Suzi's Blog
Pineapple and Cucumber Gaucamole
Since Cinco de Mayo is today, a Thursday, there is a chance it may lap over into the weekend. You might face endless rounds of guacamole. You might get bored.
You have an option, a guacamole with other flavors that you won’t have encountered before. Sweet, rather than overpowering hot. Very chunky instead of mashed.
From Truly Mexican by Roberto Santibanez, here’s Pineapple and Cucumber Guacamole. It’s swiftly made and works with chips or shrimp or side tacos or … You have many choices here.
In making this guac, there are some real variables. There is some heat and that is controlled by your chiles. The tartness of the lime juice can be adjusted with some sugar or by using lemon juice. And the pineapple will offer significant variation. If it is very ripe, it is going to be very sweet and perhaps a bit overpowering. So, reserve some ingredients on the side — the chilies and pineapple — and make some final adjustments to suit you palette.
Oh, this used half of the pineapple. The other half? Please read tomorrow’s post!
Pineapple and Cucumber Guacamole
Yield: 5 cups
Ingredients:
- · 1 (10- to 12-ounce) cucumber, peeled, seeded, and diced (½ inch)
- · ½ cup finely diced red onion
- · 2 fresh Serrano or jalapeno chiles, minced, including seeds, or more to taste
- · 2 tablespoons freshly squeezed lime juice, or more to taste
- · 3/4 teaspoon file salt, or 1 ½ teaspoons kosher salt
- · 2 large or 4 small ripe Mexican Haas avocados, halved and pitted
- · ½ pineapple, peeled, cored and diced (½ inch)
- · ½ cup chopped cilantro, divided.
Preparation:
Stir together the cucumber, onion, chiles, lime juice, and salt in a large bowl. Score the flesh in the avocado halves in a cross-hatch patter (no through the skit) with a knife and then scoop it would with a spoon into the bowl and gently stir together (do not mash). Stir in half the cilantro and pineapple last so that the fresh acidity is distinct from the avocado. Season to taste with additional chile, lime juice, and salt.
Transfer to a serving dish and sprinkle with the remaining chopped cilantro on top.
Source: Truly Mexican by Roberto Santibanez
Brian’s Frozen Banana Pineapple Calmer
To be fair, it was my fault. To be honest, he should have known better.
Most evenings my kitchen is filled with 20 or more people cooking a meal together. Cooking by the Book is a leader in culinary team building, so we have firms from around the world coming to learn and laugh and dine. Now, for that many people, I don’t shop. I order. And the orders arrive in the morning for that night’s meal.
I time the orders to arrive when I am here. And on Friday, they were to come after 10AM — because I was at the gym. [Once you find a great spinning instructor, life determines new priorities!]
It was only 9AM, the buzzer rang, the food delivery arrived, and only my husband Brian was here. I had ordered a, that is one, pineapple. He accepted delivery of a case of pineapples. A case.
“I’ll make it up to you,” he apologized.
“How are you going to do that?” I asked.
“One pineapple at a time,” he said. There was confidence in his voice and a bottle of 99 proof banana liquor in his hand. Clearly, he intended to drug me into calmness.
He succeeded. This drink is really not too boozy, although you can control that to your pleasure. This frozen beverage is thick, flavorful and quite capable of decreasing your anxiety. One pineapple at a time.
Brian’s Frozen Banana Pineapple Calmer
Yield: drinks for 4
Ingredients:
- 2 ripe [but not overripe] bananas, sliced
- 1 cup freshly diced pineapple [about ¼ of a whole pineapple]
- ½ cup sugar syrup
- ½ cup banana liquor [or simply use rum]
- 2 cups of medium size ice cubes
Preparation:
Combine all the ingredients in a blender and process for 1-2 minutes. Add ice to achieve the thickness you desire.
You can start with less sugar syrup and adjust to your taste. The driver here is the bananas: no matter how yellow, they can demand more or less sweetness to complete the beverage.
Source Brian O’Rourke
