If life gives you heaps of avocados, make guacamole

GET out your molcajete -- guacamole season is about to start.

How do we know that? Take a quick spin around the farmers market, and you’ll see Hass avocados galore. At the Wednesday Santa Monica market last week, it seemed as though just about every farm stand had at least a box of them.

And the price was right at J.J.’s Lone Daughter Ranch stand. Laura Ramirez, who grows 18 varieties of avocados in Redlands, was selling them for $1.50 apiece or four for $5. Hers were smallish, but they proved to be wonderfully fleshy, perfectly ripe, creamy and rich. At another stand they were 50 cents each.

Hass is a year-round crop, and avocados don’t ripen till you pick them. So why are they everywhere now? “I think people just think this is a good time to pick,” says Ramirez.

That’s because they have a nice amount of oil, she explains. “They’re thicker [in] texture and they’re more deeply flavored and more golden inside than yellowy green.”

A large crop this year is what’s keeping the price attractive. “It’s a bigger crop than we’ve had in a number of years,” says Bob Polito of Polito Family Farms in Valley Center. “So there’s a lot of fruit out there.”

As far as I’m concerned, there’s only one way to make guacamole, and that’s in a molcajete, the traditional Mexican mortar and pestle made from volcanic stone.

Diana Kennedy gives the authoritative version of the dish in her seminal cookbook, “The Cuisines of Mexico.” And I follow it, almost to the letter.

It’s extremely satisfying to grind the white onion, cilantro, serrano chiles and salt to a paste in the rough stone (and it will allow the flavors to meld completely once the guacamole is finished). Next, mash in the avocado and add tomato. Here’s where I depart from the queen of Mexican cooking: I add the juice of half a juicy lime. The acid really pulls up the flavor.

The other best way to eat a perfectly ripe Hass avocado is to cut it in half, remove the pit, squeeze lemon juice right into the hollow, sprinkle salt on it liberally, give it a few very generous grinds of black pepper and eat it with a spoon, getting a little of the lemon juice in each bit. Because of all that oil in the flesh, the Hass needs that lemon.

Meanwhile, the near future looks rather rosy for the Hass. “They get more oil as the season goes on,” says Ramirez. “I think it’ll peak in another month.”

Better stock up on tortilla chips.

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Guacamole

Total time: 10 minutes

Servings: Makes 2 cups

Note: Molcajetes, lava stone mortar and pestles, are widely available at Latino markets and selected cookware stores.

2 heaping tablespoons finely chopped white onion

3 serrano chiles, seeded and finely chopped

4 heaping tablespoons roughly chopped cilantro plus cilantro leaves with little stems for garnish

3/4 teaspoon salt or to taste

3 large avocados or 4 small avocados

4 ounces ripe tomatoes, finely chopped (about 2/3 cup)

1 tablespoon freshly squeezed lime juice

1. In a molcajete, grind together the onions, chiles, chopped cilantro and salt to a paste.

2. Cut the avocados into halves, remove the pits and spoon the flesh into the molcajete. Mash the avocado into the onion-chile mixture until it is a uniform texture, but not smooth (it should still have some lumps).

3. Stir in the tomatoes and lime juice, adjust the seasoning and top with the cilantro leaves.

Each tablespoon: 36 calories; 0 protein; 2 grams carbohydrates; 2 grams fiber; 3 grams fat; 0 saturated fat; 0 cholesterol; 57 mg. sodium.