Guacamole So Good Your Friends Will Beg You For The Recipe

 
Legendary Guacamole

Actual imaginary telephone conversation:

You: "Hey, wanna come for dinner on Friday?"
Friend: "Sure! Any chance you are making Mexican food?"
You: "We'll see... talk to you later"
Friend, turns to partner: "He said maybe! I hope he makes that guacamole!"

I've never understood why people buy pre-made guacamole. The store-bought stuff ranges from barely ok to green glue. The real thing takes all of five minutes to make and tastes spectacular. I'll show you how. I usually make a four-avocado batch and it is just enough to satisfy four adults and a couple of munchkins, so you can tell how popular it is at my house.

First of all, what goes in to great guacamole? Rich, sweet, unctuous avocado set off by bright lime juice, a little sharp bite of garlic and onion, herbacious cilantro and of course a bit of salt is all it takes. If you want to gild the lily with tomato or jalapeno, that can be nice too.

The avocados have to be ripe, and they have to be Hass. Those big, tempting looking, smooth-skinned California avocados have zero flavor. There might be other varieties that taste as good as Hass but I haven't had them.

You can tell if an avocado is ripe if it gives under gentle pressure from the pad of your thumb. If the skin is wrinkly and looks like it has voids underneath, it is probably starting to rot. If you open one up and have any doubts, taste it first - and just chuck it if it isn't right. You can't make good guacamole from bad avocados.

To extract the flesh of the avocado, first carefully run your knife all the way around the pit vertically and then twist to separate the halves. Again carefully gouge the corner of the knive near your hand a little way into the pit and twist a little to remove it. Now just use a big spoon to scoop out the flesh. If that isn't clear, let me know and I could post a little video to show the moves - once you have the hang of it, it just takes a few seconds per avocado.

Guacamole tastes best freshly made, but you can hold it for a few hours in the refrigerator and it will still be great. Just press plastic wrap right down on the surface to avoid unsightly oxidation.

Here's the recipe:

Ridiculously Good Guacamole in Five Minutes
Vegetarian, vegan and gluten-free
Serves 4-6 greedy guac hounds

• 4 ripe Hass avocados
• 1 clove garlic, minced or pressed
• 1 small handful cilantro leaves, lightly chopped
• 1/4 cup finely diced white onion
• juice of 1 lime
• salt

1. Extract the avocado flesh into a medium bowl as described above.
2. Add all of the other ingredients, including 1 teaspoon of salt.
3. Mash and mix lightly. I prefer a potato masher but the back of a big fork works well too.
4. Taste and add salt and more lime juice if needed.

Savory Onion and Aged Gouda Dutch Baby - Recipe

Savory onion and aged gouda Dutch baby

Eating Out Loud and I have riffed on Dutch Babies a couple of times now. This was my first attempt at a savory version and I was pretty darn happy with the flavors. Done this way, it becomes like a very light, custardy quiche. You could serve it for lunch or brunch with a green salad (apples!), or cut it up into squares as an appetizer.

If you haven't had aged gouda before, hie thee to a good cheesemonger and get a taste. They also carry a decent mid-grade one at Trader Joe's. This is not the stuff in the red wax, people. It has an intense caramel or butterscotch flavor, and in the most-aged varieties, is rather crystalline like parmigiano reggiano. It is one of my all time favorite cheeses. I love to eat it with wine, though I'm not sure I can say what the best pairings are. Anyone have an opinion?

I also call for herbes de Provence, which is generally a mixture of thyme, basil, savory, fennel and a tiny bit of lavender. It can also contain a variety of other herbs. If you don't have a pre-mixed packet of herbes de Provence, just use as many of those individual herbs as you have available. The exact proportions aren't critical, but they should be lively dried herbs, not ones that you have had slowly turning into dust for the past 9 years. Beter yet, you could use 2 tablespoons of fresh herbs if you have them. If you do use lavender, make it just a pinch or your Dutch Baby will taste like your grandmother's favorite soap.

