Cinco De Mayo Guacamole: The Only Recipe You Need

I don't observe Cinco de Mayo per se; I am aware of the significance of the day, and I know that the U.S. has taken it to a level of revelry and merrymaking that surprises citizens of Mexico. (Click here for a good read about the origins of the celebration, and know that it is not Mexican Independence Day.)

No, I am happy to learn about the battle that saw Mexican forces defeat a French army at the Battle of Puebla in 1862, but I don't use the day as an excuse to drink a margarita or eat enchiladas (one needs no excuse for those things). What I do is make one of the best — if not the best — bowl of guacamole I've ever tasted. It's not traditional, it's likely you've never had anything like it, and I bet you will love it.

I stole this one from Diana Kennedy — a culinary legend whom I had the honor of meeting in 2013 — who in turn lifted it from Leticia Sánchez, a woman from the city of Comonfort, located in the Mexican state of Guanajuato.

Kennedy — who was born in 1923 and who first moved to Mexico in 1957 and is alive and well — enjoyed this guacamole during a lunch at a friend's ranch one September years ago, but the memory of it was bright and clear when she put her experiences of that day in words, and I keep it alive every May 5.

Here's Kennedy in her own words:

Between Celaya and San Miguel de Allende lies the little town of Comonfort, formerly known as Chamacuero and renamed after the former Mexican president Ignacio Comonfort, who died in the area. This guacamole is from an old family recipe given to me by Sra. Sánchez. It is made in late summer and fall, when the peaches, grapes, and pomegranates are ripe in the local orchards. This guacamole lends itself to many inauthentic innovations.

May 5 does not fall in late summer, of course, but this recipe, as Kennedy notes, is one that is ripe for substitutions.

Guacamole Chamacuero

2 heaping tablespoons finely chopped white onion
2-3 serrano chiles, finely chopped
Salt to taste
2 cups roughly crushed avocado pulp
3/4 cup peeled and finely diced firm, but ripe, peaches
1/2 cup halved seedless grapes
1 1/2 tablespoons fresh lime juice
1/3 cup pomegranate seeds (you can buy the seeds already removed from the fruit in many grocery stores now)

Crush the onion, chiles, and salt together to a paste (a mortar and pestle comes in handy here). Transfer mixture to a bowl, then stir in the avocado pulp, peaches, grapes, lime juice, and half the pomegranate seeds. Mix well, sprinkle the surface with the remaining seeds, and serve at room temperature. Pears or other fruits many be substituted. If peaches are not in season, substitute pear. (Buy tortilla chips to serve with this guacamole, or make your own, which is easier than is commonly thought.)

If you want to dine out in Houston on Cinco de Mayo, I offer this suggestion: Reserve a table at Hugo's, whose chef was this week named Best Chef in the Southwest by the James Beard Foundation. Hugo Ortega is the real deal, and his cuisine has been approved by Kennedy herself, and there's not a more important endorsement than that to be had when it comes to Mexican cuisine.

— Main image: Teasers & Rye