Austere Extravagance

Avocado Lover’s Potato Salad

Ingrediants:

1 lb very small red-skinned potatoes, scrubbed

1 ½ ripe avocados, peeled and cut into bite sized chunks

3 large ripe tomatoes

1 small red onion, finely chopped

Small handful fresh parsley

2-3 tbs chopped pickled jalapeños (optional)

Avocado Dressing (recipe follows)

1. Boil potatoes in saucepan of salted water until they can easily be cut with a paring knife.  Drain, run cold water over them, and let them cool.
2. Prepare the Avocado Dressing while the potatoes cool.
3. Cut the potatoes into bite sized chunks and toss them into a bowl.  Add the Avocado Dressing, chunked avocado, tomatoes (cut into bite sized pieces), onion, parsley, and jalapeños.
4. Toss gently and season the salad with salt and pepper to taste.  Lettuce and sliced tomato can be used as a garnish if desired.  You can also add character to the garnish by drizzling lemon juice and olive oil on the lettuce and dusting it with ground pepper.

Dressing

Ingredients:

½ very ripe avocado

4 tbs olive oil

2 tbs lemon juice or 1 tbs each of lemon and lime juice

Small handful of fresh cilantro leaves (optional)

A few drops of Tabasco or other hot sauce

1 small garlic clove, coarsely chopped

Salt and freshly ground pepper

Water  (optional)

1. Put ½ avacado, oil, lemon juice, cilantro, Tabasco, garlic, and a little salt and pepper into a blender.  Puree the mixture to make a thick dressing with a texture like mayonnaise; thin with a little water if nessicary.  If you do not have a blender, mix very well with a fork making sure to smooth out as many chunks of avocado from the mixture as possible.