Mango Pomegranate Guacamole

It seems that most of my best menu planning recently has spontaneously occurred while stretching after spin class.  I'm not sure why that is, but it seems that everytime I go to spin class on Sunday afternoon I come home with a bunch of new ideas for dinner and/or lunch.  For example, the Char Siu Noodle Soup that I made last weekend and the Sping Chicken Soup with Matzo Balls were both post-spin class ideas, as were this guacamole and the red snapper tacos that I served it with.  As I was sprawled on the rubber mat at Equinox yesterday I kept thinking about the number of avocados (4) we had in the apartment.  I bought the avocados for a salad we made a few days ago and we had a ton left that I didn't want to go to waste.  The logical conclusion was that we needed to make some guacamole.  I already had a recipe in mind for Sunday lunch, but I decided to scrap it (or save it for dinner) and make some guacamole instead.  The guacamole that immediately came to mind was a version we had at La Condesa in Austin, Texas that included queso fresco, pomegranate molasses and pomegranate seeds.  It sounded like an odd combination but it was really tasty.  And then I thought, ok, let's make some guacamole with pomegranate seeds and serve it with fish tacos (more on the tacos later).  Since we had a bunch of mangos left over in the apartment from a recent trip to Whole Foods, I decided that I would make a mango salsa to serve with the fish tacos.  Then I stumbled across this recipe and decided that rather than make a mango salsa for the tacos and a pomegranate guacamole for the appetizer, why not make a mango, pomegranate guacamole and kill two birds with one stone?  Perfect!

I think that this guacamole was a fun variation on traditional guacamole.  I liked the bursts of sweetness from the mango and the pomegranate seeds.  Alex can't make homemade guacamole without a pinch of ground cumin (it's kind of his thing) so he threw some in while I was putting together the fish tacos.  I still think that the pomegranate guacamole we had at La Condesa was better so the next time I start jonesing for some pomegranate guacamole I will try to recreate that one.  But if I were to have people over and offer up a guacamole and salsa bar with several versions of each (maybe for Cinco de Mayo), this one was totally interesting enough make the line up.

Recipe after the jump!

Pumpkin Seed Pesto Two Ways

 

 

This base recipe for Pumpkin Seed Pesto came from our Susan Spicer cookbook.  And then I took it and served it two ways - one as a dip for tortilla chips with some avocado mixed in, and then I tossed some chili-rubbed shrimp in the pesto and served that with additional pesto for dipping.  Of the two variations, I preferred the dip.  It was very interesting.  Given the choice I would prefer guacamole, but I thought the dip had a pleasing blend of flavors and a nice lush, creamy texture.  I think the element that really threw the pesto off for me  was the feta.  Perhaps if we had used cotija cheese it would have worked better?  I just thought the feta added a slightly out of key, discordant flavor to the dip that was more evident in the pesto itself, than it was in the dip.  The pesto also seemed a bit... heavier and greasier.  I'm not sure those are the correct words to use to describe it, but I can't think of any better adjectives.  We made a Pan-Seared Salmon with Pumpkin-Seed Cilantro Pesto that I found more successful overall, if perhaps a little less interesting.  If I had to pick one dish to make again (since they are fairly similar) I would pick the salmon because I thought as an overall dish it was more successful.  I also thought that pesto was just brighter and tastier.

Recipes after the jump!

Lemony Garlic Scape Hummus

It's too freaking hot out to cook.  And yet I decided it would be a brilliant idea to bake a loaf of banana bread and a rhubarb coffee cake.  Oops.  So with all of that slaving away in the already hot kitchen I couldn't bear the idea of cooking anything else.  So I made hummus and rinsed some cherries that we picked up from the farmers' market last weekend.  Actually, this hummus also uses a few ingredients from the farmers' market - a garlic scape and flat leaf parsley.  If you're not familiar with garlic scapes, they are crazy green curly stalks that farmers cut off the top of the garlic bulb.  They taste like garlic and are relatively potent, but raw garlic scapes don't have quite the bite that raw garlic can have.  I guess they are a little mellower, but that's not exactly the word I am looking for...  Anyway, rather than garlic cloves I decided to use the garlic scapes that were hanging out in the fridge.  The result was a very fresh and bright hummus with a lovely blend of garlic flavor and lemon acidity.  The Greek yogurt gave it a really nice smooth and creamy texture and a little tang.  And then you had just a hint of heat from the cayenne.  I had originally contemplated throwing in a little cumin, but I'm glad I didn't because I feel like the smoky flavor of the cumin wouldn't have complimented the flavors of the lemon and garlic scape.  I also thought about adding some tahini, but I'm glad I left that out too.  Sometimes I feel like the tahini contributes to a grainy texture that I don't enjoy.  And I think that the tahini flavor would have muddied the flavors of the lemon and garlic scape.  It was just lovely.

Recipe after the jump!