My daughter who is currently living in California is in a Guacamole contest at work tomorrow and is looking for secret ingredients or techniques.

She just went to the California state fair and one of the competition catagories was "Table Dressing". (Place setting for company) Only in California!! I guess this means I might have some "interesting" recipes to post tomorrow.

Let me post my recipe and see if anyone has any enhancements they deem appropriate.


RIPE avocados (is any one type better than another? We usually us Haas)
Food process your onions so that you extract the maximum amount of juice and flavor
Small amount of garlic powder or crushed garlic.
Tablespoon of sour cream.
Small amount of Lime juice to keep it from turning dark
Dust with Chili Powder, mostly for looks

Salt only at the last minute and only if necessary.

If you are going to all the trouble to make Guacamole don't use generic chips!

EDIT: I forgot the most important ingredient - finely chopped jalapenos and if you can't take the heat some finely chopped anaheim pepper or equivalent.

 

Cilantro, and I prefer it without the sour cream. Also, garlic powder and pressed (better than just crushed) garlic taste quite different.

In Santa Fe, there are several restaurants that make it tableside -- sort of a tourist gimmick, to be sure, but it's good that way because it's fresh. Some people suggest that it should sit so the flavors can blend, but I think that the fresher the better.

Gabriel's, possibly the best of these restaurants, would never use Chili Powder but would use cumin (for that flavor) and japape

 

Hey, now, are you telling me they don't have Table Dressing competitions in other Fairs? I'm a native Cali girl, and the local fair, the Antelope Valley Fair, in Lancaster, CA, always has that competition. I find it amusing, when I've seen it.

 

Um, excuse my ignorance, but what the hell is a "Table Dressing" competition? Table-cloths and leggings with color-coordinated napkins? HPH

 

The ones I've seen are a table all set up for some kind of a party. The person must state the theme for the party. Someone may do a girl's Birthday party, or a formal dinner. They'll have all the pretty napkins, and linens and the silverware, or plastic forks, set just so. They can have name tags at each place setting. There are cards with the table setting's score to view, to see what it got points knocked off for. Like, maybe the centerpiece was too big, and would block the view of the guests, or the wine glasses weren't in the correct spot, or the salad and dinner forks were in the wrong positions.

For me, having friends over is totally informal, so I find it amusing to look at this stuff.

 

OMG!! I was being facetious! It IS dressing tables! I thought it must be some kind of salad oil or something.


When I was a kid, we always went to the Heart of Illinois Fair (a mini-state fair that was close to home), and there were all sorts of food/home competitions. But this is a new one for me. HPH

 

See how cool we are in Cali?

 

When my daughter first told me about it I thought she was talking in Greek. I heard the words, but they didn't make sense.

Then she sent me the pics.

All I could think of was Judy Garland's line of "We're not in Kansas any more, Toto."

I don't remember the "hot" food, but it wasn't corny dogs, it was sushi on a stick or something like that.

 

I usually add some diced tomatoes to my guac. Alton Brown recommends using a combination of Haas and Florida avocadoes. The Haas get completely mashed, the Florida is diced to give some chunkiness.

 

I venture to say that Guacamole is the name of a small town somewhere in Mexico