Even if you haven’t had the chance to sample our featured chefs’ food in their respective restaurants, bakeries, and shops, you can savor their flavors at home through these recipes. Here we present a dinner party’s worth , one recipe from each chef, which range from starters to main courses to desserts to, of course, a cocktail.
– Lawrence Ferber
Roberto Santibañez’s Guacamole (four servings)
3 medium ripe but firm avocados (about 8 ounces each)
3 tablespoons diced tomato
2-3 teaspoons fresh lime juice
2 firmly packed tablespoons chopped fresh cilantro
1 tablespoon finely chopped white onion
Salt, to taste
Chile Paste:
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
To make the chile paste: Grind the onion, cilantro, jalapeño, and salt together in a molcajete until finely ground. Alternatively, use a fork to mash 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 remove the pit. Fold a kitchen towel in quarters and hold it in the palm. Rest an avocado half cut side up in your palm and make 3 or 4 evenly-spaced lengthwise cuts through the avocado down to the skin. Make 4 crosswise cuts in the same way. Scoop the diced avocado into the molcajete. Repeat with the remaining avocado halves. Gently fold the avocado into the paste, keeping the avocado in as large pieces as possible. Fold in tomato, lime juice, cilantro, and onion gently. Taste and add salt and additional lime juice, if necessary. Serve immediately, right from the molcajete (or bowl), with chips and tortillas.
