Jean Tang: Here, so little known fact about Quacamole. It takes all the way back to the Aztec Indians. We’re in the Mexican Restaurant called Dos Caminos where they make your Quac at the table side. Are you ready?
Roberto Hernandez: My question is, do you like a mild, medium or spicy?
Jean Tang: I like it medium.
Roberto Hernandez: Medium. So make it medium-spiced, so just like the guys do they come to the table. They have to have the Molcajete on the table, we set it down and then the first thing we start is with a teaspoon of salt, 2 teaspoons of onion, cilantro—
Jean Tang: And was it important to get this kind of a vessel?
Roberto Hernandez: It really brings out the flavors in it because if you notice right now when I put all the ingredients and I’m going to start to—we had a teaspoon of chilies, mold all of the flavors together and that brings out all the oils, it brings out all the juice and all the flavors and then we just start right. Make sure that you’re incorporating all the ingredient. Make sure you’re getting all the flavors perfectly matched, perfectly blended. You see how the bowl is already moist with all the liquid. All the oils are dispersed throughout the Molcajete.
Jean Tang: And you’re cutting into the long avocado right?
Roberto Hernandez: Yes, I’m cutting it to long enough, I’m cutting a round the pit.
Jean Tang: Just straight down to the pit.
Roberto Hernandez: Exactly.
Jean Tang: Just once.
Roberto Hernandez: Just once.
Jean Tang: It’s what we need. Little twist and that’s all.
Roberto Hernandez: And it’s perfect! We want to take the pit up? A little twist of the knife, there you go. It comes up.
Jean Tang: So if you twist with the knife, you got it.
Roberto Hernandez: That’s it. And then again, I’m scouring just to kind of loosen it up, getting the sides away from the skin.
Jean Tang: Excellent!
Roberto Hernandez: And then I’m kind of scooping it. And there you go.
Jean Tang: It comes right out.
Roberto Hernandez: Right now I’m kind of just mashing it up.
Jean Tang: So if I have a batch of jalapeño chilies, are they all going to taste the same?
Roberto Hernandez: They vary slightly in flavor. Again, it all depends on where you purchase them, where they were grown, the level of maturity and ripeness where they were picked at. So here we always taste our choice. We kind of gauge our recipe on the way the chili spice that thing.
Jean Tang: So it’s important to assess your chili situation.
Roberto Hernandez: Yes, it definitely is. Now, we have to add a little bit more onion, a little more cilantro. Now you wanted a medium, so I’m going to add another spoon of chilies.
Jean Tang: Oh boy! I don’t know what I’m in for it.
Roberto Hernandez: Still a little bit.
Jean Tang: Just look at how you prepare these chilies actually. They look like the scissor left intact—
Roberto Hernandez: Yeah, we use the entire chili but we kind of just chop them and pull together and we keep it in the container. So now this is almost done.
Jean Tang: Now what you do now with the fork?
Roberto Hernandez: Right now I’m just kind of juicing the lime. I’m getting all the juice of the lime.
Jean Tang: Just add a little more salt
Roberto Hernandez: Little more salt. And we’re almost ready.
Jean Tang: That looks so beautiful.
Roberto Hernandez: It’s a nice and fresh, still chunky. I don’t like to puree it too much. You want all that flavor incorporated in there. There you go. And our Guacamole is done.
Jean Tang: It’s so good. The balance of everything is perfect.
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