Gazpacho

The heat of August and the abundance of excellently ripe produce has me jonesin' for gazpacho. I just love it!

I only have a couple "rules" about the way it needs to be:

1. don't puree it all, it must have chunks of vegetables!

2. absolutely no sour cream within 100 feet!

What's your favorite recipe?

well, we need a def of puree i guess.
i take the fresh tomatoes and process them just enough that they will go through the food mill more easily - which i then do. the liquid goes back to the processor with a bit of vinegar and a small bit of olive oil, a couple of leaves of basil and some garlic and salt. this gets well blended. then the coursely chopped cucumbers, peppers of various colors, a small carrot, maybe a radish is one is handy, some purple onion, maybe a bit of celery and a little parsley. this gets processes till coursely chopped; allowed to sit for several hours in the frig and eaten - maybe with some stailish bread added at the end for authenticity. gosh, i love tomato season. anyone see arlo and janis yesterday?

[Jenise]

No recipe at all here, every batch is improvised from what's on hand. However, a favorite, based on one I ordered in Caprial Pence's Westmoreland Cafe in Portland, OR, is a Southwesternized version in which half the tomatoes are lightly cooked with dried chipotle chiles before being blended with a raw tomato puree and toasted bread. Absolutely sensational!

Wow, that sounds great, Jenise. I'll have to try it.

David, I quite often use dill as the herb in mine, mainly because I seem to have it all over the garden at the same time and it's outstanding with both cukes and tomatoes. (This just reminded me of a killer quiche recipe I make that uses fresh tomatoes and dill. I'll post it later.)

I also usually throw in some hot chile peppers as well as bells.

I wonder if I can get Della to make gazpacho for tomorrow's lunch. I bet I can.

sorry, forgot the hot peppers. i can see the dill, btw - its just that i would probably cut out the garlic in that case. for some reason i think of those two flavors as fighting.

[Jenise]

sorry, forgot the hot peppers. i can see the dill, btw - its just that i would probably cut out the garlic in that case. for some reason i think of those two flavors as fighting.

Garlic and dill are wonderful together in a vinaigrett for cucumbers, or mixed with lime juice and mayonnaise for a cold artichoke dip.

my own gazpacho recepie:

1 long cucumber
1 red bellpepper (oven-roasted and pealed)
1 shallot (or any soft ognion)
500g tomatos (the best tasting you can get! pealed)
3 garlic-tips (the heat of the gaspacho is adjusted with garlic)
50 g white bread
salt, pepper
20g sherry-vinegar
50g olive-oil

mix all well in a glas-blender.

serve it cool but not to cold (it is refreshing enough at 12°c and the taste is better. too cold, as 1°-6° will not help to improve.
- with toasted bread (sprincled wit olive oil or/and garlic is an idea)
- asside some olives, pata-negra are welcome

fancy ideas:
replace the cucumber with zuccini, add a little fresh peppermint, no tomatos and bellpepper here.
make a tomato granite with pealed tomatos, salt, pepper and frezze it in the icecreme-maker or in the frezzer.

[Jenise]

Albino, re gazapacho granita--I made a gazpacho sorbet a few years ago to serve as an intermezzo. It was quite good; however, I used yellow tomatoes and in combination with the other vegetables instead of the bright yellow I had imagined, it just looked kind of dirty. Always thought the idea deserved more play but with red tomatoes.

My number 1 rule concerning any Gazpacho recipe is to add the olive oil at time of serving. Otherwise the oil has hardened into "little pearls" of grease.

[Jenise]

Albino, in your picture (gorgeous, btw), is that the cucumber/zucchini combination? If so, it's even more beautiful than it sounds. Must try it!

thx jenise,

no, this is a only zucchini-gazpacho made with the round zucchine on the picture right-below

[img]http://www.uploads.biz/thumb-264.jpg[/img]


and the tomato-granita was made with yellow tomatos :



[img]http://www.uploads.biz/thumb-261.jpg[/img]

Not so long ago I made an interesting Pineapple Gazpacho with lobster ceviche, coconut foam, and ground star anise. But that doesn't exactly help with your abundance of tomatoes. Did you even mention an abundance of tomatoes?

rwj

My number 1 rule concerning any Gazpacho recipe is to add the olive oil at time of serving. Otherwise the oil has hardened into "little pearls" of grease.

This is not true of gazpacho Andaluz. One creates an emulsion with the tomato-cucumber-pepper puree, soaked bread and lots of oil, along with a dollop of sherry vinegar. This is how I always make a smooth, creamy gazpacho that, IMNSHO, is superior to the chunky acidic style common in the US. I serve finely diced veggies on the side to add to the gazpacho, as they do in Andalucia, to provide the crunch. I also drizzle the best available EVOO onto the soup at the table.