The Other Side of the Tortilla

Mexican recipes, culture and travel destinations

Mexican Ingredients

6 How To

How to choose a ripe avocado

If you’ve ever struggled with finding a ripe avocado in the grocery store, here are my foolproof tips to make sure you never buy unripe avocados by mistake again.

A guide on how to choose ripe avocados

Avocado is a very versatile ingredient in Mexican cuisine. And although most people think of avocado just as a savory ingredient, you can use it for sweet recipes, too. Aside from typical recipes like guacamole and salsa verde with avocado, this fruit is also great for making avocado paletas, avocado fudge pops, and avocado chocolate pudding.

With so many potential uses, you’ll want to ensure you always have avocados on hand. But when it comes to choosing a ripe Haas avocado, there are a few cardinal rules to follow.

DO

  • Evaluate the avocado’s skin color and texture, and remove the stem to determine ripeness.

DON’T

  • Squeeze the avocado. There’s a difference between using your fingers to gently feel if the skin gives—indicating softness—and squeezing it, which can damage the flesh inside, and in some cases, break the outer skin.
  • Put avocado in the refrigerator before they’re ripened.

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1 Mexican Ingredients

Guide to Mexican limes

Mexican limes are widely used in the cuisine and offer a bright, acidic touch to food and beverages.

Everything you need to know about Mexican limes, a guide from theothersideofthetortilla.com

All limes pictured in this post are Mexican limes. 

Lime juice is an indispensable part of Mexican cuisine. It’s used in everything from beverages to dressing ceviche, soups, salads, fruit and vegetables, meats, in desserts and more. And it’s not just the juice; lime zest also makes its way into plenty Mexican recipes as well.

The limón chico (also known as limoncito or limón de Colima) is what most people think of when they think of Mexican limes. They generally measure between 2.5 and 5 centimeters in diameter, are more round (rather than oval) with thin, bright green skin, greenish-yellow pulp, have small seeds, and a very acidic flavor. As they age, the skin turns yellow and the flavor bitter when they’re over-ripened.

Known as limón grande or limón sin semilla, the larger Mexican limes do not have seeds….

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