Monday, January 22, 2007

Easy Guacamole

This is a recipe that I made up. It's probably not real guacamole, and it's not very spicy, but it really hits the spot on a cold day. Especially when there's a game on.
I must note that I'm not a big sports person -- I didn't play them as a child, went to a college that didn't have a football team, and would be hard-pressed to name a positive experience relating to phys-ed in high school. Still, though, living in Chicago has sparked an interest in both football and baseball in me, an interest that is superficial at best. I trace it to the food. Hot dogs, chicken wings, nachos -- naughty, naughty food that's not even prepared well. And yet... it tastes so great. Hooray for processed cheese!
Anyhow, my artificial interest in the Chicago Bears somehow paid off, since we're going to the Superbowl this year. Superbowls were always a big thing when I was growing up: we didn't have a television set in our house, but there was one that went unplugged in the basement for the majority of the year. Superbowl Sunday, though, that TV came out, along with a red-checkered picnic blanket, and we would pig out on wings and nachos on the floor for hours. What fond memories I have of that, even though our team at the time (The Buffalo Bills) never won a Superbowl. At least we made it three times, right?
Anyhow, yesterday we made some guacamole, which is a deviation from our usual Sunday game tradition, which involves copious amounts of chicken wings and celery. I was all winged out from last week, though, as was he, and we decided that a guacamole detour was just what the doctor ordered.
We served it with some local tortilla chips, which are really great because they make a no salt version. If I'm dipping, I don't need salt on my chips.

Easy Guacamole!
I start with the fillers in this recipe, because the avocados tend to brown when they're out in the open for too long without their skins. Dice 4 good-sized vine tomatoes, 1 small onion, and 1 small clove of garlic.
Add 5 peeled and pitted avocados.
Mash with a fork until the avocados are fairly smushed. A few chunks are OK, though, since they add a nice texture to the dip.
Add about 1/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro. Grind in some pepper, a few dashes of salt, and a healthy dose of cayenne pepper to taste.
Put the avocado pits back in the guacamole and cover with lime juice (about 1/2 a lime should do -- save the other half for the leftovers). The lime juice goes a long way in preventing browning.
Cover the bowl with some saran wrap or tinfoil (if you're out of saran wrap, as we were -- whoops!) and let the dip sit in the fridge for at least an hour.
Serve with tortilla chips after stirring to incorporate the lime juice (and removing the pits from the dip). You may want to save the pits, though, to put back in any leftovers you may have. Along with the lime juice, the pits will keep the guacamole from becoming brown. It's OK to eat brown avocados, but it's just not as pleasant to look at.
We had so much left over that we used it as a topping for hamburgers. That was also delicious.
Sometime later this week (in preparation for the Superbowl!) I'll give my patented wings recipe, which has fans all over the globe panting for more. It really is that good.

This post was edited on 2/1/07 to add a link to the Authentic Chicken Wings recipe.

No comments:

D & I design merchandise related to the HUAC hearings. Visit our store: