I definitely think my guac is pretty solid. But I tend to think of it as second to the guac you get at the Jose Andres restaurants, which is just ridiculously good.
And since they make the guac in front of you at said restaurants, I decided to actually pay attention when I went to Cafe Atlantico last week.
A note: our ingredients are the same, with the exception of the fact that A) I only sometimes add jalapeno and B) At Oyamel/Atlantico, if you kick in an extra $1, Cotija cheese gets added (kinda like queso fresco, and YUMMY). But there were differences in technique.
We both used a mortar and pestle but they had one of those awesome, giant granite ones, as mine is relatively small (I usually end up just doing a few ingredients in it and then adding to a larger bowl).
I squeeze in nearly a full lime’s worth of juice – they lined the mortar with lime and that was the extent of it.
I add salt as I go along – they salt the avocados and that’s it.
The tomato/onion/cilantro proportions looked about the same, but they don’t really do a lot of pestle-ing (is that even a word?) They rely on wooden spoons for ingredient-combining, which I think makes for a fluffier texture.
I ended up foregoing the M&P technique when I was at Andrej’s BBQ this weekend and I do think it was slightly more fluffy. I think my new plan is to buy Said Giant Mortar from World Market and try exact recreation. Now, if only I can easily find Cotija…
How do you make guac?
