Cookaholics Bulletin Board

All,

If you haven't heard of the NY Times "guacamole with peas" furor at this point, you've been hiding from the internet for the last week. If you did, go and google "guacamole with peas" and the search links alone will provide you with a good summary of the controversy.

Apparently folks care about proper guacamole more than they do about ISIS terrorism. Both Jeb Bush and President Obama came out against guacamole with peas[1].

Anyway, I have no desire to contribute to arguments about Melissa Clark's culinary ability here. Instead, a different question:

a) what's you standard guacamole ingredient list?

b) what unconventional things have you added to guacamole, and where they any good or not?

(1: yes, really: http://www.nytimes.com/politics/first-d ... guacamole/ )

My guacamole is very simple. Avocados, lime juice, garlic, cilantro, salt and just a little jalapeño. Not very exciting, but we like it.

I do Alton Brown's recipe. Avocados, a bit of red onion and chopped tomato, cilantro, garlic, salt, cumin, and quite a lot of lime. Finished with a dash of Cholula hot sauce. I like it a bit chunky too.

By peas, I'm assuming you mean edamame, since they are adding those to just about everything. I made some hummus with edamame that was very good, but I'm not sure I would like it in guac. Seems the flavor would overpower the avocado. My favorite is still the recipe I got from Diana Kennedy, which is simply a basic salsa added to the mashed avocado - tomato, onion, serrano chile, cilantro, and salt. Garlic, lime juice, and other things I've added were good, but reduced the avocado flavor. However, one change I often make to it is to use a different chile in it that is delicious: Hanoi Market or Bulgarian Carrot. Not readily available, these very different, fruity tasting peppers go great in guac and fresh salsas.

Avocado, lime juice, garlic, red onion, adobo sauce from the chipotle jar, S&P, cumin, and (since I hate cilantro) a bit of ground coriander seed.

Dave,

Nope, English Sweet Peas. Yes, really: http://cooking.nytimes.com/recipes/1015 ... -guacamole

To be fair to NYT, though, the original peas-and-guac recipe actually came from a restaurant in Dallas.

For my part:

Avocado, a little lemon or lime juice (like < 1 tsp), a very small amount of finely minced onion and myabe tomato, salt, and ground hot pepper of some kind. General idea is for it to be 98% avocado. I've never used garlic.

I have made a sauce with roasted tomatillos and avocado which is a lot like guacamole, and was quite good, although I wouldn't have called it guac. The other addition which worked out for me was roasted giant corn kernels (i.e. homemade cornnuts), which made for a "double crunch" with the chips.

Other additions I've tried ... like sour cream, queso fresco, or vinagrette, just made for something which was wierd without being good.

Fuzzy,

That just sounds like somebody trying to come up with a cheap way to stretch guac when avocados are expensive!

I forgot about the tomatillo guac I tried. Like you, I thought it was good, but so different that I didn't even think about it when remembering various recipes I've tried. Another that was good, but totally covered up the avocado flavor, was a recipe with chipotles. Almost anything is good with chipotles!

We didn't know we liked guac until we had some in mexico. What passes for guac around here is pretty horrid. I've only since made it once, the recipe from Truly Mexican by Roberto Santibañez. It was really good, and we'll be making it again. Maybe during this kitchen reno, since it has only one dish, really. Getting the avacado's to the right age was the hard part, and quite a lot of travel recently made that tough. Nothing odd in it, though. Peas sounds interesting; a bit of a different dish, I think, but possibly good.

A place we've used for catering a few times puts feta in the guacamole. It's really good. Doesn't overpower at all in the amount used.