Guacamole with butternut squash and chipotle

Guacamole with butternut squash, chipotle & queso fresco. Lucy Mercer/A Cook and Her Books

Have you ever eaten a dish in a restaurant and thought to yourself "I have got to make this at home!"?

That's what I thought when I tried Alma Cocina's guacamole with butternut squash. Alma Cocina is an upscale, modern Mexican restaurant on Peachtree Street in downtown Atlanta. (I'm such an old-timer, I want to describe its location as across from the old downtown Macy's, but it's more accurate to say that it's in the 191 Peachtree building, next door to the Ritz-Carlton). The menu features a 20-ingredient mole chicken among other treats, and this unique spin on guac. Now, I love a bowl of guacamole. I've kicked it up with bacon on special occasions, but usually go with my boilerplate guac for weeknight Mexicano. It's this recipe to which I added a cupful of roasted butternut squash and a couple of teaspoons of smoky, chopped chipotle chile. A sprinkle of queso fresco crumbles finished the dish.

Guacamole with roasted butternut squash, chipotle and queso fresco

4 avocadosAsk a question about this ingredient

Juice of 1/2 lime 

1 clove garlic, minced


Salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste


1 cup roasted butternut squash, recipe followsAsk a question about this ingredient

1 ounce queso fresco, crumbled


Tortilla chips for serving


2 teaspoons finely chopped chipotle in adobo sauce

1. Remove avocado pulp from shell and place in a medium bowl. Break up the avocado chunks with a fork. Add lime juice, garlic, salt and pepper to taste. Stir in butternut squash and chipotle. Adjust flavors. Pour into decorative bowl, garnish with queso fresco crumbles and serve immediately with tortilla chips.
   Ask a question about this step

Roasted butternut squash:

1 small butternut squash

2 tablespoons olive oil

1 teaspoon salt

1. Preheat oven to 425. Cover a sheet pan with foil. Using a Y-peeler or paring knife, peel the squash. Cut into two pieces, separating the long narrow neck from the round bottom. Halve each of these sections, scoop the seeds out of the round piece and trim the flesh into 1/4 inch dice.Toss the butternut squash dice with olive oil and salt and place on foil-lined pan. Roast at 425 for 30 minutes or until the pieces are tender and brown at the edges. Remove from oven and let cool, stirring occasionally. Store leftover squash in a covered container in the refrigerator. A small butternut squash will yield 2 cups of diced fruit.

Text and images copyright 2012, Lucy Mercer.

Ask a question about this ingredient

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.”

Don't mess with Texas (caviar)

 

The saying goes “everything is bigger in Texas,” including, it appears, the "caviar" created from the humble black-eyed pea in the vinaigrette-soaked relish known as “Texas caviar.” This dish was made popular in Texas by a chef and cookbook author named Helen Corbitt, who built Neiman-Marcus into a shopping mecca known as much for its food as its over-the-top gifts. I accent this snack with home-baked lime tortilla chips.

Texas Caviar

4 cups cooked black-eyed peas

1 medium tomato, seeded and chopped

1 small onion, cut into small dice

1 red bell pepper, stemmed, seeded and diced

Cilantro, handful, chopped, optional

2 cloves garlic, minced

6 tablespoons red wine vinegar

6 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil

salt and freshly ground pepper to taste

1/2 teaspoon dried Mexican oregano

1/2 teaspoon cumin

1. In a medium size bowl, mix together peas, tomato, onion, bell pepper and cilantro, if using. In a separate bowl, stir together vinaigrette ingredients. Pour dressing over peas. Serve with tortilla chips.

 Baked Lime & Salt Tortilla Chips

Juice of 1/2 lime

1 teaspoon water

1 teaspoon kosher salt

10 fresh corn tortillas

1. In a small bowl, combine lime juice, water and salt. Brush both sides of the tortillas with mixture. Cut each tortilla into six pieces and spread in a single layer on two baking sheets.

2. Preheat oven to 350. Bake chips in oven for 10 to 15 minutes, rotating the sheets to ensure even crisping. Serve warm from the oven, with extra salt sprinkled just before serving.

  A primer on cooking dried black eyed peas:

1.      1.  Take one pound of dried black eyed peas and pour out on a baking sheet. Sort out any rocks and gnarly-looking peas, discarding the losers.

2.      2.  Pour the peas into a large bowl and cover with water. Let soak for up to an hour or overnight, changing the water several times.

3.      3.  Drain the peas and pour into a pot, cover with water and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and let simmer for about 30 minutes, or until peas are tender. The peas will foam up and to keep the peas pretty, you may want to skim the foam with a fine mesh skimmer that can be rinsed in a bowl of cold water. Salt the peas after they are tender, never before. 

M Mmmm, you're thinking, salty and savory, I sure could use a drink to go with this, well, here you go, a Fizzy Limonade that my girls invented this afternoon.

Fizzy Limonade

3 cups water

1 cup sugar

Grated zest of one lime

1 cup lime juice (about 6 Persian limes - not Key limes)

Club soda

Lime slices for garnish

1. In a small saucepan, make a simple syrup by combining sugar, water and lime zest. Bring just to a boil, stir to dissolve sugar, then remove from heat.

2. Set up a fine mesh strainer over a bowl filled with 2 cups of ice. Slowly pour lime-flavored syrup through the strainer. Discard the grated lime zest.

3. Stir the lime juice into the simple syrup mixture.

4. For individual servings, fill glasses 1/3 full with club soda, then to the top with limonade. Garnish with a thin slice of lime.

Text and images copyright 2010, Lucy Mercer.