Guacamole
One of the first things that you'll notice is that this is essentially a Salsa Bandera with avocado added. And yes, this wonderful stuff uses the same ingredients and techniques. Since the Salsa Bandera post covered most of the technique points I'll concentrate on the other essentials.
I'm expecting Arizona relatives to stop by for lunch on their way to San Diego. I'll be going to the world famous Camacho's Place, that legendary Mexican food restaurant in the middle of nowhere on a ditch bank between the cattle feed lot and the hay company. Expect some pictures on that sometime tomorrow. Since Camacho's is where I learned about things like Guacamole I make it myself and concentrate instead on the other fine food that they make.
For Guacamole, the first step is to halve, seed, and skin the avocados. Since there are a grip of folks stopping by, and they'll be hungry, I'm using six avocados. For a Gaucamole you want your avocados to be slightly soft to the touch. Being fussy while you choose your avocados makes all the difference with this. Be ruthless.
After you've cut the skinned halves into fairly large chunks stick them into a big bowl. This is a great time to drizzle the chunks with a good dose of lime (or lemon, depends on what fruit is better), I'm using the Mexican Limón, what a southerner would call a "Key Lime" except that the Florida Keys think that trailer parks and tourist dives are better use for the land than citrus groves, they buy the limes for their pie from Mexico. These limes are small and I used the juice from four of them for the first drizzling. This will help to keep the avocados from turning brown. (more on that whole turning brown issue later)
For proportions, figure on one tomato and one onion, diced small for every two avocados. Use the Salsa Bandera techniques for seeding and removing the pith from the chiles. I'm using fresh from the garden jalepeños. The amount you use is quite simply a matter of personal taste. I used five this time. All this gets dumped right into the bowl and the potato masher is hauled out and you work it into a nice, chunky sauce.
For extra heat, should you desire extra heat, you can always add in more jalapeño, or, grab the old Tapatio® and give it a healthy shake or two.
Keep at it with the potato masher until your Guacamole is a consistency that you prefer.
Serve as a dip, with tortilla chips (these are some blue corn chips that I just made), serve as a condiment to be put on tacos, enchiladas, chimichangas, hot dogs, hamburgers, or just about any damn thing you want.
Give it a try. You'll love it. Make sure that you play around with the proportions of the ingredients. Make this wonderful sauce your very own.
3B's
posted by The Minstrel Boy at 9:54 PM
11 Comments:
Just hand me a spoon and I'll make quick work of the whole bowl.
I'll be right over..is that your house with the roof on it?
Always a favorite. AND, guess what? We have the same placemats.
Looks yummy. This is similar to the way I make guaq. I smash up the avos and add a little of whatever salsa I have on hand. We have a really good locally made sauce her called Jardines. I like the chipolte flavor best. I don't put enought to make the guaq very spicy because I like to use it to cooll my palate after eating the hotter stuff.
Just yum. Yum. Yum. Yum.
For extra heat, should you desire extra heat, you can always add in more jalapeño, or, grab the old Tapatio® and give it a healthy shake or two.
I swap out the jalapeños for serranos. That puts a fair amount of heat into it. I often use Tapatio as well. And I second the advice about being very fussy about the avocados you choose - it really does make a difference.
guacamole poem
You make some over-fancy guacamole, MB. I'm more of an avocado purist when I do mine. Just mashed avo (must be a Haas, which are widely grown here -- did you ever taste a watery, flavourless Florida avocado by contrast?) with some lemon juice, salt, and a small dab of mayonnaise. That last bit was a trick I learned from my Jewish ex-wife -- gives some richness and intensifies the natural fattiness of the avocado. It's more like mashed avocado than what's usually considered guac, but there are as many ways of making that dish as there are for beef stew.
Have you ever considered running a small cooking retreat? You could give it a very fetching name, like "commando cooking," or somesuch. You're entitled.
Emeril has nothing on you.
You could give it a very fetching name, like "commando cooking,"
Lisa, does that mean you want MB to cook without any undies?
Yes, bukko--that's exactly what I'd like, with a fatigue neckerchief worn ascot-style, because MB has panache.
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