Mr. Bijoy Writes

  Avocados are pretty great.  In an attempt to put them on everything, a friend asked me to find a recipe for a simple avocado sauce. Since I'm a good friend, and all, I happily obliged. I also had the recipe tested for tastiness in my test kitchen. Yeah, I have one of those. Jealous? I would be. What ya need: 1 ripe avocado, seeded and gutted 1/3 cup of fresh cilantro 2 cloves of garlic, peeled Sea salt, to taste Black pepper, to taste 1 tablespoon of olive oil 1/2 tablespoon of red wine vinegar Juice of 1 lime Ok, so: Ready? Ok. Put all of the ingredients in a blender or a food processor and blend until smooth. Add more salt and pepper, to your liking. Oh hey, you're done.  Treat yourself to a cookie.

My good friend Stacie is in Spain. She wants ranch dressing but can't buy any. So this is for her. What ya need: 1 cup mayonnaise 1/2 cup sour cream or buttermilk (use buttermilk, it's tastier) 1/2 teaspoon dried chives 1/2 teaspoon dried parsley 1/2 teaspoon dried dill weed 1/4 teaspoon garlic powder 1/4 teaspoon onion powder 1/8 teaspoon salt 1/8 teaspoon ground black pepper Ok, so: Whisk all of those ingredients above in a large bowl. Cover and refrigerate for about 1/2 hour. Dip stuff in this, or put in on a salad... Ya know, ranch dressing stuff.

I first had a variation of this dressing in a Chicago eatery. The flavors are very subtle, yet rich, while at the same time light. I know, that may sound a little contradictory, but that’s just how it works out. It took me a while to build a version of this dressing that suited my needs for ease and flavor, but it worked itself out. This works great on a salad but for a fresh twist, warm it up for a few minutes and drizzle it over some halibut or salmon. Ingredients: 10 Heirloom tomatoes 4 tablespoons of sea salt 2 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil 1 tablespoon white balsamic vinegar 1 tablespoon of minced chives 1 tablespoon of minced shallots 1 teaspoon of ground fennel 1 clove of minced garlic Table salt and ground pepper to taste Ok, so: In a blender, puree the tomatoes and the salt until smooth. Strain this puree through cheesecloth, saving the water. In fact, the water that comes through the cheesecloth is all you want to keep. You may want to no...