JGE 6 - Guacamole

Good Day,

There are two ripe avocados just sitting on the counter.  If I don't do something with them right now they are gonna go bad.

I could sit and eat them with no problem, sliced with some salt and pepper and lime juice. But all of a sudden I have a craving for some good and fresh guacamole.

My Ingredients: Two Florida Avocados, the type with the smooth skin, one Lime, one Onion, one large Roma Tomato, a Jalapeño pepper, a couple of cloves of Garlic, some Cilantro, some Cumin, Salt and Pepper...

Next is the easy part, chop everything and mix...

But I do have a secret to keeping the avocado from going brown too quickly as I prepare all the other ingredients, give or take some instructions. I scoop out the flesh of the avocados into a bowl and just before I tackle anything else I squeeze the juice from the lime all over.

Whenever you cut into an avocado, you activate an enzyme, polyphenol oxidase, which causes the monophenols in the avocado to hydroxylate to polyphenols. Got that. This results in the browning you see. I stop this by introducing the acid from the lime juice, and it is the lime juice that I am going to use in my guacamole. I then put the avocado, covered in lime juice, in the refrigerator to cool up while I prepare the rest of the ingredients.

Check DesiGrub's Adventure with Food. There is a good and quick write up of Avocado Browning.


And then I discovered some great chips, Jeff Foxworthy's Grit Chips, and they are available here in Tampa at the Cracker Barrel Old Country Store. Grit chips and guacamole. And I ate the whole bowl.

Be healthy, and enjoy... I did.

Jim