The Secrets to Great Guacamole at Home 

On vacation I read a travel magazine that featured an article about a cooking school in Mexico at a posh resort called Las Ventanas al Paraiso that is located in Los Cabos. In the article executive chef Fabrice Guisset talks about making a classic guacamole recipe that he says is “the best guacamole in Mexico.”

My wife is the guacamole maker in our house and she makes, in my opinion, a great guacamole. She tells me the trick is not to over work the avocado and that’s exactly what this article talked about. It said, “Every bite should have a slightly different taste and texture.” It went on to say, “if it all tastes the same, it’s no fun to eat and it hasn’t been made right.”

Basically, what they are saying is if you put all the ingredients into a blender or food processor and puree them up, you won’t be able to taste the different layers with each bite. I’m sure most of you are used to a whipped style of guacamole that you are served at Mexican restaurants or purchase at the supermarket.

Not there is anything wrong with this style guacamole. We purchase a brand of refrigerated guacamole at Costco that is perfect when someone drops over unexpectedly and you need a quick appetizer. We usually buy a few at a time and keep some in the freezer. My wife has often adds some pieces of fresh avocado to give it the extra flavor and texture and our friends rave about it.

Back to the Best Guacamole

According to Chef Guisset, the secret to great guacamole is the “combination of whole avocado pieces plus slightly mashed avocado and other ingredients.” The article describes, “the outside of the fruit, just under the skin, is softer than the flesh closest to the pit.” So ideally, you want to mash the softer pieces of the flesh and combine it with the firmer pieces.

Of course you want to use a ripe avocado and not a rock hard unripe one. You won’t get anywhere with those. Once you have the avocado prepped, you want to combine it with, according to Chef Guisset, “small amounts of raw onion, tomato, cilantro, lime juice and salt, all to taste.”

The Best Tool For Preparing Great Guacamole

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How to Grill Corn on the Cob

Someone left an Everyday with Rachael Ray magazine at the summer house we are renting down in Avalon, NJ and I found this interesting recipe I am going to try this week. Since I just wrote about Jersey sweet corn and how great it is and how many ways you can cook it, I thought a grilled corn recipe would be helpful.

Basically you are grilling the corn and adding a parmesan butter to it. You can prepare dozens of flavored butter using various herbs and ingredients. This receipe is for Parmesan butter, but you could try basil butter, rosemary or how about a combination of herbs and goat cheese.

In other words, go out and experiment with what’s growing in your own garden or create some butters using your favorite ingredients. Once you see how easy they are to make, you can make different butters for all your favorite dishes.

Grilled Corn with Parmesan Butter

Serves 8

Ingredients
1 stick of butter
½ cup parmesan cheese, freshly grated
½ teaspoon pepper
6 ears of fresh corn
2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

Prep the ingredients

You want the butter soft so you can leave a stick out for a while and it will soften up. I guess you could stick it into the microwave but be careful not to end up with liquid butter. You just want it soft enough to mix with the other ingredients.

Husk the corn. This recipe calls for grilling the corn husked, but I have often found it easier to grill it with the husk on. You don’t get those great grill marks on the corn but I find there is less chance of burning it this way. Choose whatever way you are more comfortable with.

Cut the corncobs in half. I like this idea because it makes the corn look a little fancier when serving, is the perfect size for kids and keeps from ending up with a bunch of half eaten ears of corn.

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Insalata Caprese is the fancy gourmet name for tomatoes, mozzarella and basil, a dish I eat all summer long as soon as the fresh local tomatoes are ready.  Now I find out the Reluctant Gourmet is preparing them all wrong.

I was first told I was making them wrong by Connie Devlin, the mother of one of my wife’s close friends, Susan Devlin. Connie, of Italian descent,  possibly makes the best meatballs I’ve ever tasted. During a weekend visit to Susan’s home in New Jersey, we were preparing Insalata Caprese for a dinner party and I suggested adding a little aged balsamic vinegar.

Connie jumped all over me and said, “No vinegar. You don’t mix tomatoes and vinegar.”

“What, no aged balsamic vinegar!”  I didn’t believe her for a minute and continued my balsamic vinegar ways and enjoying every moment.

News to Me

So here I am on vacation in the beautiful oceanside community of  Avalon, New Jersey reading a few week old food section of The Philadelphia Inquirer and lo and behold I come across an article on Insalta Caprese.

And what do you think they say about making this classic summer treat? No vinegar. I am shocked, dismayed and still disbelieving so I read further.

Insalta caprese comes from the southern Italian island of Capri and according to tradition, the salad is made up of only five ingredients: tomatoes, mozzarella, basil, olive oil and salt. No vinegar. In fact, according to the article and in support of Connie Devlin, vinegar and tomatoes don’t work together.

Why?  Because Italians like their salad tomatoes firm, slightly green and tart rather than fully ripe and sweeter the way I prefer them.  To them, there is absolutely no reason to add more tartness to the tomatoes with balsamic vineagar. Southern Italians believe the firm, tart slightly green tomatoes are the perfect complement to soft, milky texture of fresh mozzarella.

Speaking of fresh mozzarella, we are talking about the type you find sold packed in water, not the stuff you find at the grocer in shrink-wrapped plastic that is more often used for making pizza. Don’t even bother serving those rubber balls of mozzarella with fresh tomatoes and basil. Not prudent at all.

I usually buy a tub of fresh mozzarella at Costco. It saves me a lot of money but also means I always have some on hand. The shelf life is at least a couple of weeks but be sure to change the water every once in awhile. Good quality fresh mozzarella should be soft, milky and sweet in flavor. You will know when it is starting to go just by the smell. So if you do not plan to have mozzarella every other night, you may be better off purchasing it in smaller quantitites.

The olive oil should be the best extra virgin olive oil you can afford. I like the olive oil from Georgio Zampa’s farm in Sardinia that you can read about at GatewayGourmet.com, but you can find good quality extra virgin olive oil at any gourmet specialty store and now in your local supermarkets. You don’t want to overpower the other fresh ingredients with the oil so you only need a small amount.

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