How to make Guacamole

A friend shares his recipe of guacamole.

Read on!


I don't take glossy magazine photos. I don't make an effort in posing the food to make it seem more delicate. If anything, I want my picture to reflect the truth about cooking. Sometimes, it's delicate, sometimes it isn't. But how it looks, and more specifically how it's presented doesn't necessarily say anything about the taste and quality. 

Believe me, I'm all about food looking good - the appearance is part of the experience. But not at the expense of the taste and the integrity of the food.
Besides, if you follow my blog, you probably know that it's not really about the food either. It's about something else.

Sure, there are recipes here. That's expected from a blog about food (and toys...?). And on occasion there are decent pictures too.
Let me try to explain what I'm talking about. I will use the recipe I had for Skyrim Sweet Rolls as an example. The pictures of the process and the finished result aren't all that special, but the posed pictures are.

I try, as far as possible to avoid any artificial visualization of what I have made and how I make it - unless I'm trying to put it into a different context. The top picture is my natural way of taking picture of what I make - the effort is put into making the food, and the picture is merely a documentation.  It shows the finished result of the Sweet Rolls. Nothing more. The second picture is a more stylized picture - where the effort was put into taking a good picture. The picture is now a presentation on its own merits, and shows the Sweet Rolls in a greater context.

I see the need for those glossy life-style magazine pictures of pink blogging stay-at-home mothers. Sometimes you need inspiration, sometimes you need a good picture of omelet, not necessarily an honest picture of high quality food. In those situations, my omelet won't suffice. Did you know you're looking at a picture of a world class omelet? Like reality-altering-good. Well, this picture would never be good enough for a recipe book, because I don't feel the need to make it into something it's not. It's not a magazine picture. It's just a picture of an omelet.


I'm being unfair, because I'm aware that it's possible to combine a delicious presentation and actual quality in the food that's being made.
But I try to be unpretentious, and result are pictures like this:

Sure, the sushi is neatly placed on the serving plate, but it's a far cry from the stuff you'll find if you google "beautiful sushi plate"

As you get to the actual topic of today's blog entry, I hope you don't take the above as an excuse for poor pictures that soon will follow.
Because it totally isn't.

Really.

So it happens that I'm actually surrounded by people who are extremely skilled cooks. They are not complete, but all have their strong sides. My family has had a tradition for decent efforts in the kitchen. My mother still bakes great cakes, and has the world's best waffles on her repertoire. My sister is very creative, and has some really awesome dinner plates. And my father... Well, he taught me how to make The Bread.

Some of my friends are also able to create stuff of very high quality. I have a buddy who will contribute next week with a - for me - new way of using eggs. And today, I'm showing off the guacamole recipe of another friend.

Guacamole
1-2 avocado
1 boat garlic
1/4 finely chopped red onion
1/4 finely chopped tomato
Some salt
Some pepper
Some lime juice
Some Sriracha sauce (optional)

I guess you could use Tabasco, Heinz Chili sauce, or anything spicy here. We made it without spicy sauce this evening. 


I love how specific he is about it. It's almost as if I had written it myself. But honestly, I have never made guacamole myself. So this was a very welcome addition to my repertoire and this blog.

It doesn't really matter in what order you add the ingredients, but if we are to follow my friend's way of doing it, you start with the avocado.
Follow up with the chopped garlic, tomato and onion.
Don't waste the juice from the tomato, as this is much needed liquid.

Squeeze a healthy amount of lime into the mix and mash it together.

You now have guacamole.


And despite how it looks like in the pictures, it's damn good!


Of course, at this point you can also add the Sriracha if you want.
It's a strong sauce that's easily identified by the chicken pictured on the bottle. They sell it in many asian food stores. Worth getting, not only for the guacamole, but as a generally versatile spicy sauce.

Thanks to my buddy Christian for a great recipe.
Enjoy, people!