Guacamole
One of the many things I love about living in the South is that there are an abundance of very good Tex-Mex restaurants. Italian food will always be my first food love, but it's not my only one. Houston has some great Tex-Mex restaurants and Peter and I patronize them often, maybe too often. But we just can't help ourselves. They're just so good.
Guacamole is one of our favorite Tex-Mex accompaniments, and it's something that I love making at home as much as I love eating in restaurants. I adore avocados, so I make guacamole quite often in our house and it never lasts long. I haven't always made good guacamole, though. It took me many, many batches of bad guacamole before I finally got it right. I used to use lemon juice instead of lime juice, and it always gave the guacamole a too-tart edge. I would go overboard on the salt, forgetting that we'd be scooping it up with salty chips, and I used to add tomato, but they always got mealy and made the guacamole too watery.
I also used to make guacamole in the food processor, but I realized that I don't like my guacamole too smooth. I love seeing small chunks of avocado on my tortilla chip and feeling it's buttery-smooth texture. And a couple of Christmases ago, Peter tucked an avocado masher into my stocking and I've been using it to make my guacamole ever since. It looks exactly like a potato masher, only smaller and it mashes the avocados to the perfect consistency--not too smooth, and not too chunky.
Everyone makes guacamole a little differently, and there's no right or wrong way. It's all about personal taste. Some people add scallions instead of red onion. Some people can't stand the flavor of cilantro so they leave it out, some people add a little jalapeno for extra heat. There are endless variations. Here is my personal recipe for you to try. Enjoy!
Guacamole
5 large, ripe Haas avocados
1/2 cup chopped red onion
1/4 cup chopped cilantro
1/4 cup freshly squeezed lime juice (you may need a little less, so add it a little at a time)
1/2 tsp. kosher salt
10-15 dashes hot sauce (I like Frank's Red Hot)
Halve the avocados and remove the pits. Place all the ingredients in a large bowl and mash with a fork or avocado masher until you get the consistency you like. Serve with tortilla chips.
When storing, place a piece of plastic wrap directly on top of the guacamole and gently press so that all the guacamole is in contact with the plastic wrap. This will prevent the guacamole from turning brown. Will keep for up to 2 days refrigerated.
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