Avocado toast 2.0
Saturday afternoon. Peckish but uninspired. Heat-induced laziness. No better cure than to have a 5-minute meal that simply brings a smile to your face. One simple avocado. One special meal.
First a disclaimer: This recipe is copied from my favourite restaurant: Cafe Beyritz. I go there two to three times per week, have most of my business meetings there and at least two brekkies. After I went vegetarian, I used to have the very best Eggs Benedict there. The definitive Benedict against which all others are rated. But now I have Avocado toast.
This is my interpretation of the recipe.
The combination of a nicely toasted bread – they use a wonderful buttermilk ciabatta – spicy wild rocket, creamy avocado and a topping of crumbed cheese, dukkah and pepper is just, as their Benedict, perfect.
As always, we went to my local grocer, Lynnpark Green Grocer and came back with a boot full of fresh veggies. Spent less than R200 and took two trips from the car to unload. You beat that! Bought four avocado, a bag of fresh wild rocket and a big bag of fresh and juicy beetroot (the next recipe would address this star of veggies) – amongst a lot more. This time I got fuerte avocado, the green pear-shaped ones, as I wanted a little firmness in the avocado flesh. I found one that was perfectly ripe, which, as we all know, is almost impossible to buy. (They seem to be perfect for a few hours only, don’t they? Then they just shrivel and turn brown. Strange fruit indeed).
I had no ready-made dukkah in da house, so I improvised. I used toasted sesame seeds, a pinch of smoked paprika, a pinch of sweet cinnamon and a pinch of ground coriander and cumin. Just sprinkled it on top without even mixing it. I though my mouth could do the mixing…
Flavour
Herbs and spice
Spice profile
Life is about flavour
Acidity
The tartness kick
Acid profile
Tart but not sour
Fresh
Made from scratch
Fresh profile
Fresh is better
Floor
Main starch base
Floor profile
Base or starch
Frugal
Living better
Frugal profile
How we save
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Ingredients -
Method
- 2 slices rooibos bread per person
- Enough butter (per taste).
- 100g wild rocket
- One avocado per 2 people.
- Pinch of salt
- Pinch of pepper
- A little bit of lemon juice (to manage the oxidation).
- Per taste: some cheese (I used plain feta).
- A pinch of toasted sesame seeds (can use other seeds as well)
- Pinch of smoked paprika
- Pinch of ground cumin
- Pinch of ground coriander
- If you choose, you can drizzle a little bit of olive oil over it. Always good.
- A pinch of crispy fried onion bits
The recipe is so simple, I'm just going to share it in a few lines.
- Toast some nice bread. I used rooibos bread for its flavour.
- Butter the toast. Yes, I still use butter.
- Wash and spin your wild rocket, or as I did, not finding my salad spinner, put it in a dishcloth and give it a swing. Satisfying.
- Place on the warm toast.
- Half the avocado. Slice or scoop the avocado out of the skins. Sprinkle with salt, pepper and a little bit of lemon juice (to manage the oxidation). Arrange on the wild rocket.
- Add some cheese (I used plain feta, Beyritz uses a cream cheese - whatever you have in the fridge).
- Sprinkle some toasted sesame seeds (can use other seeds as well), some smoked paprika, some ground cumin and some ground coriander)
- If you choose, you can drizzle a little bit of olive oil over it. Always good.
- Finish with some crispy fried onion bits - I buy this in bags from my spice merchant.
