Savory Avocado Cream Puffs

Behold the next level of party snacks! The Savory Avocado Cream Puff stuffed with avocado cream cheese and topped with smoked peanuts and radish sprouts! These creamy puffs of perfection are what party snacks should be. They're filling, but still surprisingly light. Even your vegetarian friends will like them, because unlike most of my dishes these contain no meat! I know! I'm as surprised as you are. Even though I made these look fancy, I recommend taking a page out of The Oatmeal's book and drench these things in Sriracha.

I don't have much to say about these puffs, besides the fact that you need to make them for the next party you attend or throw. I'm just going to let these photos that Katy Weaver took do most of the speaking. 

Savory Avocado Cream Puffs

I've decided not to include a traditional recipe on this post. This dish is basically built out of three parts, the choux paste, avocado cream cheese, and the peanuts.

Choux Paste (The Puffs)

Honestly The Joy of Cooking has an amazing recipe that I used to make the puffs. If you don't have a copy of The Joy of Cooking then get off the internet and stop reading "12 easy crockpot recipes" on Pinterest and get yourself a real cookbook.  You'll thank yourself. 

Whipped Avocado Cream Cheese

In a large mixing bowl whip together a diced avocado, a thing of cream cheese, 1 tablespoon of lime juice, and 1 tablespoon of whole milk until it becomes fluffy. Be sure the avocado becomes fully incorporated. Thats it. Simple.

Smoked Peanuts

I used my charcoal grill and some mesquite wood chips to smoke my peanuts. Then I used a coffee grinder to make a peanut dust, I also stirred in some paprika and cayenne pepper to give it some heat. After these three steps I just assembled the puffs and impressed my friends. 

Breakfast Sushi

I'm pretty sure this post dishonors an entire country's culinary culture, but you know what? This breakfast sushi was delicious, so try making it yourself before you start leaving angry comments about how culturally insensitive this is (I'm looking at you tumblr). If reappropriating cultures and making them your own isn't why America fought in the Spanish-American War then I don't know what's what anymore. 

This nigiri style breakfast sushi was inspired by the fact that it seemed like a good idea. And like most initial ideas, it works. Even though it looks complicated, the simplistic approach is what makes it successful. Over-thinking ruins most things like dishes, relationships, and jokes about over thinking because you can't think of some third item to list.

Sushi Rice

To be honest I used Alton Brown's recipe for sushi rice. It's a good one, which can be found here.

Avocado Hollandaise Sauce

Once again I'm going to send you elsewhere to find this recipe, but it's my own recipe so I don't feel bad about doing it. Anyway the recipe can be found here.

Maple Soy Sauce

• 1/3 part Soy Sauce
• 2/3 part Maple Syrup
• Dash of Fish Sauce

1. In a bowl whisk everything together. The reason I'm using ratios is so you can create as much or as little as you need.

Breakfast Sushi

1. After your rice has cooled rinse your hands with cold water and form the rice balls with your hands. Squeeze to ensure the rice stays together. Make small egg-like shapes and plate.
2. Place a dollop of the avocado hollandaise sauce on the rice to ensure the breakfast meats stay in place. 
3. As for meats I used thick cut jowl bacon, breakfast sausage, and eggs. You can choose whatever you think would be best on them (I'm looking at you vegetarians and your ridiculous and futile attempt to create fake meat).
4. After placing the meats on the ball of rice, drizzle the sauces over the top and sprinkle some sesame seeds on them as well.

Breakfast food is the best food, and the joy of food is that you can be fun with it, so get out there and make a breakfast version of your favorite food! As always these mind-blowing photos are by Katy Weaver. Join us next week when we reheat some Eggos.

Artichokes in Avocado Hollandaise Sauce

People always say that food carries an emotional and personal connection to to it. I tend to avoid talking about those kind of things on this blog, because I try to mainly focus on the food. Now this recipe doesn't have any personal or emotional for me, I mean it's just artichokes and sauce, but I feel like I've created a connection with this dish. Let's be honest you're not reading this post for the personal story behind it, you probably just found this recipe on Google or someone repined it on Pinterest and you just want to look at the pictures, or you'll just scroll down to the recipe without reading this text block.

Since this recipe is pretty short I'm going to continue with my narrative. Sometimes people fall out of your life and they don't come back, the universe can be cruel like that, and there's nothing you could have done to change the outcome. Other times those people come back into your life and it's all the time spent apart from each other that make you realize how important they were to you and how important they still are to you. This simple little dish of artichokes and hollandaise sauce will always remind me of that feeling of someone great reentering your life, even if it's in some small way.