Savory Dutch Baby with Onions and Aged Gouda
Vegetarian; not vegan or gluten-free
Serves 3 to 5 (see above)

• 6 + 2 tablespoons unsalted butter
• 1 medium onion, thinly sliced (sweet ones like Vidalia or Walla Walla preferred)
• 5 eggs
• 1 1/4 cups whole milk
• 1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup grated aged Gouda cheese
• 2 teaspoons herbes de Provence, ground if coarse (see discussion above)
• smoked paprika (for garnish)

1. Preheat your oven to 425 degrees.
2. Saute the onion in 2 tablespoons of butter with a pinch of salt until quite soft; remove and cool.
3. Combine the eggs, milk, flour and salt in a blender at high speed for 1 minute. Stir in the onions, salt, Gouda cheese and herbs de Provence.
4. Put the 6 tablespoons of butter into a well-seasoned 12" cast-iron skillet or other large, oven-safe container. Put the skillet in the oven.
5. When the butter is sizzling, carefully pull the skillet out and swirl it or use a brush to be sure the whole thing is coated. Pour in the batter and return it to the oven. Cook about 18 minutes until puffed and golden brown. It will not puff as much as normal Dutch baby without the cheese.
6. When the Dutch Baby is done,  carefully remove it from the oven. Pad off any excess butter on top with a paper towel. Garnish with smoked paprika and serve.

Apricot and Sweet Onion Mostarda - Recipe

Mostarda of apricot and sweet onion

Mostarda di frutta is a most unusual Italian condiment. It is made most famously in Cremona (and is sometimes known as mostarda di Cremona), though I first tasted it much further south, at a restaurant in Siena that offered three varieties at the table.

The flavor of mostarda is a complex mixture of sweet and sour, fruity and pungent. It is traditionally served with blander boiled meats, but it also pairs well in small amounts as part of a cheese course (or an upscale grilled cheese sandwich). I would venture to say that if you find sweet pickles awful, this isn't for you, but if you like relishy stuff, you'll probably love it.

Modern chefs have taken this basic idea of mostarda and applied it to any condiment incorporating fruit, sugar and mustard. The recipe I'm offering you today is definitely not traditional. I'm using a single fruit (apricot), and cooking it down almost to a jam instead of keeping it in larger pieces. Sweet onion provides the structure and snap.

If you have mustard oil on hand (possibly from Indian cooking), you can use that, but I substituted a prepared Dijon mustard. The effect isn't quite the same but I think it is delicious on its own merits.

If you aren't inclined to make your own, but want to taste mostarda, here are a plethora of options on Amazon.

Apricot and Sweet Onion Mostarda
Yields about 1 cup
Vegetarian, vegan, and potentially gluten-free (be sure and check the pre-prepared ingredients)

• 5 large or 8 small apricots (about 400 grams total)
• 3 tablespoons sugar
• 1/8 teaspoon salt
• 1/8 teaspoon fresh ground black pepper
• 3 tablespoons sherry vinegar
• 2 tablespoons Dijon mustard
• dash Tabasco
• 1/2 teaspoon coriander seeds and 1 teaspoon fennel seeds ground in a mortar and pestle
• 1/2 teaspoon grated fresh ginger
• 1/2 sweet (Maui, Vidalia, Walla Walla, etc.) onion, finely diced

1. Combine all of the ingredients except the onion in a small saucepan. Bring to a simmer, adding a little water as needed. Cook 15 minutes, stirring occasionally.
2. Take off the heat and puree (using an immersion blender if you have one). Strain through a coarse sieve to remove the apricot skins.
3. Return the puree to the cleaned pot, and add the finely diced onion. Simmer about 15 more minutes until quite thick (remembering that it will thicken a bit more when it cools; you want the end result to be something like a pickle relish).
4. Taste and adjust seasonings to give a nice balance of fruity, sweet, sour and piquant/mustardy.