Buy This Cookbook, #SeriousSandwich

Breakfast burrito with Black Beans and Avocado Crema. Lucy Mercer/A Cook and Her Books

 After spending a morning making sandwiches from Emeril Lagasse's brand-new book, Emeril's Kicked-Up Sandwiches, all I can say is "Avocado Crema, where have you been all my life?"

Avocado crema is the lip-smacking, eyebrow-raising, woo-hoo-inspiring garnish for Emeril's Breakfast Burrito with Chorizo, Black Beans and Avocado Crema. It puts the "Bam!" in the burrito, if you will. Breakfast burritos can be pretty ordinary fare - some sausage, some beans, a handful of cheese, a drizzle of salsa, maybe a cube or two of avocado. Emeril takes guacamole ingredients, and without giving too much away, because you really need to buy the book, creates a lusciously thick sauce to shmear over the beans, sausage, egg and cheese. Talk about your notches unknown.

I'm telling you this today, right now, because "Emeril's Kicked-Up Sandwiches" is available today at bookstores, both online and brick-and-mortar, today. (I'd be especially appreciative if you visited an independent bookseller to purchase your copy, because booksellers rock.)

 I work best under deadline pressure (and that's the story I'm going with today), so I'm going to eat this breakfast burrito as soon as I hit "send." If you want to see more of the recipes from the book, just type #SeriousSandwich in the A Cook and Her Books search box on your right for my stories. Head over to Twitter, follow #SeriousSandwich and find stories from the 21 other bloggers who've spent the better part of October cooking from this awesome cookbook.

And stay tuned for more fabulous #SeriousSandwich posts!

Text and Images, Copyright 2012, Lucy Mercer.

 With the exception of the cover of Emeril's cookbook.

Emeril’s Kicked-Up Sandwiches (Morrow, $24.99)

If you love cookbooks like I do, you gotta follow The Secret Ingredient Blog from Morrow Books

Rock this guac

Guacamole with chips by Lucy Mercer/A Cook and Her Books

I love the way supermarkets are designed for impulse buyers. From the glistening red ripe strawberries just inside the door, to the cartoon character cereal at kid eye-level, to the intoxicating scent of roasting chicken wafting from the deli at 5 p.m., it's all there to make me shove my shopping list to the bottom of the Vera and give in to temptation. The strawberries, at 2 for $5, usually make their way into the buggy, (after I turn the package upside down to check for signs of slushiness or mold). I usually avoid the kiddie cereal, but the roast chicken is another matter. I make an excellent butter-roasted chicken, but it's easier and less expensive to buy the roasted bird in the cute bag with a handle.

My other impulse buy is avocados, directly behind the strawberries in my market. The pebbly exerior of a Hass avocado hides the creamy celadon flesh, and I take my time selecting the fruit, picking up only the glossy, heavy ones that just barely give when gently pressed. I buy exactly two, because the sign says 2 for $3, and eat them over the next four days, each morning spreading half on a split whole wheat bagel - my favorite breakfast.

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Perfectly ripe avocadoes by Lucy Mercer/A Cook and Her Books.

When I'm feeling flush, and when the avocados look especially good, I'll buy extras and make guacamole, the essential smashed avocado dip. There are lots of variations out there, pureed, whipped and loaded with everything from tomatoes and onion to bacon and olives. (And in the context of loaded guacamole, this bacon version by Susan Russo is to live for). My favorite guac, however, the kind I make for just me and my family, my own rockin' guacamole, is really very simple. And like the simplest recipes, attention to technique and ingredients can mean the difference between everyday and out of this world.

My Guacamole

enough for my family of 4, multiply p.r.n.


4 avocados
Juice of 1/2 lime
1 garlic clove, minced
1 Roma tomato, diced
Salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste

1. You will need a sharp chef's knife or paring knife, and a spoon. Slice avocadoes in half along the length. Using a spoon, remove and discard the pit. Use the knife to make 1/2 inch cuts through the flesh, diagonally left to right, then right to left. Scoop flesh of three avocados into a bowl. Reserve flesh of fourth avocado.

2. Pour lime juice over avocados, and smash until the mixture is dip-like, but still chunky. Add garlic, diced tomato and salt and pepper to taste. (I go easy on the salt because of the salty tortilla chips). Add reserved avocado flesh, gently stirring in the chunks. Taste and adjust seasoning. Serve with tortilla chips.

Browning is the nemesis of all avocado preparations and I have three solutions: First of all, if you're making this dip ahead of time, place guacamole in a container that is deeper than it is wide, creating as little surface area exposure as possible, squirt some lime juice overall (remember the other half of the lime?) and place plastic wrap directly on exposed, lime-y surface, pressing into corners. Cover with lid and refrigerate.

My second tip, one I haven't tried yet, is from Bon Appetit, where they suggest cutting avocado, then rinsing in cool water. I'll experiment and report back.

My third solution, the obvious one, is to make the guacamole right before serving and to eat every last bite so there's nothing to store. No guacamole, no browning.
That's about it. What do you like in your guac? Do you have a nifty no-browning avocado solution?


 “Get Grillin’ with Family Fresh Cooking and Cookin’ Canuck, sponsored by Ile de France Cheese, Rösle, Emile Henry, Rouxbe and ManPans.”