Guacamole is a bastardized word after colonialism. In Náhuatl, the language of Aztec people, who built a wide empire along Central America, the word Molli means ‘sauce’, mixed with the word Ahuacaquahuitl, that means ‘testicle’.
https://www.merriam-webster.com/words-at-play/words-from-nahuatl-the-language-of-the-aztecs/chipotle
From Ahuacaquahuitl, the word designating the fruit, in Spanish it became fonetically Aguacate, then, from that it traveled to other languages, again fonetically, as avocat, avocado, etc. Oldest Paleontology evidences of aguacate goes back to 10, 000 years before today, like corn, both found in the center of the territory of the country that we know nowadays as Mexico, or -at least- what remains from it...
Hass is the most common hybridized product from aguacate plants, patented by an American farmer bearing that very lastname, in the 1930’s. It’s world consumption and production, that carries a big deforestation and economical interest and trouble, makes avocados the 4th most important fruit globally, in XXI century.
The state in Mexico (the largest seller of avocados abroad, along with Peru, Colombia, Kenia, Israel and Indonesia) where more avocats are produced -near 85.9% of 5 million of tons per year- is Michoacán, where my father family is from. In P’urépecha language, aguacate’s name is Cupanda. It’s scientific name is Persea Americana.
Guacamole has as many recipe versions, as people makes it, almost all of them include the same ingredients, that, definitely should be native to the American continent, but of course some add spices ad libitum, and obviously there should be no Guacamole Police denouncing one recipe or another as ‘fake’.
Mine is the simplest, easiest and tastiest.... Enjoy!
Guacamole
For 4 persons
4 aguacates, fist size, ripe, but not soft (Persea Americana/Hass)
2 round red tomates, fist size (Solanum Lycopersicum)
1 green Serrano pepper (Capsicum Anuum)
1 pinch of salt
Optional
1/2 white onion (Allium Cepa)
100 g coriander leaves (Coriandrum Sativum)
1 green lime (Citrus Aurantifolia)
Blue corn tortilla chips (Zea Mays)/Pork cracklings or crisps
Tools
1 Knife
1 Spoon
1 Bowl
1 cutting board
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Wash your hands the best you can, check nails and in between fingers, your main tool should be the neatest, as for caressing your beloved one.
Slice each aguacate in halves, remove the seeds, but don’t discard them. Using the spoon as a shovel, scratching or shaving out from each shell all green avocado pulp, putting all in the bowl. Discard the skin shells.
Slice chili pepper in tiny thin dices, wash your hands immediately, and don’t touch your eyes, face, or no part of the body!
Slice tomates in medium sized dices, brunoise, macédoin or mirepoix, it’s up to you...
Put all cut ingredients together with aguacate shaves in the bowl, with your hands, squeezing tightly the largest pieces, so to make a homogeneous, but not liquid mixture. Your fingertips will tell you when it’s done.
The result should be a creamy -again: NOT LIQUID- body that can hold your spoon vertical in the center of the bowl. Texture is also very important, along with smell and flavor, for a real gourmand.
Add salt cautiously. Add the avocado seeds within the mixture, so they hide inside there. They say it helps guacamole to stay green, avoiding oxidation.
Also, both for flavor and -maybe for keeping a good color and texture- you can add green lime juice, squeezed by hand, then mixing.
Onion can be a good companion, but it’s not mandatory for this recipe, I would be discrete in general with the use of this bulb, as it can kill other flavors and also it can become not easy for digestion, like chili pepper: if you exaggerate, it can become a waste.
Coriander leaves mixed with the final sauce can be good, also as a topping ornament, when tossed as a final touch, with a celebratory confetti gesture...
Guacamole is a side dish, to start a good meal with, it’s never a main dish. You can receive friends at home, and while waiting for other invitees, you can share a good guacamole wit a little sip of your favorite bubbles, including beer of course, dipping the creamy starter with tortilla chips, but much better if you find the way to get pork cracklings......
Et voilá!
Note: if you find the way to have access to a volcanic rock mortar (Mexican molcajete), yo can change the procedure, by grinding first salt and chili in it. Then you add avocado as described, then tomato, etc... This doesn’t change flavors much, but it’s fun...
I hope you enjoy this, and I would love this can mean the starting chain of an exchange of pleasure and joy in these times of anxiety and desperate hopelessness... Share it with your friends, if you want, just please remember writing down my name...
Bon appetit!
ac
