Rick Bayless' Bacon-and-Tomato Guacamole

A few months ago, I picked up a copy of Rick Bayless' Fiesta at Rick's. The book itself is beautiful. It's filled with scrumptious, full-paged pictures of clean, inspiring food. While the overarching theme is obviously Mexican, there are many dishes that you wouldn't expect to successfully make the leap into the realm of Mexican food. The book is exciting and makes you want to cook everything in it.

As I was flipping through, I kept an eye out for quicker snacks to make. With my externship looming around the corner, I was hoping to find some finger food I could snack on while at work. I should have expected this, but Fiesta at Rick's is loaded with quick snack foods. Though there are plenty of desserts, cocktails, and mains, the premise of the book is to show the reader how to successfully throw a party with a series of snack-oriented dishes.

My eyes stopped at the Bacon-and-Tomato Guacamole. I love guacamole, and I love bacon. Reading its description made me drool with excitement. Within 10 minutes, I was out the door with a short shopping list: bacon, avocados, white onion, chipotle chiles, tomato, cilantro, salt, and lime juice.

The recipe actually makes a decent amount. Though it says 8 to 10 nibble-sized servings, I think this could easily amount to six good fistful-sized servings.

The chipotle adds an addictive smokey and somewhat sweet flavor to the otherwise bright and fresh salsa. The tomato and onion add a clean flavor to balance out the fatty bacon and creamy avocado. The cilantro adds that extra Mexican kick to the guacamole. I usually like to have garlic in my guacamole, but I didn't find myself missing it.

If this recipe is any indication of the flavors and uniqueness of the other recipes in this book, then 2011 is in for a strong relationship with Rick Bayless.