruit world!
*The pub in question was The Coventry Arms in Dorset, lovely 15th C riverside place complete with mummified cat in a glass case on the wall.  It was found bricked into the walls during refurb' work some years ago and is believed to have been shut in for good luck when the building originally went up.  Not good luck for the cat evidently!  This pub has been a perennial favourite of my family and seems to have remained in good hands judging from the internet reviews.  Give it a try  if you're in the area - they were always good for seafood in particular.