When I wondered down to the kitchen this morning, I saw two deliciously ripe butter fruits (avocados) sitting on the bench, inviting me to make my mum’s butter fruit, (soy) milk and sugar treat. Until maybe 10 years ago, this is the only way I ate butter fruit or avocados.

My mum and I are not entirely sure if it is a ‘Tamil recipe’ or not. My mum said there was a huge butter fruit tree in front of her family’s home in Jaffna with hundreds and hundreds of butter fruits.

The backdrop to the photos is one of my sarees that I bought when my mum and I went to Tamil Naadu in 2012 to visit some temples. We spent a few days in Chennai walking up and down the stairs of these enormous mind dizzying saree shops. I have always been attracted to the sarees that are soft and flowly as opposed to the stiffer more formal ones.  This saree cost about $12 AUD.

I am still searching for another culture that eats butter fruits like this. The closest I got was when I was travelling through Morocco in 2007 and avocado milkshake was a local delight in Marrakesh.

We usually eat this at any time of the day – like a dessert, or a snack or in my case today, breakfast.

My doggy aspi loves butter fruits and was watching me closely as I was taking the photos, hoping he could sneak in a little lick or even better – run off with the whole thing. Didn’t happen!

INGREDIENTS
1 butter fruit per person
Sugar (as sweet as you want it)
Soy milk or milk (as much as you want)

Scoop the butter fruit out of it’s shell and use a fork or the back of the spoon to mush it up – as finely or chunkily as you want. I like texture and chunky bits, so I don’t go too crazy with the mushing.  Add as much sugar and milk as you want.

In the photo below I have not yet added the soy milk, because it won’t photograph well.  Once the photos were done I added 2 teaspoons of sugar and 1/4 cup of soymilk before eating it.

Make it work to however sweet and milky you like it. Enjoy.