Holy Hass—
the Prince of Avocados!

We sing a hymn of praise for the high holy of avocados, the Hass. Its thick pebbly skin turns from green to a purplish black as it ripens. And its luxurious, creamy flesh is loaded with vitamins E, C, K, and the beneficial monounsaturated fatty acid, oleic acid. We keep a big wooden bowl of them on the Canal House kitchen counter and as they ripen we find ways to sneak them into as many meals as possible. Sometimes we just halve a ripe one, pop out the seed, drizzle in some olive oil, add a squeeze of lemon and sprinkle of salt and pepper, and then we dive in, scooping out the flesh with a spoon like we’re eating a bowl of ice cream.

With so much avocado love, our expectations are high. When we cut one open it’s disappointing to end up with a dud. Diana Kennedy, cookbook author and leading authority on Mexican ingredients, gives excellent avocado-buying advice in her book From My Mexican Kitchen: Techniques and Ingredients (Random House, 2003). Kennedy suggests always buying a bounty of them at a time, as it can be hard to tell what is under their rough, bumpy skin. She always buys hard, unripened avocados when the skin is still slightly green and ripens them at home for 3 to 5 days, until the skin turns brownish black and the flesh gives a bit when you push on the fruit with your thumb. If you need to speed up the process, place an avocado in a brown paper bag with an apple, banana, or tomato. These fruits give off a natural ethylene gas that will help the avocado ripen faster. An uncut, ripened avocado can be stored in the refrigerator for up to 5 days.

Unlike most fruits, avocados only ripen once they are picked, never on the tree, so in the market the harder ones are always the freshest. If you need to use them the same day, look for a ripe one that gives slightly to pressure but is not overly soft. Avoid the ones that have very thin skin that starts to detach from the flesh and also the ones with a loose pit that rattles around inside. These are signs that the avocado is overripe.