Avocado Salad

I actually got the recipe for avocado salad from my boss. She was eating it at work one day and it looked really good so I asked her about it. She told me she had it at a restaurant and it was so good she went home and recreated it. It's super simple but amazingly delicious. You can make a single serving for a light lunch or several servings as an appetizer for a get-together.

Avocado Salad

Makes: 1 serving

1 ripe avocado

3 - 4 paper thin slices of red onion

1 tbsp olive oil

1 tbsp lime juice

pinch sea salt

• Cut the avocado in half and remove the pit. Cut each half into slices, then scoop them out of the shell. Place the slices in a glass bowl.
• Add the onion, olive oil, lime juice, and sea salt. Gently fold it all together with a spoon or rubber spatula.
• Serve on a bed of baby spinach, with some tortilla chips, or with a warm flour tortilla.

Honey Lime Chicken

This is another one of those recipes that I just kind of pulled out of thin air. I wasn't sure what to make for dinner so I looked around to see what we had. Honey and lime are a pretty classic flavor combination. You see it a lot in southwestern dishes as well as Thai dishes. I went more in the Asian direction with this one and it was yummy! I made this with chicken breasts, but you could also use chicken thighs or even chicken wings.

Honey Lime Chicken

Makes: 4 servings

2 boneless skinless chicken breasts

1/4 cup flour

1/4 cup corn starch

1/2 tsp salt

Marinade:

2 tbsp lime juice

3 tbsp honey

1 clove garlic, finely minced

2 tbsp soy sauce

1 tsp sambal oelek or chili garlic sauce

• Combine the lime juice, honey, garlic, soy sauce, and chili sauce. Set aside.
• Cut each of the chicken breasts in half length-wise so that you have four thin chicken breasts.
• Pour half of the marinade into a plastic bag with the chicken and marinate it for 10 - 30 minutes. You don't really want to do more than 30 minutes with an acidic marinade like this because it will make the chicken mushy.

• While the chicken in marinating, combine the flour, cornstarch, and salt. Set aside.
• Remove the chicken from the marinade, then toss in the flour mixture. You want just a very thin coating on the chicken. This is going to create a thin, delicate crust.
• Deep fry the chicken at 350° F for 3 - 5 minutes total until deep brown and cooked through. Or cook in a heavy bottomed skillet filled with 1/2" of oil on medium heat for 3 - 4 minutes per side.
• Remove the chicken from the oil and allow to rest.
• While the chicken is resting, heat the other half of the marinate in a small sauce pan over medium heat for 4 - 5 minutes until the sauce bubbles and just starts to thicken. Remove from the heat.
• Plate the chicken then spoon some of the sauce over each piece. There will only be a very small amount of sauce but it's strong stuff so it will be plenty for four pieces of chicken.
• Serve the chicken over white rice, brown rice, rice pilaf, couscous, or quinoa. This dish pairs really well with some bok choy that has been chopped, sauteed until al dente, then tossed with just a little bit of soy sauce.

This was great as is but I can't wait to try it on the grill. I think it will be even more delicious!

Coconut Lime Thumbprints

We've been getting some snow here in the Carolinas. We only got a little dusting today but it's supposed to start again overnight and give us about 3" - 5". Everybody run for your lives!!! haha

Anyhow, I thought these coconut lime cookies were a good way to put everyone in the mood for summer. I keep telling myself, "only one more month then spring starts!"

Coconut Lime Thumbprints
Yield: About 18 cookies

Cookies:
2 sticks butter, ice cold
2/3 cup sugar
2 1/2 cups flour
1/4 tsp salt
2 egg yolks, whites reserved
1 tsp vanilla
1 cup sweetened coconut

Lime Curd:
2 eggs
1 egg yolk
1/4 tsp salt
1/3 cup sugar
1/3 cup lime juice

Make the cookie dough:

• Cut the butter into small cubes.
• Blend the sugar, flour, salt, and butter in a food processor until the mixture is the texture of cornmeal and it sticks together when you squeeze it in your hand.
• Whisk together the egg yolks and vanilla (reserve the whites for later). Mix into the flour mixture. The dough will be extremely dry and crumbly. That's what you want.
• Line a dinner plate with plastic wrap. Dump the dough out onto the plastic wrap then form into a disk. Cover the dough with the plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 1 hour.
• While the dough is refrigerating, make the lime curd.

Make the lime curd:

• Whisk the eggs, egg yolk, salt, and sugar until light and fluffy. Then add the lime juice.
• Transfer the mixture so a heavy bottomed sauce pan and cook over medium heat stirring constantly.
• After about 7 -10 minutes, the lime curd should thicken so that it coats the back of a spoon - about the same texture as pudding. You want to make sure that you're stirring constantly, otherwise the curd will turn out lumpy.
• Once the curd is thickened, remove from heat and transfer to a glass bowl. Immediately top the curd with plastic wrap to prevent a skin from forming on top.
• Cool the lime curd in the refrigerator for at least one hour.
• While the lime curd is cooling, bake the cookies.

Bake the cookies:

• Using a spoon, "cut out" about 2 tablespoons of dough from your disk. Squeeze it between your hand to form it into a ball. It should be about the size of a golf ball.
• Roll the ball in the reserved egg whites. I found it was easier for me to just place the ball in the bowl of egg whites then brush it with a pastry brush.
• Then roll the dough ball in the coconut flakes.
• Place the ball on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper.

 

• Press your thumb into the ball of dough so that it flattens slightly and you leave an indentation in the cookie (that's your well for the lime curd!). I found that the dough crumbled a little bit when I pressed it with my thumb, so I had to kind of work with it to reshape it into a circle. Don't be afraid if they're not perfect circles, it gives them character!
• Bake at 350° F for 20 - 25 minutes.

Assemble:

• Allow the cookies to cool.
• Top with a small spoonful of lime curd. This gets a little messy so you want to wait until you're ready to serve the cookies before completing this step.