You forgot to add a pound of cilantro per avocado. At least, that's what it seems like here in California... If you're allergic to cilantro, as I am. I love it, but it makes my lips and throat swell and it tastes like soap if there's too much.

Peas? Did some desperate chef decide this was a good idea?

along with firm tomatoes, diced jalapeno peppers and green onion. Everything you need is in the pico de gallo, which is an outstanding addition to almost any food.

If I ruled the world cilantro would be against the law.

(JOKE)

People say it tastes like soap

tastes like. i just know it's vile. BLEAH! BLEAH! BLEAH! (LOL)

Once at lunch hour, I went to a salad bar and loaded up on pasta with bits of green leaves on it that I assumed was parsley. When I tasted the reviled cilantro, I spent most of the remainder of my lunch hour picking all of it off. BLEAH!

Can customize it to suit yourself.

I like Mexican food - as long as the cilantro is under control. I'm extremely unlikely to make my own ANYTHING.

Once you learn, you need never eat a bad meal again. I love to cook. Learned by watching my mother as a child.

When I was about 15, I complained one day about being bored. My mom was heading out the door, and said, "Why don't you make an Apple pie, then?" She left. So I did. I got the Betty Crocker cookbook, followed the recipe, and surprised my mom with the pie when she got home. She started teaching me to cook after that. I'm still cooking every day.

Peas. New York doesn't know from guacamole.

But if I were I'd have to make everything in it from scratch - as I do with all Mexican recipes.

I react badly to hot peppers, so most American interpretations of Mexican food is completely off limits (same for Cajun, Thai, Indian, and others) unless I make my own and adjust the spices. . Pico de gallo has serranos or some kind of hot peppers, no that's a no-go for me, at least off the shelf.

I've had some success with making my own versions since many of the foods are great even without the hot peppers. A while back I had a thread in Cooking & Baking about making a curry blend that left out the hot peppers. The food I've made with that blend is still very spicy, just not hot enough to blister my lios and innards.

We used to own a shop that sold herbs and spices so I have a good selection to work up my own recipes.

sweet peppers, too. Green bell peppers work fine, and add the bright green color as well as the traditional jalapeno peppers. I've done that here in Minnesota to cope with the delicate palettes of my in-laws, who think flour is a seasoning. I actually made two batches of the guacamole and put a sign on each, guiding people to the one that suited their preferences.

The things we do for our in-laws.

since the 1970s. I've met him a couple of times, too, once in California, where they taped a show at the local University. I followed him through a potluck supper line before the show. Nice guy!

We were in the very last row of the theatre (I spell it that way because I like to). Talk about nosebleed seats.

We started listening in the early 80s when my husband was stationed at K.I. Sawyer AFB in the upper peninsula of Michigan. There was not much to do there on Saturday nights, or any other night.

I love the Powdermilk Biscuits music. Makes me want to get up and dance. I was a member of a clog dancing group while we were in the UP.

oh my.

He did a show at Cal Poly in San Luis Obispo. My wife at that time and I got tickets at a charity auction, and they included tickets for a pre-show potluck dinner. He was a very gracious person, and actually did a monologue at the dinner, too. Our seats for the show were in the front row. My former wife said, later, "I could have tied his shoelaces together. We were that close." Fortunately, she restrained herself.

I haven't been to one of his shows here, though. They're hard to come by unless you're a donor to the public radio station here. I don't listen to it, so I haven't donated. I've run across him, though, in St. Paul a couple of times and he is often in the book store he owns here. Nice guy.

So I grow most of my own ingredients for pico:

Tomatoes, green bell peppers, onions, garlic, green onion, salt, pepper, little white vinegar and sometimes I'll add chopped yellow peppers for color. I have added mango or peaches too and it's amazingly delish on salmon .

I don't use the traditional serrano peppers. Too hot for me. It's a good, all-purpose mix that's good with almost anything. Everyone has his or her own recipe for pico de gallo.

What's sad is that I love spicy food - just can't eat the hot stuff.

My husband has gotten to used to non-hot he finds it unpleasant to eat it. The other night when the power was off we drove into town for dinner. He ordered the Fiesta omelet and thought nothing of it when the waitress said it had peppers, onions and tomatoes. There was about equal weight of jalapenos to eggs. He took one bite then spent several minutes separating out the peppers and even then he was whooshing about how hot the omelet was! From now on he'll have to double check whether the peppers are bell or hot.

and immediately got a reputation as a great cook because it wasn't all boiled and I used a wide variety of seasonings. I also used hot stuff where it was needed and sent at least one person into orbit a week. All my friends eventually turned into chile heads and then I left.

I still mail CARE packages of ground chile back there, especially since I've given them recipes from NM that start out with a quarter cup of ground chile and go up from there.

