Taco Tuesday's coming. You've got the tortillas,the salsa, and two avocados that feel like leaden rocks.
What to do?
Get those avocados ripe ASAP.
I wish there was a quick fix that would turn these fruits from oblong paperweightsto creamy-dreamy guacamole fillerin the blink of an eye, but avocados are a stubborn lot. They need time and finessing, maybe a light squeezenow and then to see if they're ready to come out of their shells.
You can speed this process up, but only a little if you want your avocados to have any flavor. Here's how:
The paper bag
The basics: Put your rock-vocadoin a paper bag, roll up the top and let it sit on the counter for 24 to 48 hours or until ripe (a ripe avocado is dark green-black in color, and the fruit will giveslightly when gently pressed).
Why it helps: Avocados produce ethylene gas, a plant hormone that triggers the ripening process. The paper bag traps the ethylene, holding it closer to the fruit and helping it ripen faster.
Does it have to be a paper bag?Yes. Plastic bags trapmoisture that will cause the fruit to rot before it properly ripens. Don't have paper bags? Wrap the avocado loosely in newspaper for the same effect.
Quinoa chickpea and avocado salad
But I need it ripe faster
I hear you. Let's step things up a notch.
Add a ripe banana to the paper bag: Bananas(along with apples, kiwis, mangoes, nectarines, tomatoes (the list goes on)) also produce ethylene. Add their ethylene to the avocado's ethylene and it will ripen faster— sometimes overnight, depending on the avocado.
Put the paper bag in a sunny windowsill or a warm spot in the kitchen: The sun isn't the key here, it's all about the temperature. Warm fruits ripen faster. It's as simple as that.
Add a scoop of flour to the paper bag: This is one of the weirdest suggestions I've seen out there, but it's also one of the most effective. The flour wicks away excess moisture, while helping to trap more ethylene. The result is a perfectly ripe avocado that's beautifully creamy and pale green with none of those icky brown spots that can result from ripening the fruit too rapidly. But you're still going to need 12 to 24 hours for it to work.
Farm to Fork: Florida Avocados
I have to make guacamole right now ...
OK, proceed with caution.
Bake it: Preheat your oven to 200 degrees and wrap your avocado in aluminum foil. Place it in the oven, and set a timer for 10 minutes. Check the avocado every 10 minutes to see if it hassoftened. Rock hard fruits may need to bake for an hour or more.When the avocado feels ripe, remove it from the oven and let it cool completelyin the refrigerator before peeling.
The drawbacks: While this process yields a soft, mash-able avocado, it does little to enhance the fruit's flavor. I've found these avocados still taste unripe, and sometimes get weirdly watery with lots of brown spots. But if you're in a guacamole emergency, you do what you've got to do.
