The Best Guacamole

I have loved guacamole since the very beginning. When I was little I was afraid of spicy food, which was very difficult for me when I was traveling through India. I probably had more varieties of french fries than anyone should be allowed to eat in a country with that much good food. I used to think that pasta sauce was too spicy and ate it with either an ice cube or butter. The ice cube was to cool it down. I was weird.

So when my parents made guacamole they always had to make me a separate bowl without any peppers, and I'd always scrutinize the bowl and look up at them skeptically and ask, "Are you sure it's not spicy?"

The best thing about homemade guacamole is that it's only as spicy as you want it to be. My recipe below calls for one Serrano pepper (pictured above), which I like because it has flavor and some kick, but I scrape out most of the seeds.

If you want more heat, add a Jalapeño (above) or even hotter, add a Habanero (below).

If you want less heat, Pasilla (below) and Anaheim peppers have less heat, but they're bigger peppers. 

But for less heat I recommend adding a Fresno pepper (below) because they're small, so even if you scrape out the seeds, you won't be getting a lot of heat.

It may take some trial and error to find what works best for you, but I recommend to stick to a heat level you're used to. But the real secret to this recipe is the cumin. It's an added flavor kick that really makes the guacamole complete. I also think that no Mexican dish is complete without lime juice and cilantro, so try not to avoid those ingredients. Traditional guacamole has a white onion, but I prefer the crunch and color of red onion. Either way, the important thing to remember when making this is that most ingredients should be added to taste. If you're going to splurge on the price of avocados and want to enjoy truly great guacamole, make it perfect for you. Also, if you want to make a much smaller portion of guacamole, use less avocados. Depending on the size of the avocados, 3 or 4 would work for 5 people.

Guacamole
2 Tomatoes, finely chopped
1 Red Onion, finely chopped
5 Avocados
1 1/2 tsp. Cumin, or to taste
juice of 3 limes
couple handfuls of chopped Cilantro
Salt
Black Pepper
1 Serrano Pepper, finely chopped

Cut the edges of the red onion off and peel off the skin. Cut in half, put halves in a bowl, and place in the freezer. After at least ten minutes, you will be able to chop the onion without crying.

Chop the tomatoes, cilantro, Serrano pepper, limes, and onion in advance and keep to the side.

Slide a knife into each avocado until you hit the seed, then rotate the knife evenly around the avocado until it is cut in half. Pull out the see and scrap the inside of the avocado into a large bowl. Repeat with the following avocados. With a fork, mash the avocado until only small chunks are left, but not so that it's nearly pureed.

Add the rest of the ingredients and stir until thoroughly combined. Add more lime juice, cumin, salt, and black pepper to taste until you are thoroughly satisfied.

Serve with tortilla chips or as a side to Carne Asada or any dish. Enjoy!

Serves 6

Raw Beef Disaster

Oh, the horror. Even this picture is going to haunt me. It will seriously be a miracle if I can get through writing this blog without dry heaving.

For my first Mexican recipe, I decided to use the pound of ground beef sitting in our refrigerator to make Diana Kennedy's Carne Cocida en Limon or Ground Meat Marinated in Lime Juice. When you're like me and pick a recipe based on the ingredients but leave out the tiny detail of actually reading the directions, you run into problems fairly often. After really reading the directions I realized that this was a meat dish that is similar to ceviche.

Ceviche, if you've never had it before, is a dish normally made out of fish, shrimp, or other seafood, none of which is cooked. It's marinated in citrus juice and left for hours so that the juices "cook" the seafood, and then you eat it with chips or tostadas. If you've had sushi, ceviche is no big stretch. I can eat raw fish any day of the week and won't get sick.

So I thought the same thing would happen with this dish. Apparently not. I stirred the juice of two limes into the meat and covered it with plastic wrap and let the bowl sit in the fridge for four hours to "cook". When I took the bowl out of the fridge, I was slightly horrified. The meat was sitting in a pool of raw meaty liquid that looked repulsive. I read the directions again in case there were instructions on what to do with this awful fluid, but, of course, there weren't any. So I decided to stir it all up. Each time I stirred the meat, however, it made a sloshy sound and tiny pieces of meat started caking to the sides of the bowl.

But I went against my better judgement and was optimistic. So I added the rest of the ingredients: chopped white onion and tomato, salt, pepper, and  four de-seeded and chopped Serrano peppers. Then I followed the instructions and let the bowl sit on the counter. I covered it with a cloth so that the annoying flies that always plague our kitchen in August wouldn't defile it further. Two hours later, I unveiled the disaster to find that it was, once again, sitting in a pool of meaty liquid.

