LONG PROMO:   Hey, the Superbowl is two weeks away, so you’ve got to have the perfect avocado for the perfect guacamole.  But what if the avocados are not ripe?  What do we do then?  Plus, the ingredients for the perfect guacamole.  Of course you have to have limes.  Which onion and which tomato are you going to use?  Plus, my secret ingredient!  …Next week, with me, Michael Marks, Your Produce Man.

SHORT PROMO:  The perfect guacamole begins with the perfect avocado…next week with me, Michael Marks, Your Produce Man.
                                                                                                         
AVOCADO (Monday, January 21):  All right, you have the Hula Bowl this coming weekend followed by the Super Bowl next weekend.  You’ve got to have some guacamole for that.  All this week I’m going to get you ready with all the great ingredients.  And the best guacamole begins right here with the best avocado – the Haas avocado.  Now mine are perfectly ripe, but what if you walk in the store and they’re not ripe?  Whoa!  What are you going to do?  You’ve got to make guacamole tomorrow.  There’s no good ripe avocados.  Here’s what you’re going to do.  Do not panic!  Get the avocados – the ripest you can find.   Put them into a bag, and get an apple just like this.  Put that in the bag with it.  Then close the bag.  It will ripen up very very quickly, within a day or two.  Now one of the interesting things when you’re trying to get the pit out, this is really interesting, how do you get the pit out?  Some people say get a big spoon.  Some people say get a knife.  Here’s what I’m going to do.  Watch this very carefully.  I’m going to turn it over.  Watch.   Don’t leave.   I’m going to give it a little squeeze.  Aah!  It’s like magic!  It just pops out!  So you need no special tools to get that pit out.  I’m Michael Marks…Your Produce Man.   

TEASE:  Hey, in my next Produce Man report, if your avocados are not ripe, get out an apple!

ONIONS (Tuesday, January 22):  All right, we’re making the best guacamole on the face of the planet for our Hula Bowl this coming weekend and of course the Super Bowl next weekend, so which onion are you going to put in?  Now I’m not the onion police.  I promise!  I will not come over to your house and say, “Hey, you’re not using the right onion.”  You can use whatever onion you want.  You can use the yellow if you like a little bit sweet.  I personally prefer the red onion because it adds a bit of color and a bit of a bite.  I’ll tell you about that in just a minute.  You can also use a white onion if you want.  In fact in some parts of Mexico, the white onion, of course, is the main onion used.  Now back to our red onions.  Have you noticed lately the red onions have quite a bite to them?  Now I can tell this just by walking up to it and holding it in my hand and giving it a little squeeze.  Oh man!  This feels like it is a solid rock, like it’s granite.  What that tells me is that the cell structure here is very very tight, which means its going to have very little water content and its going to have quite a bite to it.  Oh man!  This is going to be a nice hot red onion.  I’m Michael Marks…Your Produce Man.      

TEASE: Hey, in my next Produce Man report…for your guacamole, which onion do we use?  This one?  This one?  Or this one?

LIMES (Wednesday, January 23):  All right, we’re getting you ready for the Super Bowl…Hula Bowl this coming weekend actually.  Now I’ve got my avacado and I’ve cut it in half.  What I do, I take a metal spoon, and I just kind of poke it with my metal spoon.  That kind of breaks it up a just a little bit, and it really…especially when they’re nice and ripe…they really come out very nicely just like so.  Now the first thing you’re going to do…the very first thing…you’ve got the avocados in there?  You’ve got to get some lime juice.  You’ve got to get some ascorbic acid on there to stop them from turning brown because you know avocados, they’ve got some chemicals in them.  They’ll start turning brown like right now.  So we’re going to get some limes.  I know some of you like to use lemons.   Please, use limes.  You will fall in love with lime juice in your guacomole.  It’s so much better.  Now what I’m doing, I’m just rolling this lime on a hard surface as hard as I can here.  That’s because I’m breaking up all the little water cells in there, the little balloons, and it makes it a whole lot easier then.  Look at that.  See how easy it is when you just roll it like that?  Oh, get the lime juice on there!  I’m Michael Marks…Your Produce Man. (Takes Bite)  Mmmm.

TEASE: Hey, in my next Produce Man report, once you get the avocado out of the shell, you better get some lime juice on it!

JALAPENO PEPPERS (Thursday, January 24):  Hey, the Hula Bowl is this weekend.  That’s the college, all the college all stars are going to be, of course, in Hawaii.  And then next weekend is what?  Whoa!  The Super Bowl!  And some of those teams have a secret ingredient, right?  They have a secret player.  Well, they’re not secret but they have some secret plays.  Well, for guacamole, they’re always a secret ingerediant and my secret ingredient…yes, bite your tongue.  Here we go…hot jalapeno peppers.  Oh, you’ve got to have at least one or two jalapeno peppers in there.  Now when I’m picking out a jalapeno pepper, a couple things I’m looking for.  First thing I’m looking for, look how shiny they are.  That means they’re nice and fresh.  The stem here, as it gets late in the season, it starts turning a little brown, but I’m not as worried about the stem as I am about the shininess.  The shininess means there is still a lot of great juice content.  Now when you are cutting this jalapeno, be very careful.  In fact if…you should probably go out and buy some gloves, some of those rubber gloves, and wear those so you don’t get all of that hot stuff on your hands.  I’m Michael Marks…Your Produce Man.  

TEASE:  Hey, in my next Produce Man report, the secret ingredient to guacamole?  Jalapeno peppers…and they better be shiny! 
  
ROMA TOMATOES (Friday, January 25):  Now, you’ve got to have tomatoes.  If you’re making some guacamole, a little pico de gallo goes in the guacamole, and of course, the main part of pico de gallo is, of course, going to be your tomatoes - beautiful red ripe tomatoes.  Finally, after like two months of some really high prices we are now finally starting to see some much better prices on all the tomatoes including these beautiful Roma tomatoes.  Now I know a lot of people like to use the regular round slicers.  That’s what we call them in the produce industry – “regular round slicers”, and these are okay, but I prefer these Roma tomatoes because they are a very meaty tomato and I don’t like to make my guacamole real soupy.  So of course I’m going to use some beautiful Roma tomatoes.  Now I’ll cut one in half just to show you.  Look at all…very little gel, a lot of meat in there, very little gel.  Now if you cut a regular slicing tomato in half - let me cut one of these in half.  Look at all the gel that’s in there, so it’s going to make it real soupy.  You can use that if that’s what you want, but me?  For the best guacamole, I prefer a Roma.  I’m Michael Marks…Your Produce Man.  (Take bite)  Mmmm.

TEASE:  Hey, in my next Produce Man report, which Tomato for our Guacamole? 

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