Perfect Guacamole

We got this perfect guacamole recipe from Shorebird’s Uncle, and it has an amazing secret:

But first, heat the oven to 400 and get ready to roast a roma tomato and a jalapeno pepper. This is where you really control the spiciness of the guac. If you like it spicy, keep the jalapeno seeds. If you want it less spicy, cut the seeds out before you roast. If you want to really kick it up a notch you could roast hotter peppers like habanero and even do two of them. While that’s roasting, here comes the secret:

The secret is the citrus. One lime and one orange and juice the heck out of them.

While this is roasting, take three avocados, squeeze (use the squeeze trick from the avocado coleslaw) them into a bowl with the citrus, and mash.  Then, chop the garlic, cilantro and red onion. By the time you’re done chopping, the tomato and pepper are probably roasted.

You can tell a tomato is properly roasted when the skin starts to blister and pull back a little bit. Chop the roast tomato and jalapeno too and throw it all together in the bowl.

And stir!

And voila, that’s some tasty guacamole. You should be able to taste just a hint of citrus, and the roast tomato will actually be one of the stronger flavors. The original recipe from Shorebird’s uncle called for more red onion than I use. I think red onion overpowers a recipe pretty quickly, but if you love red onion, add more back in!

And here’s the thing about that amazing secret. The photo at the top of this post, where it looks so delicious? It was taken two days later. If you’ve ever made most guacamole recipes you know why this is amazing. Avocado usually turns brown overnight and even though it still tastes okay it looks very unappetizing. But the citrus keeps the avocado green for several extra days! Three avocados can make a side for dinner, and then a pretty healthy snack to nibble on here and there over the weekend.

Ingredients

• 1 roma or plum tomato
• 1 jalapeno pepper (or two or spicier peppers if you want to kick it up a notch!)
• 1 lime
• 1 orange
• 3 avocados (as loyal Shorebird and Goat readers you already know they should be more black than green)
• 1/4 red onion, maybe 2 or 3 tablespoons worth
• 1 garlic clove
• 10 leaves or so of cilantro
• pinch of sea salt

Instructions

1. Turn oven to 400
2. Quarter the tomato and peppers. Remove the tomato seeds. Keep the pepper seeds if you like it spicy, but cut them off now if you don’t
3. Roast until the tomato skin blisters. For me this was about 10 minutes. This is plenty of time to complete the next couple steps
4. Juice the lime and orange into a mixing bowl
5. Squeeze the three avocados into the mixing bowl and mash
6. Chop onion, garlic, cilantro. When the tomato and peppers are roasted chop them too.
7. Add to the bowl, add a pinch of sea salt, and stir it all together. And enjoy!

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