By this time the meat actually looked cooked. But that liquid! I poured a little out but couldn't do much without the meat falling into the sink. So I stirred it again, trying to ignore the meaty cakiness on the sides of the bowl and not hearing the sloshing sound the meat made. I looked at it for a minute, trying to figure out if I really wanted to taste this thing or not. But I decided that I had to try it, and I ate all of what I spooned onto the plate below.

It actually didn't taste bad. It reminded me of a meaty guacamole, and as soon as that analogy was uttered from my lips I regretted saying it. A meaty guacamole? I love beef and even I think that doesn't sound appetizing.

Needless to say, a few hours later I wasn't feeling too well. I popped about four Tums and some of my prescribed pills, and after about twenty minutes I was feeling better. By this time I was getting ready to go down to my boyfriend Serrano's house for a few days, and my father started pestering me to take the awful beefy disaster with me.

I had put it in a tupperware container in the fridge, and when I looked at it again I wanted to vomit. The raw meaty liquid was back! It went halfway up the sides of the container! I closed the door and told him that I couldn't even look at it.

The next day I was feeling mostly better. At Serrano's house I had some leftover El Pollo Loco for lunch. Not one of my better ideas. Serrano had a commitment that evening, so I decided to go see Eat Pray Love by myself. As I was sitting in the theater I felt that awful feeling coming back. Years of a queasy stomach have taught me to know when I need to throw up--it's a little strange, I know. But I know when it's coming and can usually hold it until the time is right. But I sat there while the trailers ran and thought, "Oh my god, not now...." So I grabbed my purse and hoofed it to the bathroom. And out came the chicken.

I toughed it out during the movie, but I kept telling myself that if I really needed to, I could leave at any time. The worst part was the beginning, since there are so many eating scenes in Italy that suddenly made my stomach hurt again. By the time she got to India (where I've contracted some of my worst stomach bugs) I was feeling alright.

Serrano made me drink about half a bottle of Pepto Bismol when I got back to his house, and pretty soon I was feeling better. Since then I've been fine, but Mexican food is the last thing I want to eat right now. And that image of that raw liquid is still plaguing my mind.

Daunted

It seems that things keep happening to hinder my exploration of Mexican cuisine.

First, I was incredibly excited to start cooking Mexican dishes, and then three days later my doctor informed me that I had gastritis and couldn't eat anything spicy or greasy and I had to stick to lean meats. That rules out a lot of Mexican food. Instead of cooking anyway and dealing with the stomach pains, I decided to postpone my Mexican Summer.

After being informed that I no longer have gastritis and simply need to be careful, I was ready to begin again. Unfortunately, I found myself in a circumstance where it was best to quit my job. Even though I am one of the many unemployed in this country, I am optimistic about this change in my life. The most discouraging part is the financial strain, which I will certainly be feeling as I continue on this culinary journey.

But even though I'm a pessimist at heart, I'm remaining optimistic. I'm not the only person in this country without a job, and I'm probably one of the many who would like to still eat well on a budget. And fortunately, some Mexican dishes are very wallet-friendly.

The real daunting task ahead is how and where to start. And who to start with. I bought three cookbooks by four giants of Mexican cooking. I also bought them all used on Amazon in Like New condition--a little trick I learned from budgeting my books for school. They all came in perfect quality and have been my reading companions the last week.

My first arrival was The Essential Cuisines of Mexico by Diana Kennedy. Diana Kennedy did for Mexican food in America what Julia Child did for French food: she introduced America to a different standard that is possible to make from home. She moved to Mexico in 1957 after getting married, and once her love affair with Mexican cuisine began, she taught cooking classes and published her first Mexican cookbook in 1972. She has published many more since and still cooks and lives in Mexico to this day. This particular cookbook is a compilation of three of her cookbooks: The Cuisines of Mexico, The Tortilla Book, and Mexican Regional Cooking. Diana Kennedy's love affair with Mexico and its food is relayed well, and it makes you want to travel to Mexico and cook with the locals. This book has no pictures, but it has many interesting facts and fundamental recipes. Next to nearly each recipe is a unique symbol that shows which state in Mexico the recipe is from, which satiates my geeky palate, since it explains why the ingredients vary depending on the region.


