1 ripe avocado
Vegetable or peanut oil, for deep frying
2 cups rice flour
1 tablespoon kosher salt, plus additional for sprinkling
Tempura batter (see below), made with 1½ cups dry mix and 2¾ cups sparkling water
Pour the buttermilk into a bowl. Cut the avocado in half lengthwise and remove the pit. Peel the avocado and cut each half into 4 pieces. If they break, don’t sweat it. Soak the avocado pieces in the buttermilk for 30 minutes. Fill a deep fryer or deep, heavy-bottomed pot halfway with oil. Heat the oil to 375 degrees F. On a rimmed baking sheet, mix the rice flour with the kosher salt. Lift the avocado pieces from the buttermilk, letting the excess drain, and coat the pieces in the rice flour. Place the avocado pieces into the tempura batter and bring the bowl to the deep fryer or pot. Carefully place the pieces, one at a time, into the hot oil. Fry until the fries are a deep golden brown, turning them once or twice so they cook evenly. Remove the pieces to a pan lined with paper towels and sprinkle with salt. Tempura Batter: If you’re going to deep-fry something, I always recommend tempura as the batter. It’s one of the millions of things about food that the Japanese have nailed. It’s crisp, light, and greaseless—the perfect batter. We use it as a secondary layer to really create a great coating for our avocado fries and our onion rings. You can make this dried mixture and keep it fresh in the freezer or fridge, and as long as it stays dry, it keeps forever. You can use seltzer, club soda, or a mineral water like San Pellegrino for the batter. If you use club soda or mineral water, you may want to cut back on the salt a little.