Green queen (+recipes)

Malawi avocado cheesecake. Photo / Supplied

Most of us have, at some stage, found ourselves on a committee aimed at generating wads of cash.

My last high school fundraiser involved a Ready, Steady, Cook-style stage show where people bid on an online auction for a sumptuous three-course dinner created out of goodie bags holding delights such as cheerios, baked beans, eggplant, muesli, snake lollies and rotisserie chicken.

With flour dusted everywhere and some decidedly scorched eggplant, I thought I'd bitten off more than I could chew. But when it comes to epic fundraising events, I had nothing on the students of four Florida high schools, who, in October last year, raised funds by making the world's largest serving of guacamole.

In the Holy Moly Redland Guacamole celebration, these students peeled and squashed some 1587kg of avocados, juiced 500 limes; diced 227kg of tomatoes and bound it all together with 45kg of mayonnaise. They produced more than two tons of guacamole in seven hours.

Impressive - but it makes me wonder why Kiwis don't have a crack at the record, as this delicious fruit, a member of the berry family, grows extremely well in the North Island's temperate climate.

Avocados are also known colloquially as alligator pears, reflecting their shape and leathery skin.

The evergreen avocado tree can grow up to 19m high and comes in dozens of varieties. New Zealand has three main varieties, with only one month where they are scarce.

The easy-peel pear-shaped Fuerte is harvested August to October, the black, pebbly-skinned Hass from October to March, and the large, round, green Reed avocado from February to June.

Often at a fruit and vege stall, you will find me pressing the top point or neck of the fruit to see if they have some give and are ripe enough. Unripe avocados need to spend time in a brown paper bag or in a fruit basket with bananas and kiwifruit. As the fruit ripens, the skin darkens and, once ripe, they can be refrigerated - but leave the stone in to help stop oxidisation.

If need be, you can freeze avocado by mashing the flesh in a blender with a little lemon juice. Then place it in a sealed bag and expel all the air before putting it in the freezer. To defrost, it's best left in the fridge overnight.

To open an avocado, cut around the circumference, then twist gently to expose the two halves. Tap the stone with the heel of a knife and gently pull it away from the flesh. Take a large serving spoon and scoop between the flesh and the skin, then remove the halves for slicing.

For sandwiches, I recommend slicing the halves into thin slabs. For salads I use a melon baller while the flesh is still attached to the skin.

Here are some slightly more unexpected ways of using this amazing, versatile fruit. If only there'd been an avocado in my surprise bag of ingredients on fundraising night.

Avocado icecream
Malawi avocado cheesecake