What is Guacamole?

Guacamole is a Mexican side dish prepared by mashing avocados with various spices, onions, and tomatoes. The word guacamole is derived from Nahuatl, the language of the ancient Mayans, indicating that the recipe for guacamole is ancient as well. Guacamole can be served as a dip with corn tortilla chips, used as a sandwich spread, or can be used as a filling for tacos and quesadillas.

How To Make Guacamole

Making authentic Mexican guacamole is an easy, delicious addition to any table. Here are a few tips for delivering the best bowl of homemade guacamole to your next dinner party!

• If you want guacamole tonight, select an avocado the gives slightly under the pressure of your thumb when you press on the stem end. If your party is several days away, select a more firm avocado. Avoid avocados that have sunken spots.
• Avocados always ripen faster at room temperature, and best used within one week if stored in the refrigerator.
• Slice the avocado in half, then scoop out the fruit, reserving the pit. Avocado seeds prevent the prepared guacamole from browning.
• Using a molcajete to make guacamole is fun, and gives your recipe an incredibly authentic result.Spices and chiles ground in a molcajete have a pleasing, stone ground texture. Mashing the ripe avocado in the molcajete bowl picks up every particle of the ground spice mixture.
• If you don't have a molcajete, don't worry! Just mince the garlic and chiles as finely as possible. You can mash the avocado with a potato masher, or on a dinner plate using a long-tined fork.
• Try adding about 2 tablespoons each of chopped cilantro, tomatoes, or onions to the recipe below to give you guacamole a crunchy fresh flavor.
• Any recipe for guacamole can be served as a dip with corn chips or veggies, or served as a side dish with roasted meats or tacos.

Recipe: Spicy Guacamole

1 clove garlic, peeled
¼ tsp whole black pepper
½ tsp sea salt
1 fresh chile Serrano or your favorite fresh spicy green chile, (approx. 2” long)
2 medium avocados, peeled and cut into chunks (reserve the avocado pit)

Using a molcajete, grind the garlic, black pepper, sea salt, and chile, until they form a fine paste. Add the avocado chunks, and mash well along with the spice paste. After a couple of minutes of mashing, the avocado and spice paste should be well combined. Serve the guacamole in the molcajete, garnished with the reserved whole avocado pit.

Serves 4

Word Nerd Alert - The word Guacamole is a combination of two Nahuatl words: Auácatl, which in addition to translating as "avocado" can be translated as "testicle," and mole, which means "sauce."

What Type of Equipment Do I Need to Make Fresh Tortillas?

If you have never made tortillas before, you might have a few questions on which model is the best tortilla press for you to buy, where to buy a tortilla press, or how to care for your tortilla press.

Traditionally, tortillas were patted out by hand, and laid on a hot griddle to cook.  Many cooks in Mexico still hand pat tortillas, but even legendary Mexican culinary expert Diana Kennedy admits that it is a tough skill to master. A manual tortilla press, made of cast iron or cast aluminum, is what is used in the majority of Mexican households and restaurants.

Remember that only corn tortillas require a tortilla press. As it contains wheat gluten, flour tortilla dough is too stretchy and elastic to be pressed out in a tortilla press. Flour tortillas must be rolled out with a rolling pin, known in Mexico as a palote or rodillo.

Knowing How To Select A Quality Tortilla Press

Many of the common tortilla presses that come out of Latin America use cheap finishes and hardware that wear out quickly and rust. Personally, I really like the IMUSA cast iron tortilla press. The plates are heavy, which means you don't need to physically apply as much force to the handle to get a good even press. The cast iron has a non-stick finish, and the pivot pin is aluminum, so you don't have to worry about rust.

Regarding tortilla size, smaller is more authentic. Throughout Mexico, the standard is a 6.5 inch size small tortilla press. Tacos are smaller, more delicate and contain only a few morsels. That way, you eat them quickly, before they have time to cool.  In the U.S., however, consumers prefer larger, burrito sized tortillas. For those chefs, there is the 8 inch large tortilla press. You need to buy the size tortilla press that fits your preference.

An Insider Trick for Making The Perfect Tortilla

You will need to make two plastic sheets to use in your tortilla press. Usually these are fashioned out of zipper style plastic storage bags. Just trace a circle the same diameter as your tortilla press onto both thicknesses of the bag. Cut out the circle so that you have two round plastic sheets.

Use and Care of  a Tortilla Press

To make a corn tortilla, open your tortilla press, place one plastic sheet on the bottom plate, place a golf ball sized portion of dough on the sheet, and  top with the remaining plastic sheet. Lower the top plate onto the ball of dough, and press the handle to flatten the dough to an even thickness of around 1/8 inch. Pull the pressed corn tortilla from the tortilla press, then peel away the outer plastic, laying the raw tortilla on your hand. Once both plastic sheets are removed from your corn tortilla, you are ready to lay it on a hot griddle and cook.

