Lemony Guacamole

From River Cottage Veg Everyday!, Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall, Bloomsbury, 2011.

Recently I read in A History of Food in 100 Recipes of what was apparently the first cookbook. An epicure named Archestratus travelled around his known world from Syria through Greece and Italy and nearby countries tasting all of the various foods he could. He wrote about what he had experienced describing how best to cook them. Good ingredients with simple cooking methods to bring out the full flavour of the foodstuff being cooked seemed to be his message. And he told it all in verse. Inspired I decided to do the same with this guacamole.

Take a chilli (red) and chop it fine.
Next coriander joins the line.
Now peel an avocado
Cut into cubes just so.
In a bowl now mash all three
lumpy not puree velvety.
Stir in juice of a lemon half,
Olive oil — not a full carafe
Only enough to please.
Now salt and pepper, and ease
The mixture onto a plate.
Taste. It should be great.

Well, the inspiration turned out to be not so inspired: a piece of dull doggerel to amuse myself. So here’s the recipe in prose.

For this guacamole I chopped a red chilli and some coriander. An avocado was chopped roughly and added to these with the juice of half a lemon. With a fork I then mashed the avocado a little, but not too much. Some olive oil was added and stirred in to loosen the mixture a little. Then salt and pepper were added to taste.

I found this to be a reasonable guacamole, though I feel that the lemon seemed to overpower it just a little. Perhaps a half a lime might have been better to make it a limy guacamole. Plus a hotter chilli for the one I used was a little of the mild side.

Taste: ✔✔✔

Ease of cooking: ✔✔✔✔✔