A Tough Fruit To Crack

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Q: I love avocado and could eat it on just about anything. But, there is one thing I have never been able to master: How do you slice an avocado? With the seed left in, my attempts usually end with a mound of tiny slivers that fall off my sandwich with every bite I eat. When I try to remove the seed before slicing, I end up with mush.

A: Ah, the tender avocado. Many cooks have been reduced to quivering blobs of gelatin at its mushy inability to withstand any sort of punishment whatsoever.

Fear not, however! I've got a method that will render your avocado into nicely-sized sections.

WARNING: This method DOES require a sure hand with a large chef's knife. If you've never picked one up before, or are not completely comfortable using one, I would suggest one of the many fine premade guacamoles available in your local produce department.

Set the avocado on your cutting board and hold it narrow end up with one hand. With your chef's knife, carefully slice straight down until you come up against the pit. Rotate the avocado against the knife blade until you make a cut completely around the pit.

Grasp each half in one hand and twist them with a smooth, quick snap in opposite directions. A gentle pull and you'll have two avocado halves, one with a pit inside. With a short, sharp swing, lodge your knife in the pit. A well-sharpened blade will sink in about ¼ inch. Turn the pit and avocado in opposite directions and work the pit out.

Now you have two perfect avocado halves ready to be peeled and sliced! I generally make my slicing incisions into the flesh of the avocado, then pop the skin inside-out to release them.

Q: I recently watched a segment of "Emeril Live," and he indicated to use something other than lemon juice to keep apples or bananas from getting dark. It was some other kind of juice but can't remember what it was. Any suggestions? --Shirley

A: What are you doing getting cooking advice from that amateur when you could be here soaking up all the wisdom you'll ever need? The very idea!

Well, I'll forgive you and answer your question anyway.

If what he sprinkled was dry, it's likely it was ascorbic acid, which acts like the acid in lemon or orange juice to prevent darkening.

Q: We made veggie kabobs, shrimp kabobs and fruit kabobs last weekend and something very interesting happened. The fruit kabobs were a mixture of pineapple slices [fresh pineapple, cored, and cut into 2-inch chunks] and banana chunks. The marinade was ½ butter and ½ honey with a hint of ginger mixed in. After cooking the fruit kabobs [on foil] on the grill with the marinade, we took them off and set the pan down to place the cover back on the grill. All of a sudden, the fruit kabobs exploded, the pan went flying and we had pineapple and bananas splattered in an eight-foot radius. Since nobody was hurt, it was actually quite funny. Do you have any idea how this could happen? Perhaps the pineapple was too thick or the honey got too hot on the grill? What do you think? I would like to make these again but not at the risk of skewering someone!! -- Debbie

A: I'm going to take a wild stab at this one, based on the sugar present in your marinade courtesy of the honey.

What quite likely happened was that, as will frequently happen, the metal skewer got hotter than the food it was running through. The sugar in the honey crystallized under heat and formed a dense enough crust around some of the fruit that, when the heat from the skewer tried to make the fruit expand and pop a bit, instead the pressure built up under the crust until BOOM.

Q: I have a wok that I use quite often. Whenever I wipe it out, the paper towel has dark brown metal-smelling residue on it. Is this rust, and if so is it harmful.? Thanks, Susan.

A: That IS rust, and properly seasoning and cleaning your wok will minimize it. Basically, you should treat your wok like a cast-iron pot: keep it lightly oiled and NEVER, EVER clean it with soap and water.

Use some kosher salt and a wok brush to get stuck food out, and paper towels to wipe out any extra soil.

The small amount of rust will not create any health issues for you, but it's so simple to prevent that you shouldn't encounter the problem anymore.

Q: I consider myself to be fairly well educated when it comes to food, but there's one question I can never get anyone to agree on. I like onions ... just about any way you can fix them. Which onions are the hottest and/or most pungent? White or yellow? I know Walla-Walla and 1015 are supposed to be sweet, but which ones have the most bang for the buck? Which onions are best for what? Thanks for your help. -- Richard

A: Yellow onions are used for most cooking applications. I like the more pungent whites best raw, chopped and sprinkled on hot dogs, chili or in anything where you want some serious onion "kick" to add to other flavors. White onions are also mandatory for Mexican or Tex-Mex cooking.

The debate over which onion is the sweetest is one that can start shouting matches among foodies, who can be even more opinionated than Star Trek fans when it comes to fine points of debate.

To my palate, the science that produces the Texas 1015 onion trumps the soil-based voodoo that gives the famous Vidalia onions their sweet flavor. Walla-Wallas come in just about a dead heat with Vidalias.

The sweetest I've EVER found, however, are a Peruvian bulb that I've only been able to locate on occasion at a high-end produce market. If you find Peruvian sweet onions at your local market, buy all you can carry and send me half.

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