Guacamole Slaw

I'd have to cook 10 meals a day with everything new every meal in order to get through my backlog of recipes to try.  As it is, we try 5-10 new recipes a week.  Just recently, we tried one of my favorite blogger's steaks.  Drick's Cowboy Sugar Rubbed Steaks.  They were plate-licking good!  But, we're trying to cut down on the amount of beef we eat - it's healthier for us and for the environment.  That means cooking more fish - something I've never been good at getting on the menu.  Salmon, yes, other fish, no.  We tried a recipe from Cat Cora's Classics with a twist for oven fried fish.  It was pretty good.  I absolutely love whole, fried catfish.  And, I kept reading recipes on Foodbuzz for oven fried catfish.  So, I bought a bag of catfish and put it on the menu. 

Drick recommended buttermilk slaw and potatoes (I think) to go with his catfish.  We had corn on the cob from the CSA so that replaced the potatoes.  Now, the question was what kind of slaw?  Drick's buttermilk?  Mrs. Huber's oil and vinegar?  My barbecue?  Regular creamy?  On the way to the office on Sunday I read an article in Southern Living touting the health benefits of avocados.  They have lutein to help you avoid macular degeneration and cataracts among a host of good things they do.  We both love avocados.  So, we decided then and there that we'd increase our intake of them.  But, I want to do this creatively.  None of this guacamole twice a week thing.  In the middle of the afternoon while working on a particularly gnarly financial plan, I had an ah-ha moment.  Why not guacamole slaw?

We got home about 6:00 and I started in on dinner.  I'd bought a small cabbage at the farmer's market so that was good to go.  We had a bag of avocados.  The question was how exactly to make the slaw...  I made a batch of guacamole that was pretty good.  But, once it was mixed with the shredded cabbage, it seemed to lose all of it's character.  So, I added more lime juice and a splash of Worcestershire and a few drops of Tabasco.  That was better but still not great.  So, I set the slaw aside and started working on Monday's dinner.  Since I knew I'd be in my Columbus office all day Monday and would get home maybe by 7:00pm, I wanted that dinner ready.  Along the way, I plopped the catfish filets in the buttermilk mixture and mixed up the coating.  Then, it was time to try the slaw again and see what I could do to kick it up to where I wanted it to be.  As luck would have it, time did the trick!  The cabbage had softened a bit and the flavors had blended.  I chopped up another avocado and stirred it in and it was exactly what I wanted.  In fact, as I type this, I just finished the last of it for my lunch and it was just as good the second day!  Since I was adding and tasting, measurements are VERY inexact.  And, to add insult to injury, the flash on my camera was not cooperating...

Guacamole Slaw

Ingredients:
1 small head cabbage, shredded
3 avocados (coarsely chop and reserve one)
1/2 c plain greek yogurt
cumin
lime juice
garlic
Tabasco
Worcestershire sauce
dried onion (easier than wasting 3/4 of the mongo onions I had!)
cilantro
cider vinegar
2 small tomatoes



Directions:

Peel and seed the avocados.  Reserve one to add later.  Mash the other two. 

Add the yogurt and mix well.  Add the other ingredients except for the cabbage, reserved avocado and the tomatoes. 

Stir well and taste for seasoning.  Add the tomatoes to the cabbage. 

Then, gently stir in the guacamole and reserved avocado.