Leave it Alone

(One Hungry Chef is a year old this week!)

Some foods should not be messed with. These are dishes who's ingredients work together in certain ratios to produce a delicious final product. Don't get me wrong, I'm all for innovating. I can't read a recipe without wondering what items I might substitute or quantities I might alter. New flavor combinations and new dishes arise from such experimentation. Neither is this about hanging on to tradition. Cooking a dish the same way over and over simply because that's how they've always been made is not something I find interesting. I'm not desperately resisting change. I am, however, adamant that certain, simple dishes should not be tampered with.

I'm thinking specifically of guacamole. Avocado, lime, onion, a chili, coriander, possibly a tomato, and salt. Don't mess with the ingredients. Together, in roughly the correct quantities, they make something magical. Start adding other flavors, and, well, you're only botching a good thing.

By way of cautionary example, the “guacamole” I recently saw in a jar listed avocado as the 5th or 6th ingredient, at about 6%. Listen people, I don't know what the hell was in the other 94%, but I can guarantee it wasn't guacamole.

Perhaps we should consider implementing AOC-style laws for everyday food products. It would then be illegal to call a parsley and peanut paste “pesto,” as so often happens. “American cheese slices” would be called “processed whey and other byproducts with a plethora of artificial stuff.” And no longer will a blend of hydrogenated oils, sour cream, onion powder, soy lecithin, tartaric acid, green No. 3, and a hint of avocado be labeled “Guacamole.”

Go forth, all you irate, internet, chip-dipping hippies, and write angry letters, smash bottles, form mobs, or, better, stop buying the fake stuff and make yourself some real guacamole.



Guacamole

2 large, very ripe avocados, preferably the haas variety
1tsp roughly chopped white onion
¼ tsp roughly chopped serrano chili
1 Tbsp roughly chopped coriander
1 lime
sea salt

Using a molcajete (a coarse mortar and pestal – go buy one) crush the onion, chili, and coriander with a generous pinch of salt. Add to this the flesh of the two peeled avocados. Mash it all up and squeeze a generous amount of lime juice over the top. Mix well, adjust seasoning, and crack open a bag of tortilla chips.

Happy Cinco de Mayo!