Guacamole
I made some guacamole for a party yesterday. I didn't go to the party, but it was people I knew so I sent along the guacamole with someone who was going as a sort of good-wishes thing. Anyway it was pretty easy to make and I incorporated some guacamole advice from the Internet and the results were pretty good so I'm going to write the recipe.
Ingredients:
4 small avocados (2 or 3 large ones probably)
A firm tomato
1 lemon or equivalent amount of juice
4 cloves garlic (they were smallish, so again if you use big cloves maybe 2-3)
Sea salt
Get the husks and the hard bit at the base off your garlic cloves and mash them up under lemon juice. I used a mortar and pestle for this. I put in half the lemon juice during the mashing so it wouldn't be too splashy, then put in the rest to sit once the garlic was mashed. Mix a bit of sea salt into the lemon-garlic mixture and let it sit while you do the next bit.
Get the avocado meat out of the peels and slice it into small chunks. There are a bunch of ways to get an avocado out but I am partial to quartering it lengthwise and peeling the quarters.
Slice up your tomato's flesh into little squares. That is, cut it into wedges, get all the seeds and pulp out along with any particularly hard parts of the heart. Then cut the wedges of tomato-flesh into strips, then squares. By the "strips" stage it should look a lot like when you cut up a red bell pepper.
Put the avocado chunks in a bowl with the lemon mixture and start mashing it. I used a fork and then an electric hand mixer for a while, then a fork for a while longer. I like it to mostly be a paste but still have some distinct avocado chunks, but if you want more of a smooth dip texture mash out the chunks too. Put in the tomato chunks and mix it up thoroughly.
Makes a good-sized dip bowl of guacamole. Letting the salt dissolve and the garlic macerate in the lemon juice before mixing them in helps distribute their flavor, which is the internet advice I mentioned.
So that's in case you were curious how to make pretty good guacamole.
Ingredients:
4 small avocados (2 or 3 large ones probably)
A firm tomato
1 lemon or equivalent amount of juice
4 cloves garlic (they were smallish, so again if you use big cloves maybe 2-3)
Sea salt
Get the husks and the hard bit at the base off your garlic cloves and mash them up under lemon juice. I used a mortar and pestle for this. I put in half the lemon juice during the mashing so it wouldn't be too splashy, then put in the rest to sit once the garlic was mashed. Mix a bit of sea salt into the lemon-garlic mixture and let it sit while you do the next bit.
Get the avocado meat out of the peels and slice it into small chunks. There are a bunch of ways to get an avocado out but I am partial to quartering it lengthwise and peeling the quarters.
Slice up your tomato's flesh into little squares. That is, cut it into wedges, get all the seeds and pulp out along with any particularly hard parts of the heart. Then cut the wedges of tomato-flesh into strips, then squares. By the "strips" stage it should look a lot like when you cut up a red bell pepper.
Put the avocado chunks in a bowl with the lemon mixture and start mashing it. I used a fork and then an electric hand mixer for a while, then a fork for a while longer. I like it to mostly be a paste but still have some distinct avocado chunks, but if you want more of a smooth dip texture mash out the chunks too. Put in the tomato chunks and mix it up thoroughly.
Makes a good-sized dip bowl of guacamole. Letting the salt dissolve and the garlic macerate in the lemon juice before mixing them in helps distribute their flavor, which is the internet advice I mentioned.
So that's in case you were curious how to make pretty good guacamole.