Key Lime Avocado Oil

If I keep licking the cap on this bottle of Key Lime Avocado Oil every time I pass the kitchen, it’s going to be gone in about a week. Marsena brought it back from Key West. I think it’s expensive so I probably won’t get another for a long time. This oil is the color of green sea glass and bursts like fresh lime and yes, avocado, across your tongue. Beautiful. Sexy. I want to put it in everything. I also have a new mortar and pestle – a lovely wood-fired pottery thing. Which means now I can get rid of the wooden one I’ve had for a hundred years, i.e, for so long it yields vicious splinters not ground spice. So I’ve been getting the urge to crush and pound things into potent little masses. Or messes. So I did a thing, which I share below. Somehow over a period of 24 hours, I don’t know how or why, I’d thawed brats, chicken thighs AND pork chops. Denis sweetly said he’d barbeque all of it. So I spread the paste on the pork chops. They were fabulous.

If anyone wants to pass on a recipe that requires repeated blows and hammering of anything, I should probably pay you as it is also good therapy.

Coriander Pepper Paste
5 cloves fresh garlic
1 small Jalepeno pepper or 1 t. red pepper flakes,
or whatever amount of heat you can take, you whuss
1 ½ T of whole coriander seed
3 T soy sauce
2 T. brown sugar
2 T olive oil plus 2 t. avocado oil
Crush everything together, but add the soy sauce and oil bit by bit after you get it going. I think the avocado oil isn’t necessary, but it certainly adds interest.