Our yearly trip to Venezuela always has us looking forward to eating guasacaca (pronounced as "wah-sa ca-ca"... accent on the 'wah' and 'ca-ca' pronounced as the synonym for crap). This is a green sauce kept in a plastic squeeze bottle at the register of every food stand and corner eatery we've been to over there. They use it like we use ketchup. You get your food, and squeeze some of this awesomeness into it no matter what it is. Whenever we'd ask about the recipe, we'd get a rundown of something that sounded like guacamole although it has very little in common. There is avocado in it, but it plays a bit more of a minor role than we were led to believe. Internet searches turn up a few recipes that aren't quite the exact flavor of the traditional (garlicky, herbal, hint of fresh pepper brightness, not a squeeze but a pinch of lime).
Now I have a pretty good recipe. This rundown is from Rogelio, a Venezuelan chef who joined our chef team a couple of months ago. It's a quick blender sauce, and the simplistic awesomeness of it is as addictive as Peruvian chicken. There are actually 2 versions. The basic blended (and typically broken) version and the creamier "cowboy" version that contains a bit of mayonnaise (pictured here). The cowboy recipe is better as an applied sauce while the mayo-less one can be used like chimichurri and makes a hell of a marinade. So, here it is courtesy of Rogelio... a good English documentation of the Venezuelan all-purpose sauce... guasacaca.
Cowboy Guasacaca
1 medium Florida avocado or 2 hass avocados (soft and brown spots removed)
2 each aji dulce or substitute 1 small green bell pepper (seeded and chopped)
1 bunch green onion (green tops only... no white)
1 bunch parsley (both leaves and stems... bottoms of stems cut off)
1 bunch cilantro (both leaves and stems)
8 - 10 cloves garlic
1/4 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp dried oregano
1 Tbsp black pepper
1 Tbsp kosher salt
2 Tbsp worcestershire sauce
juice of 1 lime
1.5 Cup corn oil or vegetable oil
1 Cup mayonnaise
Put all ingredients except for the oil into the blender. Add the oil slowly. If you need to add a little oil to get the blender going, then work with it and try to maintain an emulsion. Work in the mayonnaise.
Place the guasacaca in a container or squeeze bottle and leave refrigerated for a day to allow the flavores to harmonize a bit.
Use on anything, but especially chicken and pork. Commonly used on arepas or tossed with pulled chicken meat inside of an arepa.