Recipe of the Week: Danger's Famous Fearsome Guacamole and Salsa

And so it is, as water doth lead to wine, so then must salsa lead to guacamole.

Danger's Famous Fearsome Guacamole is born from the creation which is first the salsa. This isn't exactly rocket science to make guacamole, however few people ever make guacamole that I think tastes as good as mine, so I must be onto something...

If you're in the mood to entertain, this is a fantastic recipe, because you are going to have both salsa and guac for your chip dipping pleasure. Guacamole is like a giant vegetable smoothie, so on top of tasting like heaven, it's an insta-fusion of vitamins.

But enough of the small talk... to the recipe.

Danger's Famous Fearsome Guac (serves 4-6 people)

Ingredients:

4 Avocados
5 Tomatoes (I like Roma tomatoes best)
Fresh cilantro
1 large Green Bell Pepper
1 large Red Bell Pepper
4-5 Radishes
4 cloves of garlic (don't use garlic powder, only fresh garlic)
1 red chili
1 green chili
2 pickled jalapeno peppers
1 medium Red Onion
1 bunch of Spring Onion, only using the bottom half to the white

Step 1:

Cut up the tomatoes, bell peppers, red onion, radishes, spring onion bottoms, chili peppers*, jalapenos, and garlic into chunks, and place in a food processor or blender. (A food processor with two longer blades tends to be better than blenders with the tiny four pronged 'claw', which pulverizes too much).

Add fresh ground black pepper to the top of the vegetables, and pour in about 1 Tbsp of high quality olive oil.

Add some salt (to taste)

Place a nice fresh bunchful of the fresh cilantro onto the top of the veggies, and then start to pulse/chop in your food processor. You want salsa be chunky, so don't simply let the processor go, or you'll have made a very nice Gazpacho, but nothing I'd like to call salsa. Simply pulse, stop... pulse, stop.... pulse, stop.... until you have a nice, chunky salsa. I always taste the salsa at this point for spiciness (more peppers if not spicy, or a sprinkle of chili powder) or more salt, pepper, etc.

Mission accomplished - Salsa complete. Well done.

Now, take about 2/3 of that delicious salsa, and put it in a bowl to the side. Save the remaining 1/3 for....

Step 2:

Peel avocados, remove pits, and quarter. Place them in a bowl, and add the 1/3 of Danger's delicious spicy salsa you've set aside.

It's at this critical juncture that many people err. Guacamole should be chunky, thick... none of this smooth, whipped guacamole you sometimes see. That's garbage. So, don't use a food processor, but only a potato masher.

Mash, mash, mash, paying special attention to the marriage of that tasty salsa and the avocados. When you have a nice blended batch, stop. That's it. No more fuss is necessary. I check the taste once more, salt, pepper, etc, and move on my merry way.

That, my friends is Danger's Famous Fearsome Guacamole and Salsa. Simple, I know, but if I had a penny for every time I ate crap Guac at someone's house, I'd probably have something like 23 cents.

Serve these tasty treats with the usual fare: tortilla chips, tacos, enchiladas...

If you're from Arizona like my friend John McCain, and you have a taste for good Mexican food, then I think you'll agree this is some of the best Guacamole and salsa around.



Notes:

* Regarding the chili peppers, you can roast them in a pan before using if you like a "roasted pepper" taste to your salsas. Similarly, you can roast the red and green bell peppers the same way, and I would recommend doing them until the skin is starting to peel off of the peppers in a dry, hot pan.