Snowy Palms Resort Famous Guacamole

3 medium ripe avocados

1 medium tomato, diced

3 Tbsp lime juice from fresh squeezed lime

3 cloves garlic, pressed

1/2 - 1 tsp kosher salt

1/4 tsp white pepper

Wash all veggies before you begin.

Cut avocados in half and remove the pit.

You've got great pits!!!

Now I will say that there is a wrong way and a right way to remove the pit.  Lazy Bastard has done both. Do not hold the avocado half in your hand and try to spear the pit with the knife point. No. No. No.  Very bad idea. 

If you miss, and that can happen, you might run the knife through the avocado and then jamb the knife between your ring finger and the ring on that finger. If you do that, you will delay the guacamole enjoyment for a considerable length of time as you seek medical aid at the hospital, and if your hospital is anything like ours here, you could die before you get help. Die of old age that is. Lazy Bastard did not die. He did however take on 5 stitches and a head shaking from the attending physician.

Instead do like this:

Place avocado half with the pit on a cutting board.  Using your knife chop the pit to embed the blade into it. 

Gently turn the knife holding the avocado until the pit comes loose.  

Once freed remove the pit by holding the knife and covering the pit with dry towel and pry it off gently, or slide the knife blade against a solid object and pop the pit off. Be creative but don't cut yourself.. Easy peasy once you know how, and no blood need be shed.

Once pits have been removed score the avocado flesh with a table knife.

Then remove flesh and place in a glass or stainless steel bowl.

Add lime juice, garlic, salt and pepper. Mash slightly

Once you have mashed it a bit, add the diced tomatoes then stir the tomatoes into the guacamole gently to avoid turning them to squished tomatoes.  Taste and add salt and pepper as desired. Place into serving bowl.

Allow the finished guacamole to sit for an hour or so in the fridge, but first place the pits on top of the guacamole then place a lid over it.  By placing the pits on it and covering it you slow down the oxidizing process that turns the guacamole black over time.

Serve with whatever you like. Tortilla chips. Tacos. Enchiladas or any combination of them. Spread on a hamburger is great too or just dive in with a spoon and snarf it down! Your choice entirely.

Snowy Palms Resort

Grilled Pork Chile Verde

In previous installments of Snowy Palms - As The Stomach Churns you've read, or hopefully read about, a great Roasted Tomato, Corn and Ancho Pepper Salsa and how to make homemade tortillas from scratch. In this episode Lazy Bastards recipe for Chile Verde made with grilled pork is on offer for you. Together with the previous recipes you can whip up a meal that will please and delight your friends or even enemies.

Grilled Pork Chile Verde

3 lbs pork - sirloin, shoulder, or other cut will do, but I like a mixture of both
3 Tbsp Bart's Creole Seasoning, (if you don't have mine, use a commercial brand but watch the salt content)
1 19 oz can Las Palmas Green Chile Sauce or brand you prefer

1 cup pico de gallo or prepared salsa
1/2 cup water
4 garlic cloves, pressed or minced fine
1 Tbsp ground cumin
1 tsp ground pepper

Coat pork with the Creole seasoning covering all sides. Place in fridge for 1 hour.

Preheat barbeque grill to high.  Place pork on hot grills and grill for 3 minutes per side. The heat must be high to char the pork slightly. Do not cook more than 6 minutes.

Once the pork begins to sweat remove it from the grill and place in a Dutch oven.

Pour remaining ingredients over the pork.

Place covered Dutch oven on preheated 400 degree oven. Bake for 1 hour.

Stir the pork a bit to ensure they're all getting time in the pool.

Turn down oven heat to 275 degrees and let bake for 2 more hours, stirring every half hour. Taste the broth at this time and if it needs a little salt now is a good time to add it.  Don't add it at the beginning because there could be a lot of salt in the salsa, the Creole rub and there is salt in the green chile sauce and you need the sauce to be tasty but not a salt lick.

At the 3 hour mark the pork should be tender enough to break when pressed with the backside of a fork.  If not, bake for 1 more hour.

Once pork is fall apart tender remove it from the oven and let sit for 1 hour to cool enough that you can handle it.

Remove the pork from the sauce and begin to mash it with a fork or your hands, it's your choice at this point.

Once the pork is completely shredded add the stock to it and toss to incorporate it throughout the pork. Then add a bit more on top just before serving to make it really tasty.

 

Serve with homemade tortillas, side dishes like, oh, say, pico de gallo, perhaps some roasted tomato, corn and ancho chile salsa and some guacamole.

Like this...

It was good. Really. It was. Wish you were here....

Guacamole recipe coming - soon...

