Awesome Ashes, Awesome Amla, and Awesome Guacamole

And a good day to you!  It's a fine morning here in Melbourne, cold, dark and rainy at first but now the sun is shining.  Metaphorically speaking, it's just like the Australia Cricket Team in the Ashes series against England!  Like the sun, Mitchell Johnson is shining away after two major feats:  scoring over 60 runs and taking 6 English scalps!  YES! AWESOME!  Take that, Johnson haters!  As they say in writing circles, the plot thickens.  Today will be a most interesting day in international cricket!  Go Australia!

And other news. In Centurion,  South Africa is simply pummeling India with their bowling and batting.  Dale Steyn, Morne Morkel, Jacques Kallis and Hashim Amla are in good form and are showing the visitors that India may no longer be the #1 test team in the world!

Hashim Amla, Master of Cool!

I for one am happy; happy because Awesome Amla didn't suffer any damage to his arm after he received that horrendous smack from Misbah ul-Haq during the the Pakistan/SA series a little while back.  Right on Hashim!  And India:  smarten up!  Play harder!  South Africa is turning you into guacamole!

And that brings me to today's cooking. Guacamole (gwa-ka-MO-lay) is actually a very tasty crushed avocado snack from Mexico which is easy to make and the ingredients are easy to find.  And here's a little language lesson: "mole" is the mexican/aztec word for sauce or stew.  Aguacate, which comes from the old aztec word aguacatl, is spanish for avocado.  Hence, guacamole means avocado sauce.  Right!  Enough with the lectures.  Let's make something good to eat.

Guacamole

2 avocados, very ripe (skin should be black, and the fruit should feel soft but not mushy, if using the smooth skin variety, the fruit should also feel soft but not mushy)
1/4 onion, very finely diced
juice of 1 lime
1/2 tomato, finely diced
2 or 3 green chilies, very finely diced (adjust according to taste)
1 handful coriander (cilantro), very finely diced
salt to taste

Cut the avocadoes in half, removed the nut, and use a spoon to scoop out all the lovely green flesh.  Mash with a fork or with a pastry cutter.
Add the diced onion, lime juice, tomato, chilies,coriander, and salt.
Stir everthing together ; let sit for about half an hour before serving so that the flavours all blend together.

Do not throw away the nut.  Put it back into the guacamole if you're going to store it or eat it later; this prevents the avocado from oxidizing and turning black!

Eat with some roti chips (roti cut into triangles and deep-fried), home-made totopos (corn tortillas cut into triangles and deep-fried) or use commercially available tortilla chips from the store.

And there you go!  Today's Ashes is going to be a good one, and Hashim Amla is sure to keep on rockin' in Centurion.  Yes!

Happy Eating!  Happy Cricket!

This is a good little dish to make, especially if you're pressed for time and have guests coming over to watch the next Pakistan T20 match!