Guacamole

The onion, chilli and salt ground to a wet paste before the avocado goes anywhere near them.

Vegan.

Ingredients

• 3 large ripe avocados
• ½ small white onion, very finely chopped
• 2 serrano chillies, finely chopped
• 1 teaspoon salt
• juice of 1 lime
• a handful of coriander, chopped
• 1 tomato, deseeded and diced (optional)
• tortilla chips, as on their own page, to serve

Method

1. THE ONION, CHILLI AND SALT ARE GROUND TO A WET PASTE BEFORE THE AVOCADO GOES ANYWHERE NEAR THEM, and this is the step that changes the dish. Onion and chilli chopped and stirred into mashed avocado stay as separate crunchy bits, and every mouthful is either bland avocado or a hit of raw onion. Ground first with the salt -- in a mortar, or with the flat of a knife on a board, until they collapse into a loose green-white slurry -- the salt has drawn their juices out and what goes into the avocado is a seasoning rather than an ingredient. The whole bowl then tastes of onion and chilli evenly, and there is nothing to bite on.
2. THE SALT DOES THE GRINDING AND GOES IN AT THAT STAGE. It is abrasive and it draws water out, so it is what turns chopped onion into paste in a minute of pressing. Added at the end instead, it sits on the avocado and the onion is still raw.
3. THE AVOCADO IS CUT AND FOLDED, NOT MASHED SMOOTH. Cubed into the paste and crushed roughly with a fork two or three times, so some of it goes creamy and some stays in lumps. A smooth purée is a dip and it is also noticeably duller: lumps are where the avocado still tastes of itself. A food processor makes glue.
4. THE LIME GOES IN FOR TASTE AND IT IS NOT A PRESERVATIVE. Avocado browns because the cut flesh meets air, and acid slows that very slightly and does not stop it. The real answer is to make guacamole in the ten minutes before it is eaten. Anything claiming otherwise -- the stone left in the bowl included -- is not worth building a method around.
5. IT IS MADE IN THE BOWL IT IS SERVED FROM AND NOT TRANSFERRED. Every transfer mashes it further and exposes more surface. The paste is ground in the serving bowl, the avocado goes in there, and it goes to the table in it.
6. The onion and chillies chopped as finely as patience allows.
7. Put in the SERVING BOWL -- or a mortar -- with the 1 teaspoon of salt.
8. GROUND AND PRESSED with a pestle or the back of a spoon 1 to 2 MINUTES, until they collapse into a loose wet PASTE and their juices have come out.
9. The avocados halved, stoned and the flesh scooped out in large pieces straight into the bowl.
10. CRUSHED roughly with a fork 2 or 3 times only, and folded through the paste. Some creamy, some still in LUMPS.
11. The lime juice added and folded in.
12. The coriander, and the diced tomato if using, folded in LAST with two turns of the spoon.
13. TASTED and salted again if needed.
14. Taken to the table in the same bowl, with tortilla chips, within 10 MINUTES of being made.

Our own recipe. This one was written for this site rather than taken from anywhere, so there is no source to point you at. The quantities and the order of the steps are choices, not the only way to do it.

Filed under Mexico · All recipes