It is no secret that I love avocados, most Mexicans do! Last time I blogged about them in my fruity guacamole recipe. This time, I want to share a more traditional way of making guacamole, the way my mam and grandma would have made it and how I grew up eating it: northern style made in a big molcajete. When I'm hungry and homesick, I make a big bowl of this and eat it with tacos or with a slice of toasted sour-dough bread. It always makes me feel better.
Writing a food blog might give the impression that I am in the kitchen all the time... I wish I was, I do spend there every free minute I can squeeze out of my day; cooking relaxes me, it gives me joy and above all it makes me happy, but lately, I haven't been in the kitchen as much as I'd like to; we've been so busy getting a new home office built, trying to get rid of builders, cleaning up, etc, and all this while holding full-time jobs and running a business. All our meals for the past six months have been pretty much cooked in a hurry and eaten on the go or in a rush.
Until a couple of years ago, I was totally oblivious to the whole Cinco de Mayo festivities. In most parts of Mexico, it is a day like any other, no big deal. Children in Primary Schools mark the day with a ceremony and secondary schools across the country would have a mention of the day or an assembly, but all in all, it was to me a pretty obscure date on our civic calendar. A couple of years ago I started getting 'happy Cinco de Mayo' cards on the post from my American friends, and that got me thinking...
With summer fast approaching (or so we keep hoping) I was delighted to find fresh pineapples at the food market I regularly shop. I've been devising loads of ways to use this now gorgeously ripe pineapple, like this unorthodox fruity guacamole or eating it sliced with sprinkled chili & lime powder, yet my all time favourite way of eating pineapple is in the form of an Agua Fresca (fresh water).
Mexicans use avocados as Irish people use butter: everywhere! Nothing screams more Mexican than a bowl of gorgeously vibrant guacamole. Known all over the world, it has featured on Mexican tables for centuries. Believed to be an Aztec dish, guacamole is a symbol of Mexican food. It's made with Avocados, which are a lovely fruit from a tree native to Central Mexico. They are rich in vitamin B, vitamin E and vitamin K and contain over 35 percent more potassium than bananas plus a higher content of fibre.
I am a sucker for a good picnic. In my neck of the woods in Mexico, picnics are close to impossible to have, it's way too hot and unless you have them under a good shade, they're even dangerous as sunstroke is not a thing to take lightly. When I moved to Ireland I was starved of picnics, so the first few years I had as many as I could, although I soon realised that the idilic picture of a picnic was quite impractical: the basket, the foods, the drinks, the blanket, the sweet treats, the ice bucket, the views...
