Thalia Learns to Cook: Guacamole!

Recipes and examples of dishes I can now make! Taken from a variety of sources and changed according to my abilities, needs, and dislike of doing dishes.

Guacamole. Food of the gods.

OK, that might be hyperbole, but it is super delicious, a great snack and a fun color. I love guacamole deeply, but it's only been recently that I've been making it regularly. Probably because I hate having to buy avocados, bring them home, and then wait for 3-5 days for them to be ripe enough to make guacamole. And yes, you do have to wait that long. Unripe avocado is a shame, has almost no flavor, and will ruin an otherwise perfectly delicious Mexican feast. However! Once you have ripe avocados (how can you tell they are ripe? When you squeeze them, they smush ever so slightly beneath your fingers. Not too much, not mushy, but a slight give), sorry, once you have ripe avocados, making the actual green dip is easy!

Ingredients:

2 Avocados (ripe! Buy them ahead of time! Put them in a paper bag on your counter! Bring them out three days later!)

1 clove Garlic

1/2 a small Red Onion

Tomato (if it's in season, otherwise don't bother)

Jalapeno (if you're feeling a bit crazy)

Large splash of lemon juice

Sprinkling of cayenne pepper

Sprinkling of chili pepper

Sprinkling of cumin (if you're feeling it)

Salt (I like seat salt)

Pepper

Method:

Cut up red onion, smash and cut up garlic, cut up tomato, cut up jalapeno (note: the seeds make it hot. If you keep the seeds in the jalapeno, it will get hot. If you take the seeds out, you will have a subtle pleasant tang but not feel like your mouth requires good-looking and many manly firemen to rescue it. But I digress).

You want everything to be in relatively small pieces, so that it's evenly distributed throughout the dip and you can get some in every bite.

Cut up avocado: If it's ripe enough, this should be very easy. Slice in half and do a little twisting motion to separate one half from the core. Then, stick your knife into the core like so: (this part is fun)

Pull the knife and core out of the avocado half. Then, it should be easy to scoop out the avocado from its peel with a fork or spoon. If you have problems with any of this, it means your avocados were not ripe enough. There's nothing to be done about it now, unfortunately, but good to know for the future.

Put all of the ingredients into a large bowl:

Start smashing everything together with a fork. Add lemon juice and all remaining spices, salt and pepper. When it's at a nice creamy consistency, taste.

This is when you can add more lemon juice, or more salt, or more spices. I usually have to add a bit more salt a lot more pepper and a small touch of lemon juice. Taste again.

Keep tasting until you get it right.

Delicious! Now try not to eat the whole thing before your husband gets out of the shower and looks at you with puppy dog eyes because you ate all the guacamole. (But again, I digress).