Ina Garten, the barefoot contessa, is one of my main go-to resources – I actually keep a separate file in my ‘food’ folder for her recipes; I have most (I think) of her cookbooks – but I like to keep a copy of recipes I’ve tried available on the trusty old MacBook Pro – just in case.
This guacamole may be a little bit chunky for some folks, but I’m using it as a garnish for my jalapeño cheesecake, AND made it in the morning to pack and take along for an afternoon ‘do.
The garnishing of a smooth and creamy cheesecake with a chunky guacamole should be pretty clear – but since I was making this in advance and didn’t want to end up with discolored avocado – I pressed the finished guacamole into a plastic container with a sheet of Saran Wrap. This compressed the mixture a bit more than my initial chunky mix, and the clingy wrap in direct contact with the dip, along with the lemon juice, helped to keep the avocado beautifully green while we drove from our place to New Berlin to meet our friends, and then from their home to the park in Milwaukee where the volleyball pot luck and matches were to be held. Here is the result – doesn’t look like hours old guac, eh? Pretty, I think, and oh, so tasty. Still – if you’d rather a smoother guacamole, go for it and smash to your heart’s content; it’s all good.
INGREDIENTS
•4 ripe Hass avocados
•3 tbsp freshly squeezed lemon juice (1 lemon)
•8 dashes hot sauce – I used a mixture of Cajun Power Spicy Garlic and Tabasco Chipotle
•1/2 cup small-diced red onion (1 small onion)
•1 large garlic clove, minced
•1 tsp kosher salt
•1 tsp freshly ground black pepper
•1 medium tomato, seeded, and small-diced
Cut the avocados in half, remove the pits, and scoop the flesh out of their shells into a large bowl – you can use your hands to do this, and it is pretty easy, if a touch on the messy side. Immediately add the lemon juice, hot sauce, onion, garlic, salt, and pepper and toss well.
Using a sharp knife, slice through the avocados in the bowl until they are finely diced – obviously, I didn’t do this.
Add the tomatoes.
Mix well and taste for salt and pepper.
I also sprinkled some freshly chopped parsley into the mix – some folks insist on cilantro – but we have friends who don’t like it, so I mixed in the parsley and, if at home, would have offered a bowl of cilantro to pass.