Holy Guacamole!

Chefs: Lylau/JS
Recipe from: Cooking for Dinner Parties by Jenni Fleetwood

Impromptu cook-in session after a failed attempt at roughing out on the trails of Ubin proved to be quite an adventure itself. We decided on a Mexican theme for our dinner and naturally, guacamole (gwok-a-mola) worked its way into our menu line-up.

The history of guacamole dates back to the Aztecs from the 16th century Its name was derived from an Aztec dialect and when translated, literally means "Avocado Sauce"(credits to Wiki). Thanks to the many different varieties of the mono and polyunsaturated fat-laden fruit grown in Australia (where our main bulk of avocados come from), we get access to it all year round.

Mum tells me that the best and creamiest avocados are those with really rough and 'pimply' skins. To check on whether it is ripe enough for immediate use, give it a gentle squeeze and it should yield with slight pressure. If it is rock hard (like those we found at Cold Storage yesterday), it should be left for a few days at room temperature to ripen. Or..... you could get this:

Pricey (at $7.95 - 2 avocados worth) but desperate times call for desperate measures.

We found an interesting recipe in one of my cook books lugged home from the very first Borders store in the world (in beloved Ann Arbor) by Jeni Fleetwood. We tried our best to follow it but were lacking in some spices/ingredients. It tasted great anyways. The full recipe is written below.

Make your own guacamole!

Serves:4
Ingredients:
2 large ripe avocados (or 1.5 pack of the mashed avocados)
1 small red onion - finely chopped
1 red/green chilli - seeded and finely chopped (optional)
1 garlic clove - finely chopped
finely shredded rind of 1/2 lime and juice of 1 lime
pinch of fine sugar
225g tomatoes - seeded and chopped
2 tbsp coarsely chopped fresh coriander (optional)
1tsp ground toasted cumin seeds (optional)
1tbsp olive oil
1-2 tbsp sour cream
salt and ground black pepper


Method:
1. Halve, pit and peel the avocados. Set half aside and roughly mash the remainder in a bowl.
2. Add onion, chilli, garlic, lime rind/juice, sugar, tomatoes and coriander.
3. Add ground cumin, salt, pepper and stir in olive oil
4. Dice the remaining avocado and stir it into the guacomole.
5. Leave it to stand for 15 minutes so that the flavour develops.
6. Stir in sour cream.
7. Serve immediately