Holy Guacamole!

Genève's Kitchen » Videos

I am very excited to share the first ever video segment on my blog. I hope to make this a regular feature on my site. As you'll notice when watching I'm a total newbie at the whole cooking on camera thing. (Most notably, I was so overly concerned with prepping my area that I completely forgot to get myself camera-ready!) My aim is really to help share tricks, techniques, tools, and recipes in way that will be useful to people. I am open to any comments or suggestions! When brainstorming about a yummy, easy recipe to prepare for my debut on camera I quickly came up with the idea of guacamole. It wouldn't require me to turn on a stove so that meant that we could easily stop and restart without interrupting the cooking process. Guacamole is always a welcome addition to any gathering. There is so much to love about this dip: the creaminess of the avocado, the zing from the lime juice, the freshness from the cilantro – all of this pairing so nicely with a salty, crispy tortilla chip. I hope that you'll enjoy this!

Guacamole

2 Ripe avocados
1 Lime
1/2 Clove garlic, minced
3 Tablespoons red onion, chopped
1 Pinch coarse sea salt
5 Grape tomatoes chopped or 1/2 tomato diced
1 Small handful chopped cilantro (if you're not a cilantro fan you can omit this)
Jalepeno - optional

1) Mince the garlic – when finely minced sprinkle with the coarse sea salt and mince together with the knife using the side of the blade to help mush the mixture into a paste. Creating a paste will help to incorporate the garlic flavor without overwhelming anyone with a bite of sharp fresh garlic. (This is a great technique to use when making tzatziki too.) Add to a small/medium size bowl.

2) Chop the red onion and add to the bowl. When choosing avocados make sure they are ripe – they will give in to the pressure of your thumb when ready. Prepare the avocados by sliding your knife through the top of the fruit until you reach the center pit, then run your knife around the fruit so that it breaks open revealing two halves, one with the large round pit. To extract the pit whack your knife into the pit so that it sticks and then turn the knife to losen it – it should come right out. Just whack the knife against your cutting board if the pit remains stuck to your knife. Using a spoon, scoop out the flesh from the avocado and give it a quick chop before adding to the bowl.

3) Slice the lime and squeeze the juice from the entire lime into the bowl – the acidity from the limes will help prevent the avocado from turning brown. It also adds fantastic flavor. I like to use a fork to help extract the juice from limes – twisting it in the lime as I'm squeezing is very effective I find. (The limes that I used on the video clip had no seeds but if there are seeds in your limes you may want to squeeze the juice into a bowl to make it easier to remove the seeds.)

4) Now, here's the fun part: with a fork "mush" the avocado while also mixing in the garlic, onion, and lime juice. You can make this guacamole as chunky or mushy as you please!

5) Chop the cilantro and tomatoes and add those in – stir to combine. If you want to add some heat to your guacamole you can add some finely minced jalepeno at this point. Be really careful when dealing with the pepper though because the oils from the pepper are what irritate your eyes and cause them to sting! Also, be sure to remove the seeds and ribs of the pepper as that is where a lot of the heat comes from – the rib is that white part that holds the seeds to the flesh on the inside of the pepper. I've seen some people use rubber gloves when dealing with hot peppers – you can use whatever method you feel most comfortable with! Just make sure to wash your hands really well afterwards.

Enjoy with some tortilla chips!