Oh, some things in New England were great, like beanhole baked beans seasoned with onion, molasses, mustard and ketchup, but the New England palate was still pretty timid when I moved up there in the late 60s.

New England baked beans are a good example. Made properly, they are remarkable. I found a recipe in an old book that required baking in a pot for several hours with constant attention to keep just enough water in the pot to cover the beans. I made that recipe one time, because I like cooking from recipes from strange sources. It wasn't easy, since the large White Northern beans were hard to get in California. Dry mustard, blackstrap molasses, and the other ingredients weren't so difficult.

The result was amazing. I served it with Boston Brown Bread, steamed in a can, from another recipe. It was a huge hit, even though none of my guests had ever tasted such a thing.

Traditional clam bakes, what is often called New England Boiled Dinner, and scrod are other recipes I've made from that region. All are excellent, but are decidedly regional in flavor.

I like surprising guests with flavors they're not used to, from different parts of the country. It almost always works out very well. I have a fairly large collection of old regional cook books from times past. When I invite people for dinner, they'll probably get something out of one of those that interests me. It has never failed to be entertaining and eye-opening for my guests.

It's a fun way to change things up, and people who come for dinner never know what to expect.

not Great Northern (White) beans although the later can be used in a pinch. Navy beans are smaller and are sometimes called pea beans in New England.

Clambakes are called clambakes and are a type of shore dinner. New England boiled dinner involves cooking cabbage, onion and root vegetables with corned beef or smoked shoulder (ham) in a pot -never seafood.

at least here in California. Like you though, I make my food from scratch.

With some other seasonings. I use it to make Tampa Cuban style arroz con pollo (or Chicken with yellow rice) - different than Miami Cuban style for everything. But the last batch I made my husband had purchased a salad topper blend of onion, bell peppers and onions so I just added garlic and put in my own herbs and spices. (That reminds me - I need to buy smoked paprika, I used the last for that meal!)

I use a recipe based on the Columbia Restaurant version, from their cookbook. That was the only place we went for special meals in Tampa (though the original Columbia is in Ybor City) and my favorite meal to get was their arroz con pollo.

Tampa Cuban food tends to be less "hot" than Mexican or even Miami Cuban. The Cuban community in Tampa settled there in the early 1900s and their food is more adjusted to American tastes than the more recent Miami Cuban community. While there are some similar dishes there are significant differences.

Here in Tallahassee, there are Miami Cuban restaurants and while they are good, they don't have the same cuisine as I grew up eating when we went to Tampa!

I'll have to see what is available here and look for a recipe for Pico de Gallo if I can't find it locally or without hot peppers.

more recent arrivals want more "authentic" food, and some restaurants are obliging. While others want the more americanized version.

Since I do have a nasty gluten allergy, I have delved into thai food, and I think will try my hand at some indian food. We eat well, and quite a bit of Mexico's cuisine is gluten free, which is good.

Now a burger is a problem... or can be. (protein style for me, and not one bit of bread in it)

And that is not just my sensitivity talking - that's what I've been told by people who know what those foods should taste like. Like that omelet my husband ordered - some hot peppers are OK; half the weight of the omelet being jalapenos is absurd.

When we visited Santa Fe, New Mexico in 1990 it was hard to find food I could safely eat. I couldn't try the local specialties because I couldn't get across to the servers that "no hot peppers" was a real directive. They'd bring me something to eat and say, "The cook cut back on the peppers." and the first bite would blister my mouth. Often just smelling it would start a reaction.

The other choice for many of the places seemed to be no seasonings at all - that happened at the banquet for the event I was attending. Although I had indicated my dietary needs month in advance, they served me beef with a pepper sauce. When I sent it back the substitution was the beef with black beans with no seasoning at all, not even salt.

Most of the time now I just opt out of the banquets since they don't seem to be set up for any variation in diet.

tomorrow we are going to a barbeque... so will bring food along, just in case. Yes, to that point.

So she brings dishes to every family get together that they can eat. I hope her boys grow out of their allergies but she seemed to acquire some during her pregnancies.

These days with everything pre-made loaded with sugars, grains, and other ingredients that are not clearly labeled by their common names, it has to be hard to deal with sensitivities. Even cooking your own foods, it must be hard to make sure nothing sneaks in!

cost of avocados and not that NYC doesn't know from guac?

They described adding the peas as one of those things that seem obvious once you do it.

Having eaten the god-awful approximation of proper Mexican food that the French eat I shudder at the thought of adding peas.

Unfortunately I can not even make guac where I live because the local Avocados are watery and tasteless.

Unless I can get some masa harina to make my tortillas and everything else fresh I would just as soon not even think about it. I hate pre-made tortilla chips and they are far too salty for me.

cilantro!

I'll make any recipe without😛

Of course, that might have something to do with the fact that I have the gene that makes Cilantro taste completely vile, which, given today's cooking environment where cilantro has become the lazy spice of choice, makes dining out a challenge.

you and I agree. Except on the peas. Send them my way and I'll can them.

