Guacamole
One of the delights of living in Southern California is that not only do we produce most of the nation’s avocados, we also consume most of them. And I try to do my share. I usually serve it as a dip with tortilla or potato chips, or with taquitos(rolled tacos) and refried beans as shown in the photo.
There are lots of recipes for guacamole, and you’ll find them pretty easily without looking very hard. But around here, we don’t do some of the things others do.
INSTRUCTIONS
For starters, we don’t add mayonnaise, sour cream, or other things that stretch the quantity. Yes, it saves money, and avocados are expensive, but if you’re going to spend the buck, why not enjoy the full flavor? So we just use avocados and seasonings.
I prefer the Hass variety, and the commercial growers have been steadily replacing the Fuerte and other varieties with Hass. Hass is available year round now, and ships well because it has a thicker skin than other varieties.
The fruit is ripe when it darkens from green to nearly black, and yields gently to a squeeze. Run a knife around the fruit starting at the stem end, cutting through to the seed. Then twist the two halves in opposite directions, and they will come apart with the seed stuck in one of the halves. Whack the seed with the knife, give it a twist, and the seed comes free.
Now with a knife without a sharp point, you can score the meat of the fruit up and down and back and forth, so when you scoop it out with a spoon, it’s already diced.
Mash the avocado in a bowl. Then mix the following:
3 or 4 avocados
1/2 teaspoon garlic salt
juice from one whole lemon
2 teaspoons Tabasco
Now you can modify this to your own taste. You can change the quantities listed above, and maybe make some of these additions, as shown in the second photo:
diced jalapeño pepper
lime juice
onion powder
diced tomato
diced olives
chopped cilantro
diced onion, or green onion
All these things are good, just don’t get so carried away that you can’t taste the avocado any more!