Avacado and Mango Salad with Tostones

In the spirit of restaurant rip-offs, I'm posting this older recipe that I jotted down but never posted, mostly just to see if my RSS feeds are working.

Can I just say that writing "rss feeds" makes me feel like I am very tech savvy and smart.

Avacado and Mango Salad with Tostones

Admittedly, the idea for this meal with ripped off of an amazing restaurant in North Philly, Tierra Colombiana. As much satisfaction as it is to invent a recipe of your own devices, it is equally satisfying to make a meal that you know for sure will taste good. The restaurant is a favorite of my coworkers, and every time we go, I get this salad.

I didn't start out with food plagiarism in mind. I was mad at myself because I was too busy, lazy and tired to cook the night before, and my dinner consisted of a small box of chocolate covered sunflower seeds and a can of skunky beer. Vowing to never stoop to such low levels of food standards again, I spent my lunch break hunting the Reading Terminal for inspiration.

The Iovine Brothers produce stand, waaay in the back, was a gold mine. First, a mound of fifty cent Hass avocados, so ripe they were almost black. I've had so many blah unripe avocados that I pretty much won't settle for anything less these days. Then, the extra large blushing mangoes, also fifty cents. Finding one without too many bruises was a challenge, but the mango I finally picked turned out to be the star of the show.


Avacado and Mango Salad with Lime Jalapeño dressing
Serve over black beans [do 'em up with some sauteed onion and chili powder]

spinach, spring mix or arugula
2 avocados RIPE!
1 extra large mango, or two small ones. RIPE!
juice of one lime
3 tbsp olive oil
1/2 chopped Jalapeño

Toss mango, greens and avocado. Wisk together limejuice, olive oil and Jalapeno and dress salad.

Tostones

Green Plantain
Oil for frying
salt

Peel plantains by chopping off both ends, and slicing down the middle. Run under cold water and pull the skin away from the meat.

Chop into 5 or 6 pieces and fry in hot oil. When they are golden brown, take them out and drain on a paper towel.

When they are cool enough, smash with a tostone maker or heavy bottomed glass or plate and fry again for a minute or so. Sprinkle with salt.