Artichokes in Avocado Hollandaise Sauce

• 4 artichokes
• 6 cups water
• 1.5 tablespoons of minced garlic
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• Pinch of salt
• Avocado Hollandaise Sauce from this post.
• Hot sauce of your choice

1. Heat the water in a large pan on high until it boils, then add the garlic, olive oil, and the salt.
2. Cut the stems off the artichokes to a reasonable size. Also cut the tops off the artichokes. Feel free to cut the tips of the pedals off, but it's not required.
3. Place the artichokes in the boiling water, cover the pot and let them cook for about 35 or until the stems are soft.
4. Serve with the hollandaise sauce. I added a drop of hot sauce to my dish to give it some color and some extra kick.

This makes for a perfect side dish or as an appetizer. I suggest getting creative with the platting. Enjoy!

All these artsy artichoke photos by: Katy Weaver Photography

Breakfast Chorizo Tacos

For too long breakfast burritos have hogged the spotlight in Mexican inspired breakfast food, but I say it's time to move on to something better than bland beans, cheese, and eggs stuffed in an old tortilla. The breakfast taco should get more attention, its size doesn't leave you bloated, like a burrito, but it's still enough to give you energy to start your day.

Also, good news this blog once again features high quality food photographs!

Breakfast Chorizo Tacos

• 10 oz. Chorizo
• 6 eggs
• 12 corn tortillas
• 2 cups cooked rice
• 3 oz. goat cheese
• 1 cup spinach

1. Start by cooking the rice, because it's going to take the longest.
2. Scramble the eggs and set aside. I put mine in the microwave to keep them warm.
3. Heat the tortillas in a pan sprayed with a little Pam. The oil will help them brown a little. Heat each side for about a minute. While those heat up start cooking the chorizo over medium heat. Stirring occasionally.
4. Once the chorizo is done cooking, place the rice, chorizo, eggs, and spinach in a line on a tortilla. Crumble goat cheese on top and drizzle the hollandaise sause over the top.

Avocado Lime Hollandaise Sauce

• 4 egg yolks
• 1 tablespoon water
• 1 tablespoon lime juice
• 3 oz. butter
• 4-6 oz. purred avocado
• dash of cayenne pepper
• a pinch of lime zest
• salt and pepper to taste

1. Place a mixing bowl over a sauce pan with water in the pan over medium heat.
2. Mix the yolks, water, and lime juice into the bowl. Whisk until thick and pale.
3. Heat the mixture over the pan until they become frothy, be sure not to over cook the yolks by removing the bowl from the heat occasionally. 
4. When the bottom of the bowl becomes visible between strokes of the whisk add the butter and the avocado. Whisk until the butter and avocado be become smooth. Over whisking is encouraged.
5. Whisk in the zest, cayenne pepper, salt and pepper.

The spiciness of the chorizo works with the creaminess of the hollandaise sauce and goat cheese, while the rice not only adds an extra texture element to these tacos, but also turns them into a main dish. 

There's a bonus post coming up this week! Featuring artichokes and the avocado hollandaise sauce.

All these fantastic photos by Katy Weaver Photography

Black & White and Green & Red (and Yellow)

I know it's been awhile since my last post, but I'm back! So, the main reason I'm posting this dish is that it looks neat, it's all colorful and fun looking. This is a really easy dish to make, it's not overly complicated and you can impresse all your friends and trick them into thinking you can actually cook by making a fancy looking dish, when in reality it's just a breakfast dish with some fancy tweaks.

The beans I used on the toast are actually dehydrated black bean, and to make them into a paste or a dip just add hot water. 4 parts dried beans to 3 parts water. I got mine from an Oregon company called Garden Valley Corporation here is a link if you'd like to peruse their dried legumes.

Spicy Fried Eggs with Avocado and Black Beans on Toast

• 2 slices of toasted sourdough
• 2 eggs
• 1/4 cup black beans
• 1/2 avocado sliced
• hot sauce

1. I recommend making your beans before anything else. 
2. Toast the bread.
3. Fry the eggs to your liking, salt and pepper to taste. I prefer to having the yolk just a little runny that way I can mop it with the ends of the toast. 
4. Spread the beans on the toast, then the eggs, sliced avocado, and top it off with a drizzling of hot sauce of your choice, I used Sriracha, because it's delicious.

This is a very simple dish to make, it looks fancy, and it's packed with protein. Even though I made it for dinner, it's a perfect brunch dish. Next post is going to be fried quinoa!