CHOKO.

How to make something with little or no flavour, and even less sex appeal, taste and look delicious. See, that’s the great thing about this blog and being a chef in general. The challenges that get thrown at us every day. Fuck… I find it enough of a challenge to remember which way to sit on the toilet seat.

That’s right.

Professional cookery aint for the week minded. It’s the choice for the leaders of tomorrow, the thinkers, the ones that don’t back away from a challenge. A challenge like making something tasty with a choko.

I said to myself, I said Graz, I said for christsakes man, don’t choke-o. And don’t be temped to do a choko pickle. Every opshop and old lady’s cupboard from here to Kyogle* contains at least one batch of of bright yellow choko pickle.

Apparently the old ladies seek them out, and I have been told by my local choko man ‘Goughy’, that they seek the highly prized ‘ghost choko’ most of all. Rumor has it that they have a firmer texture then the regular old ‘green choko’**, and make a local agricultural show stopping choko pickle. “Eff yes”, I can imagine old Gladess getting hold of the ghost choko and knowing she had the uppper hand over Ethel and Marg in the upcoming CWA cooking competition.

Bit o’ beating around the proverbial old bush going on here.

Alright… I can do it… I can jump puddles. No… I can make stuffed chokos.

We’re gonna stuff these little puppies with a fistful of flavour and see what they reckon. The two varieties, both with the same stuffing just to compare the firmness.

Oh, and this recipe is for Kate. Without her queries about chokos I would not be here right now, faced with this daunting challenge. I would be sitting back on the couch getting a little tipsy… watching MacGuyver re-runs…

STUFFED CHOKOS

• take the choko of your choice, peel it and cut it into 2cm thick disks
• take out the central seed with a cookie cutter just  big enough to take out the centre, or a parisian scoop aka. The melon baller.
• put the rings into a baking dish and stuff it with some nacho beans or left over spag bog mince
• splash with a little olive oil, grated cheese or bechemel sauce and into the oven, 200C for 10-15 minutes, or until starting to bronze up a little
• serve on a tomato and cinnamon sauce, or with salsa criolla (recipe follows), or have it with both for the ‘choko supreme’
• this is definitely my new favourite choko recipe, albeit my only one

SALSA CRIOLLA

4 tomatoes, med dice

1 each red and green capsicum, med dice

1 red onion, bruniose

1 lime, juiced

¼ lemon, juiced

1 Tbls EVO

1 tspn soy

• combine all ingredients
• use left over salsa for corn chips and beers on a Tuesday night (yeah. Corn chips and beers is great on a Tueasday night too), or halve the recipe if you don’t like beers and corn chips

Now go fourth, battle old ladies for a choko, and make something delicious with it.

*Kyogle. A country town two days horse ride inland from where I am right now.

**Green choko. May not be it’s actual name. It works for me though. And it is clearly green.