About a month ago Robyn and I flew to South Padre Island Texas to visit with my son and friends. We had never flown into Harlingen TX before so this time we flew into Harlingen and rented a car to drive to South Padre. While at a local Harlingen AT&T store we asked where was a good place to eat. They referred us to Pepe’s Mexican restaurant. Robyn and I stopped there for lunch and had some of the best guacamole I had ever had.
I knew that when we got back to Florida I would have to try and recreate the receipe.
After a couple of tries Robyn and I think the receipe is pretty close.
The guacamole only takes about 5 minutes to make you end up with about 5 cups (quite a bit).
There are a couple of key concepts to get right to have the perfect guacamole.
- use fresh ingredients
- use a molcajete (large mortar and pestle)
- mix loosely to get a nice chunky-ness
Let’s start with the ingredients:
- 2 japalenos
- 2 avacados
- 1/2 onion
- 3 roma tomatoes
- 2 cloves garlic
- 1/4 bunch of cilantro
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon pepper
What is a molcajete?
From wikipedia - “The molcajete was used by pre-Hispanic Mesoamerican cultures, including the Aztec and Maya, stretching back several thousand years. Traditionally carved out of a single block of vesicular basalt, molcajetes are typically round in shape and supported by three short legs.”
I got ours on Amazon. They mostly come in sizes of 2 cups, or 4 cups. I managed to find a 5 cup version, but it is really heavy.
The secret to getting the consistency correct is in how the ingredients are mixed.
First dice the hard ingredients: japalenos, onion, cilantro, garlic. And then place the diced ingredients into the molcajete along with the salt and pepper.
Now mash the petsle until you get the consistency of the mixure you like. I usually grind for less than one minute.
Diced and ready to grind
Ground to consistency we like
Dice the roma tomatoes and place them in a medium sized bowl. Add the ground mix you must made also:
Last we need to mash up the guacamole. We use one Haas and one normal? avacado. Cut the avacado in half and scoop the avacado out with a spoon into the molcajete. Mash up the avacado until you get the consistency you like. We like it a little chunky.
Avacado just spooned into the molcajete
Avacado mashed
Add the avacado to the mixing bowl that already has the diced roma tomatoes and the ground mix of japalenos, onions, etc..
Stir everything up in the mixing bowl with a large soup spoon. Put it back in the molcajete to have a great serving presentation.
