White Corn Guacamole

California Pizza Kitchen has a “small plates” menu which contains white corn guacamole.  The first time we had it, we were like “5 dollars for this small mound of guacamole?  Not worth it”.  Inexplicably, we have ordered it every single time since then. It has a mild flavor but it’s so tasty paired with the salty tortilla chips.  For a recent special dinner I decided to take my first stab at re-creating a restaurant dish and I have to say it turned out quite successfully.  If you like guacamole, give this a try, and even if you don’t like guacamole give it a try because the two are quite different.

I have never worked with jicama before, so I wasn’t sure how to deal with it.  Note to self: (and you) jicama does not take well to peeling.  I cut off a good inch-wide slice of the root and peeled it, only to have it crack in half and go straight down the garbage disposal.  From then on, I cut away the skin with a knife and that worked much better.

Another note to self: There is a reason why guacamole is much more popular in the summer. All the avocados in March were major crap-ola.  I bought a hard avocado in hopes that it would ripen in a few days to become part of my beautiful dip.  No such luck.  This avocado was so hard.  I managed to get half of the flesh out with the spoon, but when I bit into it, holy chipped tooth.  That fruit (vegetable?) was hard as a rock.  Note that although this dip is superior when made with the addition of soft, buttery avocado, it’s still quite delicious without it.

We thought it mimicked the guacamole at CPK pretty accurately, and it cost much less than 5 dollars per serving!

Ingredients:

• 1 avocado, diced fine
• 1/2 cup sweet white corn
• 1/4 cup black beans
• 1/4 cup jicama, diced fine
• 1/2 cup onions, diced fine
• 1/2 of one red bell pepper, diced fine
• 1 serrano pepper, diced fine
• 1 handful of cilantro, chopped
• 1/2 lime
• 1/2 tsp of salt

Instructions:

1. Combine all ingredients in a medium-sized bowl, and serve with tortilla chips.  Feel free to adjust ingredients according to your taste.