pear
While prepping tacos the other night, I lamented to the cat that I had no guacamole to serve. He responded by jumping up, by way of a sprint up my leg, to the top of the refrigerator. He cared not that the sole traditional ingredient I possessed to make this dish was the star.
*sigh* Cats.
Craving set in and neglecting everything, I pulled down several cookbooks and skimmed the internet to see what was traditional. I returned to my refrigerator and pantry to take stock and see if I could satisfy my green slime desire.
Upon close examination, I decided that I did have a few pieces of usable tomato; February in New York not being prime tomato season. I braved the elements and made it to the back of the fridge where I found the emergency lime juice. It’s the green squeeze bulb kind. Why I’m convinced I need to keep some for a lime emergency I’m not sure, but I do know that I am unable to keep fresh limes around for when I need them. Garlic exists in this house in various forms: natural, jarred, powder. It was the difficult ingredient for our household that stumped me. No, not mushrooms. Onion.
Right. I didn’t have red onion, and I wasn’t about to chop up some of the yellow ones I keep in the pantry and toss them in raw. While they might work, I knew the taste would be completely off and E wouldn’t touch the dish. I debated using onion powder but rejected that plan as with only six small pathetic pieces of tomato to balance the avocado, I needed something with some oomph and texture to round out the dip.
Shadow jumped down off the fridge and began to explore the counter, taking full advantage of my reverie and that I didn’t notice he was disobeying house rules. He began to bat around a small packet and I absentmindedly picked up and tossed the packet of fried onion into one of the boxes that I’ve yet to unpack. “Meow?” He challenged as he realized I not only took his play toy but I was not going to give it back.
“Oh!”
Yes. Quite nontraditional, but to my limited, non-researched, and in this case extremely unsophisticated palette, it worked.
Penny’s But all I have is the Avocado Guacamole
Please use common sense and refer to other recipes for proportions. This recipe comes with no guarantee of success nor will assistance be provided to find out why yours doesn’t taste good.
Combine the following into a bowl and mix.
Avocado, ripe, cubed and slightly smashed.
Lime Juice. I used the bottled stuff. Not ideal. Not terrible.
Tomato, chopped. I quartered six tiny grape tomato. I’d prefer more, but that was all that was edible.
Garlic, chopped. I used the jarred stuff. I ran out of good local garlic three weeks ago. *sniff*
Fried onion. I had a packet of Osem.
I found it tastier the next morning for breakfast.
I ask you:
What traditional dish did you remake into a tasty repast when key ingredients were missing?