To cook your tortilla, think of a corn tortilla as having three sides: a "setting" side, a "cooking side" and a "puffing" side. Once you lay your tortilla on the griddle, allow it to cook for approximately 15 seconds, so that the dough "sets." Then, using a spatula, flip your tortilla to the "cooking" side and let it cook for about a minute. Then flip again to the "puffing" side, when the tortilla has become cooked well enough on both sides that air gets trapped inside the layers and expands. After about 10 seconds on the "puffing" side, your tortilla is ready!

Tortilla press care is easy.  Just wipe it down after use and put away. Never put your tortilla press in the dishwasher.

Por una mirada, un mundo;
por una sonrisa, un cielo;
por un beso... yo no sé
qué te diera por un beso.

Translation:
For a glance, a world;
For a smile, a heaven;
For a kiss, I don't know
what I would give you for a kiss.

Gustavo Adolfo Bécquer (1836-1870) Poeta Español

Romance shouldn't be on anyone's "to-do" list,  or involve a hurried trip to the mall. As everyone knows, romance starts in the heart, in the mind, the eyes and if you're like me, in the sharing of a meal. When we first met that special someone, I would bet that it all began at dinner, or at least over a cup of coffee.  With a little forethought and planning, you can create a genuine and sincere moment to share with the one you love. For just a couple of hours, you can be Romeo and Juliet, Frida and Diego, or Harry and Sally.

For me, one of the greatest romantic couples of all time is Pedro and Tita in Like Water for Chocolate by Laura Esquivel. Because of complicated family structures in the early 1900's, Pedro is coerced into marrying Tita's sister, yet all three, along with extended family members and eventually children, live under the same roof. Tita spends each day for 22 years yearning for the man sitting next to her at the dinner table. (Wow!)

Tita's cooking has magical effects on those who try her dishes, especially the final recipe she prepares: Chiles en Nogada or Poblano Chiles in Walnut Sauce. Originally created to celebrate the colors of the Mexican flag, Chiles en Nogada are only prepared on the most special of occasions.  It's no wonder that the author crafted the story's climax to coincide with the serving of this dish: they are that good.

Chiles en Nogada  - Poblano Chiles in Walnut Sauce (after Laura Esquivel's Like Water for Chocolate)

Chiles:
8 fresh chile poblano (do not remove stems)
½ lb ground pork
½ lb ground beef
1 small white onion, minced (about ¼ lb)
1 Granny Smith apple, peeled and minced
1 heaping tbls raisins (about ½ oz)
1 heaping tbls dried crystallized pineapple, minced (about ½ oz)
1 tomato, peeled seeded and chopped
1 ½ tsp sugar
Sea salt and freshly ground pepper to taste
1 pomegranate

Sauce :
2 tbls butter
2 oz unsalted walnuts
2 oz unsalted pecans
2 oz blanched unsalted almonds
4 oz queso cotija, finely grated (an aged fresh Mexican cheese, optional-if you can find it)
1 ½ cups half and half
Sea salt to taste

Wash the poblano chiles well, and roast directly on a gas flame, or under a broiler. Once the chiles have blistered and blackened, wrap them in a clean cotton towel, and cover with a glass bowl, in order to capture all of the steam. Allow to steam and cool for about 20 minutes. Remove them from the towel, and then carefully peel the chiles using your fingers. You can use a paring knife to scrape off any loose peel. Slit the chile lengthwise, turning out the interior bulb of the stem where the seeds are attached. Remove the seeds either by scraping them out, or by cutting out the bulb, while leaving the stem intact. Rinse the chiles to remove any stray bits of charred skin or clingy seeds. Set aside.

In a 10” skillet, brown the ground pork, beef and minced onion. Once the meat is no longer rare, add the remaining ingredients, and allow to simmer for about 20 minutes.
Peel your pomegranate and liberate the seeds, taking care to keep them from bursting. The whole seeds will be your garnish.

To make the sauce, in a separate 10” skillet, melt the butter. Add all of the nuts, and allow to brown for about 7 minutes over medium heat, carefully watching that they do not scorch. Once browned, add the nuts to a food processor, blenders, or using an immersion blender, blend the nuts, adding the half and half as necessary to make a smooth sauce. The sauce should be the consistency of a thick, warm salad dressing. Return the sauce to the pan, salt to taste, add any remaining half and half, the queso cotija, and heat gently for about 10 minutes as you prepare the chiles.

Fill each of the chiles with a couple of spoonfuls of the meat mixture, and place on a platter with the open slit to the side or underneath. Do not overfill. Once your platter of chiles is ready, top with the warm sauce, and garnish with the pomegranate seeds.

Serves 4 as a main course or 8 as an appetizer

Recipe Point of Interest: The candied pineapple in this recipe is a replacement for the traditional Mexican citrón, which is a sugared, crystallized barrel cactus.