Mark Best’s Delcado with Nori, Pine Nut and Sesame Praline
Mark Best’s recipe is neither sweet nor savoury with an edible 'skin’ and is on the table in under an hour – a dish sure to impress your guests. Mark finds the creamy, nutty flesh of Delcado avocados to be a 'perfect marriage with the honey and sesame' and the best avo for delicate dishes like this one.
Serves 4
Prep Time: 30 mins
Cook Time: 25 mins
Ingredients
2 ripe Delcados
4 sheets nori
50 grams sesame seeds
100 grams pine nuts
150 grams caster sugar
Method
Toast the sesame seeds and pine nuts until golden over a moderate heat. Leave to cool.
Prepare a baking tray with lightly greased baking parchment.
Add the caster sugar to a heavy based pan. Place over a moderate heat until it starts to melt and turn golden, stirring from time to time to stop it from burning. Continue until all of the sugar has melted and has turned a dark golden.
Keep heating until the sugar starts to foam a little, is quite dark and small wisps of smoke start to appear [150 c]. Remove from the heat, quickly add the pine nuts and sesame seeds and stir well to combine.
Place onto a tray and spread out as thinly as the pine nuts will allow. Leave to cool [around 2 hours until crisp].
Quickly toast the nori sheets over a gas flame. Cool the sheets then blend to a powder.
Crush the praline using a mortar and pestle.
Cut the Delcados in half and remove the seed by carefully chopping into it with a sharp kitchen knife and twisting. Carefully remove the skin of the Delcado using a large spoon.
Roll the outside of each Delcado half in the nori powder to coat.
Overfill the centre with the praline and press down with the flat of the spoon. Serve on a plate face down.