It’s avocado season in Sri Lanka, and I am
in heaven… the avocado trees at my parents in laws’ property in Kandy have
borne a bumper crop this year, and I’m a very grateful beneficiary. Perfectly
jumbo teardrop-shaped, these fruit are luscious, creamy and, packed as they are
with nutrients, can be consumed with a clear conscience.
This chunky avocado and tomato salsa is a
bit of a hero dish because it can serve as breakfast (heaped plentifully on
toast as a bed for a perfectly poached egg to nestle in), lunch/dinner (simply
heavenly with burritos, nachos, tacos, quesadillas, fajitas or any other
Mexican or Mexican-influenced dish) or snack (pass the corn chips, please).
Its ingredients are simple and the success
of the salsa all depends on ratios rather than strict quantities. The bulk of
the salsa is, as its name suggests, avocado and tomato. Half and half works
well, but if you’re a die-hard avocado enthusiast like me, then a two-thirds to
one-third ratio is probably preferable. Seasoning comes from garlic, a bit of
red onion, red chilli and coriander root pounded into a paste with salt and
black peppercorns and lashings of lime juice. I fold this aromatic paste with the avocado and tomato,
adding finely sliced coriander leaves into the mix. This bit requires a gentle
but confident hand – the trick is to mix the paste thoroughly with the chunks,
but without squashing said chunks into an indiscriminate, gloopy mass. The
avocado and the tomato should be ever so
slightly muddled, without being bruised and pulpy.
When it comes together, the combination is, quite simply,
fabulous – the sharp, sweet lime, herbaceous freshness of coriander, heat
of chili and savoury anchoring of garlic and onion, combine with the rich,
smooth flesh of the avocado to yield a salsa that I could happily eat everyday
of the week. The large chunks of avocado and tomato also mean that this is a
salsa with some real heft – you can really sink your teeth into it. None of
that business of delicately holding crudités between thumb and forefinger and
dipping only a centimeter into a dip or sauce – this is a salsa that demands to
be fully loaded onto a solid corn or tortilla chip before being summarily demolished.
In fact, individual dipping bowls are probably to be recommended for this, for
the sake of peaceful consumption. No-one likes to have to fight for their fair
share of dip, after all.
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