Holy Guacamole!

[EIM]

I just made my own guacamole, and it's fucking fantastic.

The recipe is an old family recipe that goes back generations. Whose family, I don't know, and nor do I care. But by golly, should I ever happen across these poncho wearing avocado-niks, I shall shake them warmly by the hand, and say in loud, clear English "THANK YOU FOR THE RECIPE. RECIPE. RECIPE? GUACAMOLE? THE REC... THE RECIPE. Kelly, get the phrase book, what's the word for recipe? RECIPE? AVOCADO? GUACAMOLE? Hahahahaha. YES?"

Also great was the realisation that to make salsa, you just make guacamole, but without the avocado.

Cooking, eh? Who'd have thunk it was so simple.

[caja-dglh]

Holy Guacamole!

I would have thought you would need more tomato in the salsa as well.

Unless your Guac is Avocado + shop bought salsa, which will be very horrible.

[Incandenza]

Holy Guacamole!

EIM wrote:

Also great was the realisation that to make salsa, you just make guacamole, but without the avocado.

I make my guacamole with red onion, but my salsa with white onion.

I hope it's a chunky guacamole, and not smooth and creamy. Ick.

[Ball Comrade]

Holy Guacamole!

Come on, you can't leave us hanging like that. Where do you stand on the coriander issue? How much chilli? Lumpy consistency or just short of liquidised? vital questions unanswered here.

[ursus arctos]

Holy Guacamole!

Where did you find good avocados?

I haven't seen one in Milan in four years.

[EIM]

Holy Guacamole!

I was worried about the avocado issue, Ursus. But Sainsbo's were selling three (exactly the number I needed) 'ripe and ready' avocados in special, biodegradable packaging. I snuffled them up like a hungry truffle-pig.

Ball Comrade - I put in a little coriander, say five or six strand thingys. Two large, medium chillies. One probably would have done, as the women I'm cooking for don't really get by with hot food. And I blitzed the fuck out of it in the kenwood until it was in a stage half way between lumpy and liquidy.

[EIM]

Holy Guacamole!

Incandenza wrote:

EIM wrote:

Also great was the realisation that to make salsa, you just make guacamole, but without the avocado.

I make my guacamole with red onion, but my salsa with white onion.

I hope it's a chunky guacamole, and not smooth and creamy. Ick.

A good tip about the onions. One I shall bear in mind.

I'm making quesadillas for the main course.

[Incandenza]

Holy Guacamole!

See, I never put chiles in my guac. I think it detracts from the avocados. But I do load it up with cilantro.

[EIM]

Holy Guacamole!

I was criticised for the chili content. Fucking spoon-fed mother fuckers. They can make it themselves next time.

[Rogin the Armchair fan]

Holy Guacamole!

This is likely to descend into one of those OTF astonished threads about "expensive goop I buy from M&S? I never realised it was only made of three ingredients."

"Marie Rose" sauce for prawns and other seafood is, literally, mayonnaise mixed with tomato ketchup and a dash of vinegar.

[Rogin the Armchair fan]

Holy Guacamole!

And "tzatziki", which I've seen places selling for a pound a pot, is, completely, sour cream mixed with diced cucumber, mint and lemon juice.

[Pietro Paolo Virdis]

Holy Guacamole!

Where's the garlic?

[ursus arctos]

Holy Guacamole!

Not to mention that the base should be yougurt, and that it needs olive oil and dill.

Perhaps this "tzatziki" is another ersatz British version similar to Rogin's experience with "Mexican Food".

Are there arbitrage opportunities available between "Marie Rose Sauce" and "Russian Dressing"?

[Wyatt Earp]

Holy Guacamole!

The version with mint instead of dill is the Cypriot recipe, I think, ursus. The Turks seem to use mint fairly often as well, though you sometimes get dill. Turkish cacik often has sumac too, which Greek tzatziki doesn't seem to.

Anyway, if we start getting into "Whose Greek food is more authentic?", I'm afraid I shall be forced to raise the issue of gyros made with beef.

[Wyatt Earp]

Holy Guacamole!

I should stress that I've never even heard of taztziki or cacik, or any of its variants, being made with sour cream; that seems to have come from Rogin's fevered imagination.

[Wyatt Earp]

Holy Guacamole!

Also, right: what "OTF astonished threads"? Have I missed an entire genre?

[ursus arctos]

Holy Guacamole!

Looks like I may need to send you the names of some real Greek restaurants in the US, Wyatt. One could start here, for instance.

I've never had the Cypriot version of tzatziki (the Cypriot community in the US is significantly smaller than that in the UK), but have definitely had mint in Cacik (the name of which I always forget).

Even putting the convenience issue aside, there are sauces of this genre that are definitely worth buying premade if one does not have good fresh ingredients to hand. I would make that argument for both guacamole and for pesto when basil is out of season.

[Wyatt Earp]

Holy Guacamole!

ursus arctos wrote:

Looks like I may need to send you the names of some real Greek restaurants in the US, Wyatt.

Any in Chicago?

I'll very happily return the favour if you ever get to London, by the way; we've got some superb Anatolian, Kurdish and Greek-Cypriot places all round where I live.

[Wyatt Earp]

Holy Guacamole!

You're dead right, by the way; I think it's silly to be purist about shop-bought guac, pesto etc. The real stuff is fun to make now and then, but I wouldn't go further than that. I don't much care for red pasta sauces out of a jar, though, they seem to tend to have a tired and wan kind of flavour.

[Wyatt Earp]

Holy Guacamole!

(I notice I'm saying "by the way" a lot, by the way. I will tell you this boy, if it wasn't for the poncy nosh talk, I'd be literally indistinguishable from Rab C Nesbitt.)

[ursus arctos]

Holy Guacamole!

I had a feeling you were going to ask about Chicago.

I haven't been there myself, but have heard good things about Santorini from people whose view I trust, though it isn't as refined as Periyali (which is one of our favourite restaurants in the world).

And I very much hope to be able to take you up on the London offer sooner than you may think. This is one of the very few areas in which the culinary possibilities in Frankfurt actually exceed those available in Milano.

[Bruno]

Holy Guacamole!

I've eaten at Santorini. I remember it being good. Also pretty reasonable for downtown. There's a Greek town in Chicago, of course, but the only restaurants I've been to there were the touristy sort. Lots of opas.

[Bruno]

Holy Guacamole!

Well now that I've looked at it again, Santorini is in Greek Town, my mind must've had it moved. Anyway I'm used to associating Greek Town with places like The Parthenon.

[ursus arctos]

Holy Guacamole!

And Greek Islands.

What I understand is that Santorini has some spaces for people who know what they are eating which are opa/bouzouki free (or at least optional), and that they don't do the plate smashing thing at all.

This thread is making me extraordinarily hungry.

[Hofzinser]

Holy Guacamole!

On the Greek cookery course I went to on Lesbos the tzatziki recipe we used had no dill and mint was strictly optional - the only essential ingredients were yoghurt, cucumber, garlic, salt and olive oil. Absolutely delicious it was too.