Avocado with fish

Avocado with fish, especially smoked fish or canned sardines, is a great food combo, and one which you don't encounter all that frequently. You may be served a ceviche with avocado, and Mary Feinberg often bring a wonderful sandwich of baguette with avocado and smoked salmon to shul potlucks. But there are a wide variety of easy dishes that you can make for yourself or company. You can cut avocado into wedges and wrap it in smoked salmon and fasten it with a toothpick. Try Mary's sandwich with or without butter. Or spread mashed avocado on whole grain toast and top with smoked trout and eat it as an open faced sandwich. Try avocado instead of cream cheese on your bagel and lox, or top pumpernickel with whitefish salad, avocado and tomato. Here are two easy recipes worth trying.

Smoked salmon with Scandinavian guacamole

I am sure they could do something with this on Prairie Home Companion along the lines of Ajua hot sauce. In any case, it is a very easy and delicious appetizer.

Ingredients

• 1 ripe avocado
• 3 finely chopped scallions
• small handful of finely chopped dill
• juice of 1/4 lemon
• Salt
• 4 ounces smoked salmon
• large whole grain crackers like Ryvita or Wasa, or sliced whole grain bread or toast, cut into smallish pieces

Method

1. Mash the avocado with the next four ingredients. Do this shortly before serving. Put in a bowl.
2. Arrange salmon on a plate. Top with a little more fresh dill if you would like.
3. Put the crackers or bread in a serving basket.
4. To serve, everyone spreads some guacamole on the crackers or bread, tops with salmon, and that's it.

Sardine and Avocado Sandwich

This is based on a recipe from Paula Wolfert's The Slow Mediterranean Kitchen. I am not sure what makes it slow or Mediterranean. It is based on a Canary Islands recipe, with sounds more African and Atlantic. It was adapted from a far more complicated recipe by Ferran Adria of El Bulli fame, so I guess that is the Mediterranean connection. It reminds me of a comment I heard once that most of her books, particularly the later ones, are a pastiche of recipes that Wolfert picked up doing research for travel articles. That having been said, most of her recipes are really good. I have simplified it still further so that it is a lunch sandwich rather than an appetizer. One of the joys of working at home is that you can have things like this for lunch. Just don't eat it before a business meeting, unless your meeting is with a cat food company.

Ingredients (for one largish slice of bread -- multiply as you will; I have 2 slices for lunch, some may only eat one)

• 1 slice whole grain bread
• 1 clove garlic (optional)
• butter (optional)
• 1/2 can sardines packed in olive oil (2 sardines)
• 1/8 - 1/4 ripe avocado
• a few shreds of red onion or scallion
• drizzle of sherry (preferred) or red wine vinegar

Method

1. Toast the bread. Rub it with the clove of garlic and spread lightly with butter if desired.
2. Spread with the sliced avocado.
3. Top with the sardines, filleted if you wish.
4. Top with onion or scallion and drizzle very lightly with vinegar.
5. Eat as an open faced sandwich.