Culinary Experiment #5: Avocado Fries

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Can’t take your eyes off of those sexy bread crumbs, can you? Those avocado slices have been fried in panko. Panko is a Japanese-style of bread crumb that is lighter and flakier than the kind of crumbs you’d normally find in Western cuisine.

Some advantages to using panko:

1. It absorbs less grease or oil when you fry with it. Which means less fat and the food doesn’t have that trademark overwhelming, heavy greasiness that most fried foods can develop.
2. Presentation: If you just want a light and airy crispy look to your food, the flakiness of panko crumbs can provide that. Since each crumb is shaped like a flake, there’s less of a chance of them clumping together and you’re more likely to see whatever you’re frying, whether it’s avocados or seafood, come through the surface of the dish. That way you’re not just seeing monochromatic shades of “bread brown”, you can actually see little pops of color of what you’re actually frying.
3. Staying power: It’s sad when something you just fried loses its glorious crispiness just hours later. But due to its low-absorption of grease, panko can stay crispier longer, and so your dish can also stave off that nasty oily sogginess longer.

Ok, I know at this point I sound like an annoying infomercial, right? You’re totally waiting for me to say, “But wait! There’s more!”

Yeah, that’s not happening. There isn’t any more. On to the recipe notes!

Here’s the recipe.  It’s from a blog called “Circle B Kitchen” written by Patrice Berry.

1. I actually kind of halved the recipe when I made it because I didn’t want to spend the money on a second avocado. They can get pricey! But even when I made only one avocado’s worth of fries, I still produced a large number of fries. Seriously, if you’re going to make these, make sure you invite some friends or family over or else it might be a waste of food unless you’re really into avocados like me.
2. For a dip, I used a bottled ginger salad dressing. So. Good. The dressing’s citrus-y, spicy, sweetness cuts through that creamy avocado and puts a happy zing in your mouth. And the dressing, the version by Makoto, also has a savory aftertaste that’s kind of addictive. I love it. I also think hot sauce would be great with these fries too.
3. A warning to those with limited counter-space, plates and patience: The only annoying thing about this recipe is that you’ll need to set up an intense prepping station. Like you almost need a different plate/bowl for each ingredient. Most of the time you’ll spend on this recipe is on prep. Frying is a breeze. And after…Well, afterwards you’re just happy. Deep-fried Nirvana.
4. Timing and temperature: If you’ve got one of those fryer thermometer thingies, use it…it’ll allow you to follow the time set by the recipe much closer. I do not own one, so I pretty much just waited until the oil got hot and bubbly. (Basically, I started heating the oil at the beginning of the prepping process of my avocado slices.) Since I had no idea how hot the oil was, I just did trial and error and eyeballed it.) As a result, when I followed the time set in the recipe, the first couple of fries were a little burned. So after that, I just waited until the other fries looked as deep golden as they did in the recipe and just pulled them out then.

Wow, I’m seriously on a roll this week! Two blog posts in two days! I feel super-productive.

Hopefully, this week is shaping up to be a wonderful and productive one for all of you as well!

P.S.: I’d like to say thank you to Patrice Berry of “Circle B Kitchen” for posting this recipe!