Holy Guacamole

I decided to make some guacamole today.  The slow cookin' way because I had the whole day to play with my food.

It was so cool to use all garden ingredients - except for the avocado.  But, hey, it's not like I live in California or something.  On second thought, maybe my DH will build me a hothouse!  Hmmmm...

So what I did was...

Slow cook about a dozen shallots and 1 1/2 heads of garlic in about a tablespoon of olive oil with 2 teaspoons of butter.  They took about 5 hours to turn into melted savory goodness.

All caramelized.  All deliciousness.  Once they were done, I let them cool down in the pan.

I got some nicely ripened avocado's at the market.  Once I cut them in half, I twisted them to pull the sides apart, then did a dice pattern - not cutting through the skin - to make it easy to scoop out the insides.

I used a spoon to scoop out the avocado into a bowl that had about 2 teaspoons of lemon juice in it.

I needed the lemon juice to a) stop the avocado from turning brown and b) add a little acid to the guacamole.

Now here's the most important part.  Use a fork to mash the avocado.  I know that it's easier to use a Cuisinart, or a stick blender or a potato masher.  Don't.  Use a fork.

It'll mash into better sized pieces and the creamy to chunky proportion will be just perfect.  My DH's brother learned this from a Mexican grandmother.  And if you can't take the word of a Mexican grandmother on this, whose word would you take?

Use fork.

Creamy chunky goodness.

Add in 1/4 cup of diced jalapeno pepper and 3/4 cup minced parsley.  What can I say, I don't like cilantro.

Then add about 2 cups of diced, drained tomatoes.  Freshly picked and still warmed by the sun's kiss.

Then add about a 1/2 cup of your roasted shallots and garlic goodness.  Sprinkle on about a teaspoon of sea salt.

Mix it all together and let it sit and meld while you make the tortilla chips.

Cut a pile of tortillas (I used 4) in half.  Pile them up and cut that pile into 1/3s.

Add a teaspoon of olive oil to the pan that you were using to cook the shallots and garlic in and let it get nice and hot.  Put a few pieces of tortilla in the oil and toast them - lightly.  Flip them once, sprinkle about 1/16th to 1/8th of a teaspoon of salt on them, let the other side toast a little bit.  We're not going for brown here, just a little crisp and nice and warm.

Put a few on a plate, top with a big spoonful of the guacamole and serve to your DH!  Okay - eat a few first and then bring him a plate of them.

They were really good.  The tortilla is still foldable since it wasn't crispy browned so I could load up on the guacamole.  The light salting of the tortilla was nice - and the best part was that I didn't end up with salt burns on my mouth from eating.

My DH really loved them.  And the best part is that now he has left-overs - or in his words, finally something good as a left-over.

Guacamole - simply lovely!