I was looking on the web the other day on how to ripen avocados quickly and came across a link that said to mash the unripe avocado with green peas. The peas would help ripen the avocado while helping to add moisture without changing the color.

In California, it's mandatory, along with a lemon or lime tree and an orange tree or two. Then, you have zero problems with finding a ripe avocado.

More's the pity. Just try to find a decent avocado here. Uff da! as my mother-in-law often says.

and are back in the midwest. We did have the required avocado, three kinds of lemon, an orange and two plum trees in our yard.

Our dog loved the avocados and ate several of them a day. Her method of eating them seems innate.

Most days I miss the coast, but today the weather is perfect and everything is green and lush.

I do have a friend here who has a Meyer lemon tree. It's in a container on wheels. In the winter, it lives indoor, but right now, it's out on his deck. It's loaded with lemons. Meyer lemons are not my favorite variety, though. Too sweet.

That might be a whole new way to grow warm-weather stuff up North, where you actually have water.

A few people have also grown tangerines and oranges that way in Minnesota. It's a lot of work. If you try it, buy dwarf varieties of the trees, for sure.

of a drought please. That is like a 4 letter word!!!! (I kid of course)

Maybe that explains how my brain works. I lived in Southern California most of my life, and I'm decidedly weird.

Now I know...

They often come through my parents' orchard looking for them. Fortunately, they mainly eat the ones that have fallen on the ground.

I suspect unripened avocados on the tree may have been an inspiration for the famous KONG® Classic Dog Toy.

If there are no openings for returning as a dog, maybe I'll come back as a bear.

lots of animals. Great food!

I've never heard of such a thing.

called for peas. Like New Yorkers have any concept of guacamole.

...which really wasn't a strong enough curse. But I've already evoked DIAF this week at Buzzfeed for ruining The Simpsons with their shameful video, so, I've spent all my invectives this week.

See, I have an excellent guacamole recipe, which I though should be shared in its own OP. You appear to disagree, but I really suggest you try the recipe. I think you'll agree that it is outstanding. I've been making it that way for decades, and learned it from my mother, who, sad to say, did not enjoy the peppers in guacamole, and omitted them. We have had many discussions about that. She sticks to her pepper-free pico de gallo, bless her 91 year old heart.

the Mexican people. I grew up with people with families in Mexico. I never saw anyone who looked like that at all. The Spanish is incorrect, too.

you got going there.

I would alert, but that is not going to help... so you get a "pass"

Who you're echoing seems a little strange though, don't you think?

is ugly and stereotypes Hispanics. Actually, we agree on many other things, as well. We disagree on others. You can still delete that image.

Strange days indeed.

We do agree about your image. That's clear from the post she made. I will continue to feel free to reply to posts on DU. It is a public forum. You have still not commented on the image you posted. It represents a stereotype of Hispanics, particularly people from Mexico that is not accurate and is negative.

I hope to hear from you about that.

replies to me and since it's my thread, I wasn't called to the jury. In fact, I wasn't aware it was alerted.

That a jury left it to stand does not mean it is not a negative stereotype of people from Mexico, though. Of the thousands of facepalm images available, it was an odd one to select, I think. Since your only reason to reply in this thread was to chide me for posting the thread, it seems odd that you would use such an image. The thread turned out be pretty active and enjoyed some popularity, besides. I'm glad I posted it, and hope people will try my recipe for guacamole.

Logically, I can only take one thing from your image choice and its continued presence in your post.

then why are you here?

unable to make up your own mind or make a moral choice of your own?

i would have thought you would have learned after being put on timeout in the past year.

care to join us in the 21st century?

not me.

As I said, I don't alert, mostly it is useless. But that is a racist stereotype of Mexicans... At least you did not add a burro to it.

Frito-Lay is hoping everyone forgets that one.

Cilantro is to die for, can't get enough.

much cilantro as you wish. I try for a delicate balance of all of the ingredients.

Everybody loves peas

This take me back to when I was a 90s kid.

They're excellent eating, especially when freshly shelled and cooked very briefly. Add a few pearl onions to the pot and it's wonderful. But peas and avocados together? Heresy. Yes, they're both green. Yes, they can both be mashed. But they're completely unrelated as food ingredients and simply don't work together.

I believe the person who wrote that NYT recipe is trying to nauseate people. Either that, or the person has never eaten guacamole and thinks its just some green dip.

...and wouldn't touch it. It turns out Kraft marketed something they called "guacamole" and that's all he had tasted. Ew. That stuff was green and shiny, and probably had a lonely molecule of avocado in its ingredients, but they should have been sued for calling it guacamole.

And seasonings. There are some good brands of frozen guacamole, but read the label carefully. I Avocado is not the first ungredient, walk away.

