Mexico City-Style Spicy Guacamole
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It’s time to drop the tomatoes and onion from your guacamole, America, for good. This super-simple but spicy recipe is inspired by years of lazy Sunday afternoons spent on friends’ rooftops or patios in Mexico City, grilling meat and cactus paddles, pouring micheladas. Lots of busy urban professionals who nurse hangovers on weekends swear by this style. This isn’t a guacamole to use as a garnish — this is a centerpiece. It calls for nothing more than avocado, mashed garlic, diced serrano peppers, sea salt and lime juice. Maybe a bit of finely chopped cilantro on top. Use a molcajete or a mortar and pestle to better fuse all the flavors.
This guacamole will look deceptively like simple smashed avocado in a bowl, but after one bite, the heat and acid of its bare-bones ingredients might make you never again return to tricolor guacamole (or any of the infuriatingly ridiculous interpretations from social media). Use crumbled tostadas over store-bought tortilla chips or, with any tortillas sitting in your fridge, flash-fry your own and douse with coarse salt while still hot — the crunch of a fresh, warm chip under buttery avocado can’t be equaled.
Make the guacamole: Halve each avocado and use a spoon to scoop out the fruit into a mixing bowl. Save the pit of one avocado and drop it into the bowl; I leave it in the guacamole throughout serving and storage to help slow browning.
Mince the garlic and chile. Remove some or all of the seeds of the chile if you want the guacamole less spicy. Add the garlic and chiles to the bowl.
Crush the sea salt lightly in a small molcajete or with a mortar and pestle; add to the mixture. Add the lime juice to the guacamole.
Use a bean or potato masher to lightly press and combine the ingredients, or use a large molcajete.
Transfer the guacamole to a serving bowl and garnish with roughly chopped cilantro. Serve immediately with baked tostadas or tortilla chips (see below).
Make the tortilla chips: Pour oil into a large skillet until it’s about 1 inch deep. Heat over medium-high heat until the oil is hot (to test, drop a small piece of tortilla into the oil; it should immediately sizzle.)
Meanwhile, stack the tortillas and cut into wedges like a pizza.
Reduce the heat to medium and drop the tortilla slices into the oil one by one so that none touch or pile on one another. Turn each chip individually after about 2 minutes. Allow chips to slightly brown on both sides before removing from oil. Place the chips in a colander lined with wax paper and give them a strong dash of sea salt before serving.
Eat your way across L.A.
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