I cooked: Astronomical Canapes (Avocado, Tomato, Mushroom)

Have you planned your New Year's Eve menu yet? If you're planning to throw a party, these canapés will make a great addition. 

If you think the name of the canapés sounds a little bizarre, let me explain. This canapé was concocted during the Blogger MasterChef finals in mid October, whereby the mystery box ingredient turned out to be avocado. Most contestants were quite surprised with the mystery ingredient but since the finals was held in a shopping mall, it was not possible to give us meat or poultry or seafood to cook since there was no washing facilities at all during the cooking stage.

Anyway, back to the avocado. I wanted to make a creamy mushroom soup topped with an avocado quenelle, but they had no soup bowls!!! So I had to improvise with the ingredients I have taken, and decided to make a simple canapé.  What I like most about it is it's vibrant colour, so I think this will look quite pretty on the dinner table. It is also light tasting with a nice tang from the lime. 

Since the Blogger MasterChef contest was run by Astro and Nuffnang, I decided to call it Astro-nomical Canapés when I was asked to present my dish to the judges. Do you like the name? :)

Astronomical Canapés

Canapé of Avocado, Tomato and Sauteed mushrooms
Preparation time: 25-30 minutes
Cooking time: 5 minutes


Ingredients
100g white button mushrooms and Swiss mushrooms, diced
Fresh parsley, finely chopped
1/2 onion, finely chopped
1-2 tbsp olive oil
2 ripe avocado
2 limes
1 tomato, diced
4-5 tbsp UHT cream
Salt and pepper
1 pack canape water cracker

1. To remove flesh from avocado, cut half, remove seed and then scoop out flesh using spoon. Avocado browns quickly when exposed to air, so add the juice of 1 lime to it. Put the avocado and cream in a blender and blend to a puree, season with salt and leave aside.

Other ingredients I took (thinking I was making a soup)

2. Heat olive oil in a frying pan over medium high heat. Cook the onions for 2 minutes, then add the mushrooms and cook for another 2 minutes. Add half the parsley, season with salt and pepper and remove from heat.

3. For the tomatoes,  place the diced tomatoes in a bowl and add the juice of one lime and the remaining parsley. Season with salt and pepper.

4. To assemble, first put a generous amount of avocado cream, followed by the tomatoes and finally mushroom on top.

Not much cooking involved, but it sure makes a pretty dish.

Something you can prepare in a jiffy for a party you are throwing.

*Did not have a scale during the competition, so all ingredients are estimated. 

*This recipe was featured on Asian Food Channel's Facebook page on 10 October 2012.