 Snowy Palms Resort

Homemade Corn Tortillas

On a previous post the recipe for a great Roasted Tomato, Corn and Ancho Chile Salsa was provided, but what's a great salsa without something to serve it with you ask? Well dear reader, serve it with a char-grilled pork Chili Verde, some guacamole, a little bit of pico de gallo and round that out with homemade fresh corn tortillas.

Homemade Corn Tortillas

First get yourself to a restaurant supply store and buy a tortilla press. I did and it is a lovely thing to own.

Prepare the masa per the instructions on the package. In my part of the world the humidity is low so that using the recipe as directed made for a dry dough so I needed to add 4 more tablespoons of water as I kneaded the dough to get it to a consistency that allowed it to be pressed thinly.

2 cups masa harina (Maseca is a great one to use and is available almost everywhere).

1 1/2 cups water, plus 2-4 more tablespoons if required.

1/2 tsp salt

Add salt to masa in a large bowl. Mix well to incorporate the salt evenly.

Add the water.

Mix the water into the masa and knead for at least 2 minutes (I do it for a few). The dough should be dry enough to not stick to your hands or the countertop but wet enough to be pliable.  I use a small ball of dough in the tortilla press to check if it will spread thinly, once satisfied it is good, cut into 16 even pieces and roll into balls.

Place a damp towel over the balls of dough to prevent them from drying out as you fry the tortillas.

Place a piece of heavy plastic on the bottom of the tortilla press, place a ball of dough onto it then cover with a second piece of plastic.  (I use Glad freezer bags for this,simply cut along the seams)

Press slightly on the dough to flatten which will keep it from rolling out of place as you close the lid of the tortilla press.

Close lid and press firmly and hold for a couple of seconds.

Open tortilla press and remove the tortilla and place on preheated hot non-stick grill (cast iron is best).

Cook for 50 seconds then flip over and cook for another 50 seconds.

Repeat procedure until all tortillas are cooked.  Place cooked tortillas on a pie plate or shallow bowl lined with half of a a tea towel.  As you add the hot tortillas keep them covered with the other half of the towel. I use a tortilla warmer but a pie plate and tea towel works great.

These are so superior to what you can buy pre-made and if you have the time and inclination give making them a try.  They are easy to make and after a couple of batches you will be an expert.  If a guy like Lazy Bastard can do it. Well you know the story...

Snowy Palms Resort

Roasted Tomato, Corn and Ancho Chile Salsa

8-9 medium sized tomatoes (Roma and/or beefsteak are good choices)
2 fresh Anaheim peppers
2 medium onions (Sweet Vidalia or Walla Walla if you can find them)
2 ears fresh corn, husks left on
1 bell pepper, red or orange

4-5 dried ancho chiles

4 cloves garlic, pressed
1 fresh lime, squeezed enough to give up 3 Tbsp juice 
1 Tbsp kosher salt
1 tsp fresh ground pepper

Begin by placing the dried ancho chiles in a bowl and covering them with boiling water. Let sit in water for 30 minutes then drain. Let cool.

Once cool enough to handle, remove the stem and the seeds, set aside

Cut the top of the corn husks with a pair of kitchen scissors to remove the silk (stringy bits at the top), set aside.

Place corn, tomatoes, bell pepper, onions and Anaheim pepper on a very hot barbeque grill.

Roast the vegetables well until the peppers are well charred. You need to turn them occasionally to get all sides charred.

Remove the vegetables as they are done. Tomatoes will get very soft and fall apart if roasted too long so once the skins have a nice char to them remove them and then finish the rest of the vegetables. Remove when the skins on the peppers (bell and Anaheim) are well charred).

Once removed from the grill place the hot bell and Anaheim peppers in a sealed plastic bag to cool a bit.

Once cool enough to handle, remove from bag then remove as much of the charred skins as you can, also discarding the seeds and the stems.

Strip the corn from the cobs and set aside.

Place tomatoes in a food processor and pulse until a fine lumpy-sauce consistency is reached (you can do it rougher or finer, it's your salsa after all!) Place into a bowl and set aside.

Place onions in food processor and pulse to fine or medium mince, or large even. It's your salsa, so do whatever the hell you want.  Add to the processed tomatoes.

Place ancho chiles into food processor and pulse to a paste-like consistency. Add roasted bell and Anaheim peppers and pulse until fine. Place into bowl with tomatoes.

Place corn into tomato - peppers mixture. Stir well.

Add lime juice, pressed garlic and salt and pepper. Stir well. Let sit at room temperature for half an hour to let all the flavours to get to know each other better.

Serve with tacos, tortillas chips or just stand at the bowl with a spoon and eat it like a ravenous wolf on carrion. It is very good.

This salsa has a sweet smoky flavour and is not spicy hot at all.  It is a great thing to share with friends and goes very, very, very well with a Carona.

Snowy Palms Resort