Tomorrow is Cinco De Mayo! With that in mind, I LOOOOOOVE guacamole. Seriously, I could eat it every day. I know what you’re thinking, why is this photographer talking about guacamole? Because there is more to life than just photos. Sometimes there must be Mexican food. I also love cooking, especially Mexican food. You can ask my wife, she will tell you that there is more than a fair share of Mexican food prepared in our house. So, today, I am going to share with you my tips and tools that will help with the process as well as my guacamole recipe.
Finding the perfect avocado!
There are few things worse than going to make guac and cutting into the avocado only to find that it is spoiled. I personally believe there is maybe a five minute window where an avocado is perfectly ripe. The trick is that you have to “feel” the avocado. If it is rock hard, it’s not ripe yet. If it is very soft, it is already rotting. I tend to buy my avocados a little firm because then I know I have a day or so to use them before they spoil. And, if you cut open an avocado that is not quite ripe, you can add a little more lime juice to your recipe to soften it up.
This tool will change your guacamole life!
I am not kidding. This is one the best things that has ever happened to me in the kitchen. This is a three in one tool for slicing, de-pitting, and scooping out an avocado. Before I had this tool, I was using a spoon to remove the pit and it always shot out and went into the sink. Strangely, all avocado pits seem to be the same size and they fit snugly into a sink drain with little to no room around them. AMAZING! Do yourself a favor, get one of these.
Going the extra mile? Get a molcajete!
A molcajete is the lava rock bowl you commonly see guacamole presented in. You can use the pestle to grind up your sliced avocado and mix it with the other ingredients. Personally, I like my guac a little chunky.
Important Safety Tip – you will need to cure your molcajete before you can use it. Otherwise you will get little bits of ground up lava rock in your food. You don’t want that. There are many ways to cure your molcajete, choose the option that works best for you.
BONUS TIP – you can also heat a lava rock molcajete and use it to hold warm food.
The Recipe
This portion makes enough guacamole for two normal people. Personally, this is what I would consider enough for one person. I told you I like the guac. This recipe comes from living in a small New York City apartment for nearly two decades and trying to be as economical as possible with using ingredients when preparing a meal for one (or two) people.
- One ripe avocado – sliced
- 5 sprigs cilantro – minced (optional if you are one of those people who gets the soapy taste from cilantro)
- 6 grape tomatoes – chopped (optional)
- Half a small red onion – diced
- One clove garlic – minced
- One half a jalapeño chile pepper (I would use a whole one, but I like it spicy – also, remove the seeds to make it less spicy)
- The juice of one lime
- Dash of salt and pepper
Another important safety tip – Don’t ever put sour cream in your guacamole if you want to stay friends with me.
I hope you give the recipe a try. If you like to cook and you enjoy Mexican food, I would also highly recommend America’s Test Kitchen’s cookbook:
