Happy BC Day everyone! August 1st is a stat holiday here in Canada, and the lovely province of British Columbia gave it the “BC Day” name, although it really has no historical significance – it’s just an excuse for us to have a long weekend in the height of summer. It’s a welcome day off.
I started off my morning sipping an Americano while reading the August edition of Bon Appetit magazine. What caught my attention was a the “4 Chefs/1 Ingredient” article on avocados. In particular, it was the recipe for the Avocado Smoothie.
The recipe comes from Carly Groben at Des Moines’ North African & Mediterranean-inspired restaurant, Proof. You scoop the ripe pitted avocado flesh into a blender with a cup of ice, a tablespoon and a half of fresh lime juice, a tablespoon of fresh basil, a tablespoon of sugar, and a cup and a quarter of whole milk. You puree it until it’s smooth and then serve it into chilled glasses, garnished with fresh sliced basil. It’s not every day that I have milk, fresh basil, lime, and a ripe avocado in the kitchen at the same time, so it just needed to be made.
I used 2% milk instead of whole milk. I used the juice of one medium-sized key lime, and haphazardly threw in leaves of fresh basil until I thought it was appropriately one tablespoon’s worth. I blended it and served it into chilled tumblers. It came out like avocado mousse.
I served it to the boyfriend who looked at the pale green foam suspiciously. He took a sip. “It’s an avocado smoothie” I explained. I tried to be enthusiastic about it. He took another sip. “No wait, it’s a green booster! You’d be all over it if it was called a green booster.” I was familiar with his health kicks. He grinned and took another sip. I then took a sip of this green concoction. It was buttery smooth like you’d expect from an avocado, and the basil and lime combination gave it that satisfying flavour. But it was still missing something – something that became increasingly obvious.
“Do you want a shot of tequila?” I grinned.
Silly question.
In the end, it was the added shot of tequila per tumbler that made the cocktail click for us, especially as a post-coffee pre-brunch hair of the dog. We had to stir the tequila into the mousse-like drink, but it became much more like a milkshake in texture and easier to drink. Unfortunately the garnish – the sliced basil – had mixed itself into the drink, which was unfortunate – who wants to chew a piece of mushy basil mid-cocktail? Next time a leaf of basil will do as a garnish. But all in all it was rather delightful. We also changed the name to the Green Bracer – it somehow fit.
