Guacamole: the king of dishes for your fiesta!

Guacamole is an avocado-based dip which originated in Mexico. It is quite easy to do and always appreciated as a dip in parties. The traditional recipe only includes ripe avocados and salt. To give it a twist, I like to add garlic, red chili, lemon juice and diced tomatoes. Try it and let me know!

Serves 2
Preparation time: 10 minutes
Cooking time: none
Difficulty: *

Ingredients:
- 2 ripe avocados
- 2 garlic cloves, grated
- 1 small tomato, diced
- 1/2 red chili, very finely minced or 1 pinch cayenne pepper
- juice of 1 lemon (or lime)
- salt

Dice the tomato, grate the garlic and mince the chili.
Note that the chili and the cayenne pepper are optional. The give a nice kick to the dish but you can exclude them if you want to.

In a bowl, place the scooped avocado pulp and add the lemon juice. Using a fork, start mixing and mashing the avocado pulp.

Fold in the garlic, diced tomato and chili or cayenne pepper (if you use it).

Mash more until you reach the consistency you like: you can leave some avocado chucks for a more authentic guacamole of mash it more (even using a potato masher) for a smoother texture.
Serve quickly with tortilla chips or pita bread. Yum!

Eggplant and Celery Stew - Easy Vegetarian dish

This stew is a vegetarian dish with can be served with rice. For the story, I wanted to make an Indian Eggplant curry but since a dinner was planned at an Indian restaurant at the end of the week, I decided to use my eggplant in another dish. Celery is a vegetable which is rarely used: it's a pity in my opinion because its taste is very aromatic. I personally use both the stalks and the leaves, the latter being even more aromatic.

Serves 2
Preparation time: 15 minutes
Cooking time: 45 minutes to 1 hour
Difficulty: *

Ingredients:
- 1 big eggplant
- 1 onion
- 4-5 celery branches, with leaves, chopped - Separate the leaves from the branches
- 3 garlic cloves
- 1/2 cup heavy cream
- 1 cup tomato sauce
- 1 cup vegetable broth (more if needed, depending on the consistency)
- salt
- pepper


Cut the eggplant into medium size squares. Sprinkle them with salt and let stand while you prepare the other ingredients.

Chop the onion very finely, cut the celery stalks into small pieces, crush the garlic cloves and cut the celery leaves roughly.

Heat 2 tablespoons of olive oil in a large sauce pan and add the onion, garlic and celery stalks. Cook for 5 minutes.

In the meantime, rinse the eggplant squares and pat dry. Add them to the sauce pan. Stir and add 1 tablespoon of olive oil. Let cook for 5 more minutes.

Add the tomato sauce, the heavy cream and the vegetable broth. Add the celery leaves to the stew.

Cover and cook on low heat. Check after 15-20 minutes and add broth if the preparation sticks to the bottom of the sauce pan or is too thick.
There should not be too much liquid but it shouldn't be dry either.

After 45 minutes to 1 hour, the eggplants should be very tender. Adjust the seasoning and serve hot with jasmine rice.