Wednesday, July 20, 2011

2010 Census Guacamole

I worked for the Census for a year and a half, and met some wonderful people there - Shelly, Junise, Wanda, Winnie, Laura, Lori, Kathleen, Bob, Malissa, Pam, Vinh, Ginger - you know who you are! Some of them had fantastic fruiting trees in their yards, and shared the bounty. We had wonderful mangoes, papayas and avocadoes. So wonderful, it hurts to have to buy them.

No, it's not only the price, but the quality! In the supermarkets, they are invariably the Haas variety - small and crocodile-skinned, with little meat. At the farmers' market, they were a good size, with smooth green skin, but as they ripened, the skin darkened to an eggplant purple.

Avocadoes and I have a love-fear relationship. I love to eat them, but I fear they will all ripen at once - massive guacamole-making session! - or I will be too busy, and they will go into the Twilight Zone of overripe and mushy! One of the farmers' market avocadoes was ripe on the stem end, but still hardish on the blossom end, so I ended up cutting it into eighths, and using the the fully ripe avocado and the parts. Here is the recipe I made many times while Laura's and Winnie's avocadoes were so wonderful and plentiful:


2010 Census Guacamole

  • 2-3 large cloves garlic
  • ¼ medium, sweet onion
  • ¼ - ½ small tomato, chopped & drained
  • Juice of 2-3 small limes
  • 5 small-to-medium size ripe avocadoes
  • ¾ teaspoon ground cumin or more
  • ¾ teaspoon sea salt or more
  • 10+ shakes hot sauce
With food processor blade running, drop garlic, onion and tomato into bowl while it’s running and process until finely minced.  Add seeded, quartered and peeled avocadoes with lime juice, cumin, salt and hot sauce. Process until all ingredients are incorporated, stopping to push avocadoes down with a rubber spatula. Adjust seasonings to your taste. Serve with your favorite chips or crudités.

Notes: I prefer my guacamole chunky; for this, you can mash up to 3 avocadoes with a fork, mince the garlic, onion and tomatoes fine and just combine with the rest of the ingredients. For more than that, you need MACHINERY! Also, if the avocadoes aren’t buttery, add a little extra virgin olive oil.

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