Good Guac
Several years ago, when I was moving into an apartment of my own, my good friend Margot send me a wonderful housewarming gift: a molcajete. Go on, take a minute and look that up.
If you’ve ever been to a fancy (or very authentic) mexican restaurant you may have been served guacamole in one of these stone mortars. Most of the time a restaurant will do this in an attempt to justify the price of the dish you’re enjoying or perhaps make the meal feel more exotic. However, a molcajete does allow a person to prepare certain food items in a particular way, and this way (coarse grinding) is particularly good for guacamole.
A good molcajete is nearly impossible to wash. It’s a bit like a cast iron griddle or a really nice wok. You never really clean it. You season it and then you rinse it off after every use. Seasoning a molcajete takes a bit of muscle as you are required to grind various items into the porous inner surface. Once you’ve done it, you’re good to go.
Griding the ingredients in a guacamole helps to release the various flavors and makes for an outstanding final product. My guac tends to be very strongly flavored and slighly acidic but guacamole can be anything. It’s a little like salsa: its a food item that conforms to some basic rules but can be prepared in many different ways using various ingredients. Whatever you like. Here’s what I like:
- 2 cloves garlic
- some green onion (eyeball it), thinly sliced on a bias
- half a plum tomato or a little tomato paste
- half a jalapeño pepper, minced
- cilantro (half a handful of leaves and stems, finely chopped)
- the juice of half a lime
- 2 ripe Haas avocados (they should be squishy and brown)
- salt (as much as you like)
- cumin (maybe half a teaspoon)
A molcajete allows you to mash the garlic. You could also use a garlic press, I suppose. Mash together the garlic, onion, tomato, and jalapeño. Doing this first will allow the flavors (and heat) to be evenly spread through the guacamole instead of clumping up in spots. Next, scoop the meat out of the avocados and add it to the mix along with the cilantro. Mash some more. Guacamole doesn’t have to be perfectly smooth, so don’t over-process. Finally, add the salt, cumin, and lime juice. At this point I sometimes use a spatula for mixing since the lime juice tends to thin out the mixture.
Be careful with your garlic. I use two cloves but I don’t mind my mouth tasting like garlic later. Thankfully, my fiancee doesn’t mind either. Also, be careful with the jalapeño. If you’re sensitive to heat, take the seeds out of the pepper before you mince it.
I usually have my guac with quesadillas. They’re incredibly easy to prepare. All you need is Jack cheese, flour tortillas, and leftovers: cooked meat, chili, some canned corn or cooked beans… get creative. Heat them up on a hot skillet or in the base of a flat-bottomed wok coated with a brushing of olive oil. Works perfectly.