For a long time I failed to see the point of guacamole. It was a tasteless green paste that occasionally showed up on your plate at natural foods restaurants, the proprietors apparently believing that its sickly chartreuse hue contrasted pleasingly with the dish you had ordered.

Then in 2002 I had a religious experience. At the end of a fine week at a cycling camp run by Lon Haldeman and Susan Notorangelo (see link to PAC Tours), we now-hardened roadies decided on a night out in Tucson. Imagine if you will a mile long strip of Mexican restaurants, only very few of them were mere generic Mexican – instead they featured cooking from the Yucatan, or Oaxaca, or Veracruz or Chiapas, and so on. A veritable cornucopia and only one meal to eat. Happy sigh.

Once we chose a place and ordered drinks, the waiter asked us if we wanted guacamole. The consensus was yes, so I went along with the crowd. Shortly thereafter the guacamole lady showed up with her cart, and after asking how we wanted it, proceeded to mash up the avocados and our chosen condiments in a large bowl. The result was a revelation – fresh, flavourable and very satisfying. I kept a close watch on how she made the stuff and have developed this recipe based on her technique plus a bit of experimentation. It’s dead easy to make and extremely delicious.

Guacamole Recipe

Principles:

Guacamole is a rustic peasant food. It should be fairly rough in appearance: basically a well blended mass but with lots of chunks of avocado of various sizes. Looking a lot like this:

Using a blender or food processor to make guacamole is an abomination.

Many people add garlic. Though I am a fervent aficionado of the stuff, I don’t think it adds anything to guacamole – in fact it muddies up the flavour to my taste. However chacun à son goût.

If you are fortunate enough to live in California than it’s worth having the argument about whether Hass avocados are better than Fuertes. For the rest of us you are stuck with whatever your grocery store or vegetable box provides, so worry not.

There is a lot of misinformation available on how to tell whether an avocado is ripe. The bottom line is that colour is no indication of ripeness. The only reliable way to tell is to gently press on the stem end of the avocado. If it feels hard the avocado is not ripe; if it feels soft and squishy it’s probably overripe. What you are looking for is a bit of give; a slight softness.

The recipe

Ingredients (for two as a major part of a meal, or for four as an appetizer. If the latter, have the next course ready to avoid the mournful puppy dog looks of your guests when they realize that it’s all gone).

two avocados

half a small onion, thinly sliced

a small handful of cilantro

half a lime

half a small fresh Jalapeño, seeded and chopped

a small fresh tomato, seeded and chopped. If you can’t get a really ripe tomato, use a heaping teaspoon of good canned tomato, chopped.

coarse salt

The Technique

Break up the onion slices into rings and place them in a small bowl. Shake a good helping of salt over them (say about half a teaspoon), then add water just to cover. Set aside. The point here is to reduce the harshness of the onions. They will need to sit for about ten minutes. Drain and chop roughly.

Peel the avocados. They have a large seed in the middle so the best method is to make an initial cut to contact the seed, then run your knife around the perimeter to divide the beast into two halves. Get a grip on one half, rotate the other slightly along the cut and it should come free.

 

 

Take your kitchen knife and gently whack it into the seed. The seed should come away with the knife.

 

 

 

 

Now take a spoon and scoop the avocado flesh into a medium sized mixing bowl. Chop and squish the flesh to the required rough texture.

Using a mortar and pestle pound together the cilantro, onion, and Jalapeño. Use a good pinch of coarse salt to help break up the ingredients. Again, you are not looking for a smooth paste, just a well incorporated mixture with some chunky bits.

Stir this into the avocado, then add the tomato and stir again.

Squeeze half a lime over the mixture and stir again. Taste and add salt or lime to taste.

Now enjoy. The best bet is to just scoop it up greedily with tortilla chips. A nice Mexican beer (Pacifico or Dos Equis) is a good accompaniment, but any lager would do. A fresh white wine such as an Alsace riesling, vinho verde or a not too aggressive sauvignon blanc would also work. Mind you I finished this batch with a glass of barbera d’ asti so it’s quite adaptable stuff.

Let me know if you have any favourite twists on this wonderful stuff.