Guacamole

I mentioned guacamole in my previous post, and that got me thinking about, well, guacamole. A quintissentially Mexican specialty, guacamole is an avocado salad or salsa, often (but not always) incorporating chiles and chopped tomatoes.

Everyone has their own favorite way of making guacamole, I suppose, and I'll give you my recipe. But by far the most important part of a guacamole (next to the quality of the avocadoes, I guess) is its consistency. Mix, mix, mix, mix, mix—as most recipes I've found advise you to do—and you'll end up with avocado purée. That's not guacamole. Guacamole has to be chunky and firm. It's not a dressed avocado, of course, there has to be some mixing involved. But what you must avoid is overmixing. Overmix your guacamole and you'll end up with what passes for guacamole in most delis and supermarkets: a pea-soup-like gloop, an embarassment to the name guacamole.

So here it is, my recipe for guacamole. I have no idea how authentic it is. But I guarantee you it's delicious.

2 ripe avocados
1 small tomato, diced
1 scallion, thinly sliced
2 cloves garlic, finely minced
juice of 1 lime
salt, to taste
a few drops of hot chile oil or chile sauce (Tabasco is fine)

Peel the avocados and remove their pips. (Tip: The easiest way to do this is to slice the avocado in half, lengthwise. Then pick up the half with the pip in it, and put it in your left hand (or right hand, if you're left-handed), with the pip facing upwards. With the other hand give the pip a light thwack with the blade of a chef's knife. The knife will embed in the pip, at which point you just give the knife a quick twist and pull, and the pip will come out attached to the knife. Easier to do than to describe.)

Put the avocados in a medium-size bowl, and give them a few rough chops with a fork, breaking them into large chunks. (Don't overdo it.)

Toss in the tomatoes, scallions, garlic and salt, and mix these ingredients in, trying not to further cut the avocados. You'll notice that this is impossible—the avocados, assuming they're ripe, will break up a bit more anyway. That's good, we want that. The key is to mix in the ingredients while trying not to disturb the avocados. That way the avocados will get disturbed just the little bit that we want.

Squeeze the lime juice over the mixture, add the chile oil, and stir again with the fork to incorporate everything. Here you'll see the avocados really start to break down. Stir just enough so that everything is mixed in evenly, and stop. You're done. The gaucamole is ready.