Saturday, June 5, 2010

Pico de Gallo and Guacamole



I love guacamole thanks to the Bowmans. I had no idea what I was missing out on until they made it when I lived with them. Guacamole and avocados are at the top of my favorite foods list. Yum. For our BBQ on Memorial Day, I quickly threw together gucamole. The Pioneer Woman has a recipe in her cookbook for pico de gallo which she then adds to her avocado. Now, gucamole is really about personal taste. Some people like smooth, some like chunky, some add tomatoes, some don't. I happen to prefer a chunkier, natural texture with tomatoes, onion, and cilantro added in. So the PW's recipe was right up my alley. Here's the key thing I learned from her (because really it's so super easy you don't need a recipe): use equal parts of onion, tomato, and cilantro for your pico de gallo. I'd have to agree. The flavor was perfect. After everything was mixed, I didn't have to add one thing to adapt the flavor. Here we go. (I'm excited now and I'm not even making it.)

Yellow or red onion
Roma tomatoes
Cilantro (fresh, please)
Lime
Salt
Avocados

I'm not putting amounts because it'll all depend on how much you're making. I think I used one onion, two tomatoes that weren't actually roma, a whole package of cilantro, half a lime, and unknown amount of salt, and three avocados.

Dice up the onions pretty finely. Not everyone loves onions (I'm one of those people- unless they're cooked.), so finely chopping makes them more palatable. Dice up the tomatoes. Then, (you guessed it) dice up the cilantro finely. Squeeze in the juice from half a lime, sprinkle with salt, and stir together. Halve the avocados and remove the pit. Put the avocado in a separate bowl, sprinkle with salt, and mash to the consistency you desire. Add as much of the pice de gallo as your heart desires and stir together. She suggests tasting your pico de gallo and guacamole with the chips to see how salty they are together before adding any other seasonings. I think that is genius. You should know that neither of these things last past 24 hours. Her other helpful hint was that to avoid browning of the guacamole, gently press plastic wrap against the surface of the guacamole until serving.


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