Let's Do Lunch: Chilled Avocado Salsa with Kiwi-Style Fritters

Kyle Mullin | Nov 10, 2014 11:00 am | 3 comments | 1544 reads | Sponsored by TooToo Organic Farm

Sponsored by TooToo Organic Farm (沱沱工社) – find all of the organic, natural, and healthy ingredients you’ll need for this recipe and more by visiting their English online shopping website: shop.tootoo.cn – it’s easy to make orders and get your products via TooToo’s own Cold-Chain logistics system to your door. Ask your favorite restaurant where they source their food supplies – TooToo Organic Farm can be your reliable resource!

Beijingers are often wowed by the uniquely smooth taste, soft texture and bright green color of avocados. But the novelty of this special little fruit is different for John O’Loghlen. For him, it’s simply a taste of home.

“Oftentimes, outside of Australia and New Zealand, avocados are seen as exotic. But for me, it’s more comfort food,” says O’Loghlen, who hails from the Auckland, New Zealand, and is the co-founder of Gung Ho! Pizza.

For today’s dish, O’Loghlen puts his own twist on that staple of his homeland’s cuisine, using avocados to make a chilled salsa served with New Zealand style fritters.

“These fritters are like little pancakes, albeit quite a textured pancake. They have a lot of corn, which will make them nice and crisp and golden,” he says, adding that the fritters can be dipped in the salsa. “This avocado salsa is almost like a guacamole. If you want to be even more creative, you can add a bit of yogurt and Thai sauce, to turn it into a classic Thai style dish.”

For today though, O’Loghlen is sticking with Kiwi culture.

“The batter is terribly simple,” he says of readying the fritters, adding: “It’s just baking soda, flour, eggs, salt and peppers, and a little bit of Tabasco. The key things that makes it special is a little bit of garnishing and flavorings. So be sure to use some nice big flakes of sea salt and some ground pepper.”

Such seasoning won’t unlock the salsa’s flavors, however. For that, O'Loghlen says they key ingredient is time. “Let it sit for four to five hours, so that it has a good kick,” he says, before adding that there a few ingredients that can further maximize its tastiness. “Add a lot of lime juice, but be sure that it’s fresh limes, and not lemons or lemon juice from a bottle. The limes start reacting with the salsa’s tomatoes. Also, add some brown sugar if you like, because the fritters can be tarty for some tastes if you use sea salt.”

“It’s a classic Kiwi, Aussie dish,” he says, adding: “It’s good for hors d’oeuvres or a light lunch. And the fritters will be good for up to a week, so you can keep them in the fridge and dip them in the guacamole whenever you like. There’s all sorts of things you can do with it.”

For the Fritters

525g fresh corn kernels cut from 3 large corn cobs
1 small red onion, chopped
2 Eggs
Sea salt
Black pepper
Cooking oil (for frying)
125g Plain Flour
1 teaspoon Baking powder
15g chopped coriander leaves

For the Avocado Salsa

2 ripe Avocados with stones removed and diced
2 tablespoons of lime juice
2 tablespoons finely chopped spring onions (scallions)
1 Tomato quartered, seeded and finely sliced
1 dash Tabasco sauce (optional)
15g coriander leaves

Directions

1. Mix the batter with eggs, flour, milk, baking powder, some salt and pepper. Then add the corn kernels (preferably fresh, although canned corn will suffice).

2. Make sure the batter is thick enough to hold the corn kernels by adding more flour (if it is too thick add some more milk).

3. Chop the avocado into small cubes, then chop similar sized red onion pieces and tomato pieces, and mash together into a salsa with 2 parts avocado, 1 part tomato and 1 part onion.

4. Add the juice of 2 squeezed limes, salt and pepper and tabasco, and leave to set over night in a fridge.

5. For the fritter, add tablespoon sized dollops of corn batter into cooking oil and deep fry, on high. This should take 1.5 mins on each side, until the fritter is golden brown. Take out and let oil the run off on paper towels, then keep warm in oven.

6.Serve with avocado salsa on top (the fritters can also just be dipped in the salsa). For final garnishing, you can add a teaspoon of yogurt and some thai sweet chili sauce on the very top.

About the author: A ravenous foodie and frequent tbj contributor, Kyle Mullin has been working as a freelance reporter in Beijing since 2011.

Photos: Ken Liu

This series is sponsored by TooToo Organic Farm. Ask your favorite restaurant where they source their food supplies – TooToo Organic Farm can be their reliable choice!