The REAL Avocado Overdose, feat. "Reina pepiada"

A month ago I wrote about my mother's avocado tree. I said that last year was a big harvest and that this year we wouldn't be so lucky, remember? It turns out I was utterly and completely wrong. The neighbour who always helps us came over to harvest them. He climbed up the tree and discovered that most of the avocadoes were way above the roof. The tree was full of fruit, but we couldn't see them.

He picked up most of them, leaving some behind so we wouldn't drown in avocadoes. I counted them, as usual, and there were around 290. I am NOT exaggerating. We gave them away as fast as we could, to family, friends and neighbours, and ate avocadoes everyday. Sadly, we weren't fast enough and some rotted before anyone could enjoy them.

Since we had so many avocadoes, I prepared my favorite arepa filling, called "Reina pepiada". It's a mixture of chicken, avocado and mayonnaise, extremely popular in my country. This arepa filling was created in honor of Susana Duijm, a Venezuelan model crowned Miss World in 1955. Heriberto Álvarez named it "reina" (queen) for the beauty queen, adding the word "pepiada" which was an expression used in Venezuela to denote a beautiful, curvy woman. 

Preparing this chicken recipe is quite simple and, even though it's usually eaten with arepas, you can eat it in a sandwich or alone.  Also, it's a wonderful way to turn leftover roasted chicken into a fresh summer "salad".

Ingredients

(for 3 people, aprox.)

3 small avocadoes

2 tablespoons of mayonnaise

1 chicken breast, cooked and shredded

salt

 

Preparation

In a blender, mix avocadoes, mayo and salt, combining them thoroughly.

Add resulting paste to shredded chicken, and mix.

Enjoy!

I'm going to give you a little known fact about avocadoes. If you've had any leftover avocadoes or guacamole, you may have noticed that it turns brown very quickly. This is due to a chemical reaction with oxigen, called enzymatic browning. If you want to prevent this in a natural and healthy way, the trick is to use the avocado seed.

Remove the thin layer covering the seed and wash it. Then, place the seed on top of your avocado sauce and leave it there until you're ready to eat it. This will not stop browning completely, but will make it slower. 

  Also, avocado seeds are a nice and original ornament to your meals.

  

To prove my point, I left a bit of "reina pepiada" in the fridge overnight and took a picture. As you see, the portion far from the seed looks darker than the closer portion.

 "Reina pepiada" is a simple, yet tasty recipe that can be used at any time. I had it for dinner, with arepas and "queso guayanés", a Venezuelan white cheese that deserves its own post.

 

Hope you enjoyed this recipe and give it a try soon. If you do, please let me know in the comments. In the mean time, ¡buen provecho!