The both have jalapeño in them, though, which I don't care for. Nonetheless, in a pinch I can certainly overlook that.

I'll have to try your pico de gallo guacamole sometime.

just because it's so bizarre.

But, if you try it, do let us know your reaction.

is sunflower seeds. WTF? But my curiosity has been piqued. I have to shop for groceries today anyhow, so... There's some guacamole in my fridge from Costco but I don't like it. The best guacamole I know of can be had at a Mexican restaurant called Cafe Ena in my south Minneapolis neighborhood. All of the food is great (though a little expensive), but sometimes I go there just for the guacamole. I don't think there are peas in it, or sunflower seeds.

Heck, you even throw away the avocado seed, although you can grow an ornamental indoor plant from the seed. Three toothpicks into the seed and balance it on a glass of water. Very pretty.

No seeds in guacamole!

I also dislike when I dip a chip and taste sour cream in my guac
No peas no sour cream and really the chopped onion I would only use if I didn't have enough avocado and more people than expected showed

There are onions in the pico de gallo. It's not really to extend the guacamole, though. The added flavors are a perfect match for avocado.

The sour cream always brings on an uff da!

Ick! Now, with pickled herring, though, it's perfect. On stroganoff, too, of course.

What also really bums me out is when they make Tzatziki with sour cream (instead of just greek yogurt). I bought some a few weeks ago at WF, of all places, and it was mostly sour cream. I like sour cream on baked potatoes or in stroganoff, but there are some things that it definitely DOES NOT belong in.

There is a commercial brand called Kronos that makes the sauce, it's really good.

It's kind of a pain to make from scratch, so I would love to just be able to buy some authentic tzatziki!

In GUAC!

Peas DO NOT belong in GUAC!

Too many people hating on you. I already get plenty of that, and I'm nobody.

That's true. Still, the President is the target for so much animosity, and from many directions. It's not a position for the timid, by any means. I truly would not want to be in that position, or in any political office.

guacamole. Chacun à son goût, though, of course.

Some people just can't control themselves.

I've never had peas in guacamole. Then again, I've usually made it myself.

When my great grandmother in law was alive, she lived in the middle of avocado country and had a couple of big trees on her place. We spent a lot of time with her in the summer, and the avocados were hard to keep up with. My favorite:

Remove the pit and skin. Break the avocado down with a fork.

Two thick slices of home-baked whole grain bread...spread some mayo.

Add a THICK layer of avocado to one slice. I mean thick...3/4 - 1" Salt and pepper to taste.

Add a slice of cheese of your choice. I always use swiss.

Add fresh tomato and red onion slices, and a big chunk of fresh alfafa sprouts.

Cover with the other piece of bread and devour.

GGIL always added fresh, thinly sliced garlic to hers, on doctor's orders.

Just add some smashed avocado to a BLT. Wonderful stuff. There's even an avocado variety called Bacon. There's a tree of that variety on my parents' farm, along with three other varieties of avocado. Personally, I prefer Bacon avocados to the Haas that you usually find in the stores. There are some older varieties, too, that you can only find in farmer's markets or in people's yards. They're no longer grown commercially.

were growing on GGIL's acres; probably Haas, since there were commercial orchards nearby. I've been an addict of BTs my whole life; no lettuce for me. Imagining adding some avocado to that has my mouth watering. A BAT sandwich...I'm going to have to make that happen.

Toast the bread, though. It holds up better for smearing the avocado on it. Alternatively, you can use sliced avocado on those sandwiches, too. Good any way you make them.

Much ado bout not very much

for inclusion in guacamole. It's just the wrong flavor, and would spoil the dish.

No legumes. Nothing cooked, either. Guacamole is all raw ingredients. I like peas, but they're wrong for this dish.

signed:

icypeas

are a bowl of cold peas. I like peas. I do not like them in guacamole. I like them with onions. I like British-style mushy peas, too. I like them in split pea soup, with ham from a bone cooked with the peas. I like them raw, right off the pea plant. I do not, however, like them in guacamole. I do not like green peas and guac. I do not like them, IcyPeas, that way.

I confess to adding them at the last moment in curry and also beef stew. The very last moment!

Split pea soup makes me gag. On the other hand, there is whirled peas and pureed carrot cold soup. That I'll allow.

At least you have the good sense to have them raw, though...

Avocado really needs quite a bit of salt to taste good.

Salt? That's a matter of taste. I don't use any in my guacamole. I like the naked flavors of the ingredients. Others add salt, to suit their taste. There's always a salt shaker handy for those who wish to add some. I don't.

I have a baby avocado tree in the backyard, loaded with a hopeful crop (still only about the size of a quarter). The house came with a Mexican lime tree, which bears the most fragrant limes you ever saw this side of heaven.

Guacamole is on the menu of the gods, I am quite sure of it.