One of my most favorite things on earth is guacamole, made from one of the most perfect foods nature provides us: avocados. Being from California, I grew up with an avocado tree nearby, and for a while there was a huge Haas avocado tree in my mother’s yard (she started it as a seed). Citrus was also everywhere when I was a kid, so limes are important in any guac I’m going to eat. Although I have created detailed instructions for those who are naive to Spanish cooking or preparing unique products, this recipe is no hassle, just throw all the ingredients in a blender and put it on something (or eat it with a spoon). It’s easy! Makes about 8-10 cups of guacamole. PS I’ve fed this to so-called guacamole haters and they love it.
Here is the recipe I adapted from a friend of a friend. ¡Thank you Elias y Hiram!
Ingredients:
- Flesh from 5 ripe, medium avocados (the best are Haas avocados)
- 1 bunch coriander, rinsed and stems removed
- 1/2 large white or yellow onion, cut into several large pieces
- Juice of 5-10 limes (I usually use 8)
- 2-3 Serrano or Jalapeño peppers (or none if you’re too sensitive to heat)
- 2 peeled garlic cloves (or as much as your ancestors deem necessary)
- A generous pinch of salt (I think I usually use 1-2 teaspoons, but just salt to taste)
- Ground black pepper, to taste
- Filtered water
Method:
- Get your blender jar and set it up on your workstation (cutting board, chef’s knife, spoon, citrus juicer if you want), where you prepare and cut your products. Everything ends up in the jar. You can halve this recipe if you don’t need a full can of guacamole (8-10 cups).
- Avocado: If you’ve never cut an avocado into pieces, start by cutting down to the pit, then circle your knife to complete the cut. You will then have two halves lengthwise, turn each side to reveal the stone/flesh. Since you’re throwing it into a blender, remove the pit by gently squeezing the pit half and remove the pit. Scoop the flesh of the avocados into the blender with a spoon and throw away the peels/stone (or compost them). PS: When choosing avocados, they should be firm and have a little give, but not mushy and not hard. I always check them by seeing if it is easy to remove the little stem knot at the top by rolling over it with my thumb. If it is difficult to remove or does not move, it is not ripe. Usually ripe avocados have black skin, not green, but they can be greenish-black. If you have trouble cutting an avocado because it is too hard, it is NOT ripe. Just stop it, place it in a paper bag on the counter and check for ripeness daily. Okay… anyway…
- Coriander: Rinse the entire bunch, shake it out a bit to remove excess water so there is less of a mess, then grab both ends, grab one hand just below where the leaves stop, and twist off the long stems. This doesn’t have to be perfect, but you MOSTLY want leaves and few stems. Discard/compost the stems and put the to leaf through in the blender pitcher. When shopping, be careful with CORIANTRO and not flat-leaf parsley. They are insanely different herbs and you will shame your ancestors if you use parsley instead of cilantro. If you hate cilantro, just leave it out. But for the love of guacamole, don’t put parsley in it. You don’t want your ancestors to haunt you.
- Big onion You can fit pieces into the jug just fine, and you can use them to flatten the other things to make room.
- Chile peppers: I like Serrano the most. To prepare them, simply cut off the stem. If you want less heat but more chili flavor, you can remove the seeds by cutting the pepper and scraping out the seeds. I simply remove the stems from 2 peppers and throw them in the blender jar.
- Garlic: Remove the skins from your fresh garlic cloves in your favorite way and simply throw the peeled cloves into the blender jar.
- Lime juice: I end up using the juice of about 8 limes, but I have to keep tasting after it’s mostly blended to make sure it’s as tangy as I want it to be. When choosing limes, they should have glossy skin and be heavy for their size. Small professional tip for choosing citrus fruits.
- Add your salt and pepper.
- Now fill almost to the top filtered water.
- Cover your pitcher well and mix alternately low and high, to get this monstrous amount of material mixed evenly. You may need to stop, take the jar off your blender and push things down with a large wooden spoon or pestle, depending on the power of your blender. I use a VitaMix, so I usually just have to tap the can to pop the air bag. If your mix is too thick to complete the mixing, simply add a little more water.
- Once uniform, taste it. If you need more spiciness, add more lime juice. Do you want more salt? Add some. And so on. Tasting your food makes you a better chef.
- If you’re happy, you can place in mason jars or large non-reactive glass containers And store it in the refrigerator for about a week as long as there are no air pockets in the container. Unless you want to annoy your ancestors again, don’t freeze it. But that’s always possible give it away if you have too much. Sharing is caring.
- You can of course put this on any Spanish dish, but it is so delicious, it goes well with bagels with cream cheese, scrambled eggs or cheese omelet, hamburgers, sweet potato wedges, salads, and honestly it is just so good that I eat it with a spoon.
- There are no more steps. That’s it.
- Have fun cooking!
#Guacamole #sauce