Next was Authentic Mexican: Regional Cooking from the Heart of Mexico by Rick and Deann Groen Bayless. This is the 20th anniversary edition, which gives you an idea of how long Rick Bayless and his wife have been exploring Mexican cuisine. They also own the restaurants Frontera Grill, Topolobampo, XOCO, Frontera Fresco, and now Red O. Rick Bayless has written many, many books about Mexican food, but I sampled the original version before and thought it would be a good start. He has a thorough introduction to Mexican cuisine and each recipe has a Cook's Notes section with alternate ingredient suggestions, tips on technique, timing, or variations. These are very helpful, especially if you're new to cooking Mexican food. There are two sections of pictures for a few recipes, but there are also drawings throughout the book that are helpful guidelines.


Last, but not least, was Mesa Mexicana: Bold Flavors from the Border, Coastal Mexico, and Beyond by Mary Sue Milliken and Susan Feniger. These two chefs are responsible for helping my taste buds make the distinction from Mexican fast food to Mexican cuisine. They have written other cookbooks, including Mexican Cooking for Dummies, but are best known for their restaurants Ciudad and The Border Grill. I have been to both restaurants in LA, and the first time I had fried plaintains at the Border Grill I thought I'd died and gone to heaven. Recently I tried the Yucatan Pork Taco available at the Border Grill Truck and thought I'd died again. It was a culinary delight that had a variety of flavors that surprisingly complemented each other incredibly well. I have every intention of hunting that truck down in the future so that I can scarf down many more. The cookbook does not have pictures, but it has a variety of recipes and cooking tips that are also helpful. The love these two chefs have for Mexican food is clear throughout the book, and that always makes me want to cook more.

With cookbooks like these, how can you not love life or appreciate food? What I love most about Mexican cuisine is the flavors that tempt, tease, and satisfy the palate. The tricky part is figuring out which book to try first.

Un Verano de Mexico

I am very excited to announce that this year I will be hosting a month for Naomi Devlin's Go Ahead Honey, It's Gluten Free! For the month of November my theme will be Oaxacan Cuisine, which will begin on an important Mexican holiday-- Dia de los Muertos or the Day of the Dead. I will be your guide, since this is a cuisine many people are unfamiliar with, but I know that you will all enjoy the delicious results. I will review cookbooks and restaurants and provide names of specialty markets to help navigate your way through Oaxacan cuisine. I hope that many of you will join me and send in your recipes, pictures, and stories.


To prepare for this, my theme this summer will be Authentic Mexican Cuisine, and it will be Un Verano de Mexico, or a Mexican Summer. I am familiar with some traditional Mexican food, but admittedly not as well as I would like. So this summer I will bring Mexico's rich culinary tradition to you. If there are any recipes that you request, I would be happy to fulfill them. I will start off simple with things such as guacamole and Mexican Hot Chocolate to help familiarize you, and then we can delve into more complex dishes. 


Considering The United States' current relationship with Mexico and its many immigrants into our country, I believe this is an opportune time to truly appreciate our neighbors to the south. Mexico may be a very complex country that some may see as a problem, but I believe that we will only enrich our lives if we see the true value any other nation has to offer. I think that it does not benefit us to place any country over another, and I know that embracing other cultures and cuisines makes us more knowledgeable and opens our lives to rich experiences. 


Mexican food is also a staple of this country, and many of us would be very unhappy without it. I can only truly speak for the Southwest United States, since we are most heavily influenced by Mexican cuisine. But let me tell you--I spent two months doing volunteer work in India in 2003, and when I came home I ate nothing but Mexican food for two weeks. When I went to Fordham University in the Bronx for two years I hiked in a blizzard to Baby Bo's, the only affordable Mexican restaurant I knew of in Manhattan, because I missed Mexican food so much. My cousin Violet, who grew up in Northern California and Southern Colorado, has been teaching English in China for a year and posted on her Facebook page that when she comes home in a few months Chipotle will run out of food. 


Most of the Mexican food we eat, whether it be at Taco Bell, El Torito, Acapulco, or On the Border, is typically not traditional Mexican cuisine. It is, however, food we are now very familiar with, have become accustomed to, and crave. Most of my friends hit up taco trucks or burrito stands after they've gone out all night. And these friends are not only Mexican but English, French, Italian, Filipino, and German. As Americans we have invited Mexican food into our melting pot, and I believe it is now time to appreciate truly great and authentic Mexican food. I hope that you will accompany me on this journey to discover the amazing things Mexican cuisine has to offer.