avocado love

Today is national guacamole day

I happened to have gotten these locally grown, organic beauties for cheap at the farmer's market, they are small, but taste great and were only 5 bucks for 6 of them

They were one of the first foods our son took to immediately and have always been a favorite of mine, I grew up in southern california and many of my dad's friends from high school grew up on ranches and continued to ranch while they had careers off the farm as well, one in particular lived in Somis and grew Haas avocadoes, so we frequently had deliveries of HUGE burgeoning bags of them free as hostess gifts, or just to unload some on us, we were lucky! funny thing is my dad does not like them! and yes even 45+ years later he still has some of the same friends from high school, but most are no longer farming in so cal....most have left the state

I love this history of the fruit from the nibble website
www.thenibble.com/REVIEWS/main/salsas/yucatan-guacamole-a...

About the Hass Avocado

The Mesoamericans “discovered” the avocado, which had grown there for perhaps 50 million years. The name guacamole comes from Mexican Spanish via the indigenous language assumed by the conquering Aztecs, Nahuatl. AhuacamOlli is a compound noun from Ahuacatl [=avocado] + mOlli [=sauce] (the chocolate based mole sauce comes from that same word, which simply means “sauce”).

The Spanish could not pronounce ah-hwa-CAH-tel and called the fruit “aguacate.” The Haas Avocadoword Ahuacatl itself means “testicle:” Aztecs saw the avocado as resembling the testicles and ate it as a sex stimulant. According to Linda Stradley on the website WhatsCookingInAmerica.com, for centuries after Europeans came into contact with the avocado, it carried its reputation for inducing sexual prowess, and wasn’t purchased or consumed by anyone concerned with his or her reputation. Growers had to sponsor a public relations campaign to dispel the myth before avocados could become popular.

There are hundreds of avocado cultivars. The Hass avocado, black-green in color with the pebbled flesh that earned it the nickname “alligator pear,” is of Mexican origin. It is one of the smaller varieties, rich, buttery and flavorful (the Hass flesh is said to have the subtle taste of toasted almonds). There are large, smooth- and thin-skinned avocados in the market that hail from the Caribbean. They have a slightly more bland flavor, and are much less oily than the Hass, which makes them less good for guacamole (they don’t mash as well, even though by looking at size, one might imagine an excellent guac yield. They are still excellent for salads and other culinary purposes.

Ninety-eight percent of the avocados grown in Mexico are Hass. “Authentic” recipes for guacamole vary, and are somewhat dependent on availability of ingredients as well as personal taste. It can be as simple as mashed avocados with salt, and if available, lime juice. Others add chopped onion or green onion, tomatoes, chiles (generally the milder serrano), red bell pepper and other seasonings (cumin, cilantro, black pepper, hot sauce, garlic). Sour cream and/or mayonnaise are called for in some recipes, but these are American adaptations and dilute the flavor of the avocado. Fusion recipes add everything from Cajun spices to goat cheese and pistachios.

I love to eat them plain sliced on sandwiches or chunks on top of scrambled eggs....I rarely make guacamole since we try not to have chips in the house, but on tacos or burritos I kind of mash up chunks with cilantro, small diced white onion, cumin, lime juice and chili powder or hot sauce or salsa whatever I have around......but honestly I love them plain the best sliced onto the top of a taco or quesadilla...divine!