Guacamole and sangria night!

Hello readers! Last night was homemade guacamole and sangria night and everything came out quite tasty. I started early at around 4 and planned to post some stuff up later, but apparently I ended up blacking out from drinking way too much sangria at around 5-6pm. I woke up in my bed at 1:30am. 

Here are the recipes I used:

Rosa Mexicano’s Guacamole en Molcajete

If you’ve ever eaten at Rosa Meixcano in the Upper West Side of New York City, you’ll know that their Guacamole en Molcajete is their most popular starter item. They make it fresh at your table with a cart full of ingredients. It is especially delicious with their (homemade?) tortilla chips, so I recommend that you get yourself some restaurant-style tortilla chips. I didn’t use this exact recipe as I didn’t think to check their website for it, but this is the recipe listed on their website. Note that you don’t need a molcajete (a Spanish lava stone mortar and pestle, available at Spanish grocery stores, Crate & Barrel, and Williams-Sonoma), but I’d highly recommend it for authenticity and ease of making awesome fresh guacamole. 

Makes 4 servings

Chile Paste Ingredients

• 1 tablespoon finely chopped white onion
• 1 firmly packed tablespoon chopped fresh cilantro
• 2 teaspoons finely chopped jalapeño, or more to taste
• 1 teaspoon salt, or as needed

Additional Ingredients

• 3 medium ripe but firm Hass avocados (about 8 ounces each)
• 3 tablespoons diced tomato
• 2 firmly packed tablespoons chopped fresh cilantro
• 1 tablespoon finely chopped white onion
• Salt if necessary
• Tortilla chips and/or fresh corn tortillas

Make the chile paste: Grind the onion, cilantro, jalapeño, and salt together in a molcajete until all the ingredients are very finely ground. Alternatively, use a fork to mash all the ingredients to a paste in a wide hardwood bowl.

Cut each avocado in half, working the knife blade around the pit. Twist the halves to separate them and flick out the pit with the tip of the knife. Fold a kitchen towel in quarters and hold it in the palm of your “non-knife” hand. Rest an avocado half cut side up in your palm and make 3 or 4 evenly spaced lengthwise cuts through the avocado flesh down to the skin, without cutting through it. Make 4 crosswise cuts in the same way. Scoop the diced avocado flesh into the molcajete. Repeat with the remaining avocado halves.

I’m allergic to avocados but for some reason, eating them like this didn’t bother me one bit. You don’t need to add lemon to this recipe to preserve the color of the guacamole because there won’t be any left to preserve after you’ve started eating it. 

Bobby Flay’s Red Wine Sangria

This highly well-reviewed recipe on the food network site came out great. And with enough glasses, you too will blackout with ease!

Ingredients

• 2 bottles red Spanish table wine
• 1 cup brandy
• 1/2 cup triple sec
• 1 cup orange juice
• 1 cup pomegranate juice
• 1/2 cup simple syrup, or more to taste (equal parts sugar and water, heated until sugar dissolves, cooled)
• Orange slices
• Apple slices
• Blackberries
• Pomegranate seeds

Directions

Mix all ingredients together and let stand in a tightly sealed container or pitcher for at least 24 hours in the refrigerator before serving.

I ended up using two bottles of Evodia (2007) from Calatayud, Spain for the Spanish wine as it was pretty cheap ($9.99 for 750ml) and the wine had a great flavor profile. It had aromas of raspberry and blackberry, a hint of cracked pepper, and deep berry flavors resulting in an inky-purple wine. If your local liquor store has a selection of Spanish wine, just pick the one that is under $13 and has a high point rating (89+).

Instead of the pomegranate juice, I ended up using a blueberry-pomegranate juice and left out the blackberries since the wine already had that flavor, and I was trying to keep things cheap. I included all the fruit otherwise. You can also add limes if you wish.

After mixing all the ingredients together, I let it sit in a large Ziploc bag inside a pitcher to create the air-tight seal and so that the wine wouldn’t stain my plastic pitcher. It’s important to let the mix sit for 24 hours in the fridge (or longer) for the flavors to marry so plan to make the sangria ahead of time. It will also help mellow out the brandy and allow the fruit to soak up some of the alcohol. When the sangria is ready it won’t taste very strong in alcohol content, but it definitely is there.

And that’s it. Let me know if you try out these recipes and tell me how things turned out. Enjoy!