Game Day Prep Part 1: Guacamole challenge....

M

mariadnoca

Moderator
I think we've mentioned guacamole a bazillion times around here, but not sure any of us have posted an actual recipe.

Thought it might be fun for us to post our favorite guac recipes in time for the big game day as most stores have them all on sale right now.

Sadly my favorite guac ever started with (gasp!) a mix, it might've been Lawry's or something, but I know they haven't made it in decades. It also had some orange color that was likely some dye that would kill you. Anyway, ever since then I've been on the search for the perfect guac recipe and have yet to find it.

Care to step up to the challenge? (Also, it's seriously been kinda slow around here and I thought starting some challenges or w/e might be fun.)

What say you?!

 
Here's my fav REC: Fresh Guacamole--from ATK--I think...

Fresh Guacamole

Ingredients:

2 small ripe avocado, (preferably Haas)
1 tablespoon minced red onion
1 small garlic clove, minced or pressed th
1/2 small jalapeno chile pepper, minced (about 1 1/2
2 tablespoons minced cilantro
Salt
1 tablespoon lime juice

Directions:

1. Halve 1 avocado, remove pit, and scoop flesh into medium bowl. Using fork, mash lightly with onion, garlic, jalapeno, cilantro, and 1/8 teaspoon salt until just combined.

2. Halve and pit remaining avocado. Using a dinner knife, carefully make 1/2-inch cross-hatch incisions in flesh, cutting down to but not through skin. Using a soupspoon, gently scoop flesh from skin; transfer to bowl with mashed avocado mixture. Sprinkle lime juice over and mix lightly with fork until combined but still chunky. Adjust seasoning with salt, if necessary, and serve.
NOTES : Can be covered with plastic wrap, pressed directly onto surface of mixture, and refrigerated up to 1 day. Return guacamole to room temperature, removing plastic wrap just before serving.

 
Mine is adapted from "the vegetarian epicure book 2" by anna thomas

4 Haas Avocados, meat smashed with a wooden or silver spoon (anna goes into depth about why you don't use other metals. Just humor her…I do.)
1/2 TBL finely minced red onion (this is my preference, since I hate biting into a chunk of onion. You could use more)
1 to 2 canned whole green chilies (again, I don't like using diced or chopped greens chilies. I take the whole chili out of the can, rinse and then dice to my own taste. The texture is so much better)
1/2 small lemon, juiced.
1 (up to 2) tsp kosher salt--start with 1 tsp and taste at the end
1/4 tsp cumin
1/4 tsp coriander

Mix up well and then gently fold in:
1 flavorful tomato (I use either an Ugli or a kumato) diced and spun in a salad spinner to remove the liquid & seeds. This is important…otherwise the guac gets "watery"--a sin for which you will pay dearly.
1/4 C chopped fresh cilantro.

Good dipped with grilled shimpt

 
This is pretty much what I do, except I don't dice the second avocado. I just...

...add it along with the first one and smoosh until it is as chunky/smooth as I like.

Sometimes I leave the onion out. I lean toward a "simpler the better" approach to guac.

Michael

 
So, sealing with water is the trick. Good one. The whole pit thing, though, has been debunked.

Notice that even when a pit is left in, the only surface that stays green is the curved portion sealed by the pit...not the flat cut surfaces. The reason the area directly in contact with the pit stays green is because the pit is blocking air >> oxidation.

The test I saw placed a LIGHT BULB in half the avocado and left the pit in the other half.

The next day, the bulb and the pit were removed from both halves and their recessed pit areas were identical--both green and unoxidized. Both cut surfaces were turning brown.

 
erin, sandra, richard and I did a meet up a few years ago at Rosa Mexicano. They seriously had the

best, and I mean best guacamole. What I learned is that while it is critical to use fresh ingredients, it is equally important to use the proper technique. They made it table side. Such a treat!

Below is the recipe / notes from their website... The link also includes a video of their technique.

Now I WANT guacamole!! : )

GUACAMOLE EN MOLCAJETE
Over the years at Rosa Mexicano, we have run through so many avocados for guacamole that if you placed them side by side they would stretch from New York to Tierra del Fuego and back—maybe twice! It is our signature dish—nine out of ten guests order it. One thing that makes the guacamole at Rosa Mexicano so special is that we were among the first, if not the first, restaurant on either side of the border to serve guacamole prepared tableside in a traditional molcajete.

We are frequently asked what makes our guacamole so special. For one, we take great care in preparing the chile paste that is the underpinning of the dish—that’s where the layered flavors come from. We begin by grinding some onions, chiles, and cilantro together in a molcajete. Then we gently toss in cubed avocado so that every piece is coated evenly.

Makes 4 servings

Chile Paste Ingredients:

1 tablespoon finely chopped white onion
1 firmly packed tablespoon chopped fresh cilantro
2 teaspoons finely chopped jalapeño, or more to taste
1 teaspoon salt, or as needed
Additional Ingredients:

3 medium ripe but firm Hass avocados (about 8 ounces each)
3 tablespoons diced tomato
2 firmly packed tablespoons chopped fresh cilantro
1 tablespoon finely chopped white onion
Salt if necessaryTortilla chips and/or fresh corn tortillas
Make the chile paste: Grind the onion, cilantro, jalapeño, and salt together in a molcajete until all the ingredients are very finely ground. Alternatively, use a fork to mash all the ingredients to a paste in a wide hardwood bowl.Cut each avocado in half, working the knife blade around the pit. Twist the halves to separate them and flick out the pit with the tip of the knife. Fold a kitchen towel in quarters and hold it in the palm of your “non-knife” hand. Rest an avocado half cut side up in your palm and make 3 or 4 evenly spaced lengthwise cuts through the avocado flesh down to the skin, without cutting through it. Make 4 crosswise cuts in the same way. Scoop the diced avocado flesh into the molcajete. Repeat with the remaining avocado halves.http://www.rosamexicano.com/index.php?action=page&id=2226

 
They have a terrific cookbook too. The chef, Roberto Santibanez, went on to open a new

place and write a couple more books. Love him and have cooked many, many things from his books.

 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top