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Product Reviews / Main Nibbles / Salsas & DipsYucatan Guacamole & SalsaOrganic, Kosher & Avo-licious
CAPSULE REPORT: Avocados are packed with fiber, folate, potassium, vitamin B6, vitamin C, vitamin E, lutein and heart-healthy monounsaturated fats. The only challenge is portion control when it’s turned into something as delicious as Yucatan Guacamole. Yucatan Guacamole is so fine in texture, flavor and seasoning that we bypassed the chips—they just got in the way of the perfectly seasoned avocado flavor. Instead, we added those chip calories to our guacamole allotment. The Yucatan salsas are delicious, too. The products are available at retailers from coast to coast. We’ve been making guacamole since we were teenagers. It’s an easy recipe for a young person to make, especially one who has just learned the joys of Mexican cuisine. In our town, there is an authentic Mexican restaurant where the waiter mashes fresh avocados tableside in the traditional manner, using a molcajete, a mortar and pestle made of lava stone that dates back to Aztec times and earlier. The guacamole is made to our preferred degree of spiciness. Making guacamole at home was doubly enjoyable: We stuck toothpicks in the huge avocado pits and watched them sprout. Of course, no one ever grew an avocado tree. We envy friends who live in California and Florida and have avocado trees growing in their yards. We need to buy our fruit from the market and wait for it to ripen. Sometimes, though, you find a product that’s ready made and really good, like Yucatan Organic Guacamole.
The guacamole is so good that it deserved better than any tortilla chip we had around: It sent us on a tortilla chip-tasting expedition, which we’ll report on next month. In addition, we sought different ways to enjoy this savory fruit dip. *Some supermarket guacamoles have as little as 7% avocado and are primarily fillers and seasonings. †The avocado is the fruit of a tree. However, since it is savory, not sweet, it tends to get grouped with the vegetables, like tomatoes. Another way to tell the difference between fruits and vegetables is that vegetables drop their seeds externally, whereas fruits contain their seeds inside (strawberries are the exception). Cucumbers and squash, e.g., are also biologically fruits, not vegetables. Serving SuggestionsAnd so, after dipping a few commercial tortilla chips, the saltiness of which got in the way of this perfectly seasoned guacamole (fresh-made chips in the Mexican restaurants of our acquaintance tend not to be salted) we instead elected to enjoy it:
As those who have had avocado ice cream and sorbet know, there are few things that avocado does not pair well with. About the Hass AvocadoThe 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 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. Salsas
Recipes
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YUCATAN FOODS The plastic-container products are made in Mexico and certified kosher by VKNN. The bag-in-a-box products
Products are available in food stores nationwide. Prices vary by retailer. For more information visit Avocado.com.
Prices and flavor availability are verified at publication but are subject to change. |
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word 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.
