Gorgeous Garden Gazpacho

My garden brings me great joy, gentle exercise, and occasionally a generous glut of gorgeous vegetables

As you may have noticed from all my whinging, it has been hot. Very hot. And sometimes cooking is much less appealing than usual- I just don't want to turn on my oven or hot plates at all, or stand outside in the sun to use the bbq either
The perfect answer to avoiding the heat while still feeding my family fresh, healthy meals gathered from the garden is Gazpacho

Gazpacho is a peasant dish from southern Spain, around about Andalusia, where all these delightful veggies grow in abundance throughout Summer as well. As it's been around for many, many years, I figure that I'll stick with the classics and enjoy a night off from the heat for a change!

Gorgeous Garden Gazpacho- start a day earlier than serving for best results

1- 1/2 kg fresh Tomatoes
1 Red Capsicum
1 Cucumber
1 or 2 cloves of Garlic
1/2 - 1 mild Chilli
2 slices gf Bread
1-2 tab Sherry Vinegar
3-4 tab good Olive Oil
Salt to taste

 

Time to trim the veggies:
Make sure you remove all the seeds and membrane from the capsicum. The seeds are yucky and hard and the membrane can be bitter, so best to take it all out

As my cucumbers are nice and young and very fresh I won't bother peeling them or taking the seeds out. The seeds and peel can be quite bitter as well if they're not in they're prime, so best to remove them if you're not sure

Now, if you wanted to be fussy, you could blanch and peel the tomatoes as well- but why bother I say! Just roughly chop them a very little and you're done. Now a little tip from our friend Heston- he recommends leaving a bit of the tomato stalk to simmer with tomatoes when making a sauce as it adds a lot of fragrance and flavour. I'll add mine in after the blending while it's soaking for a very easy flavour boost

Peel the garlic and depending on how much of a buzz you want, you can leave the seeds in the chilli if you like

Quickly splash the bread with a good glug of water

Then squeeze the excess away. The bread will add a nice bit of body and almost a bit of 'creaminess' to the texture as well

Everything ready to go!

Bung it all in to a food processor or blender with the olive oil

Then whizz, whizz away until nice and smooth

Of course you could just eat this soup as is with all the veggies bits mixed in, and it's quite nice really, but to be authentic and fancy you need to strain the whole lot leaving the solids behind

Nice and smooth and clear

Test the fresh flavours, then mix in a tablespoon or so of the sherry vinegar to taste. The vinegar will add a sweet sharpness that works beautifully with the veggies, but be careful not to overdo it as the flavours will continue to mellow and develop overnight. Time to pop in the tomato stalk as well and let it do it's magic....
Let the soup sit covered in the fridge overnight

Before serving, check the flavours- does it need salt, a splash more vinegar, a pinch of sugar if your veggies aren't home grown? If it's very thick it's ok to thin it out a with just a little chilled water.

Serve straight from the fridge, and drizzle with a little more olive oil just as you serve to finish off one of the nicest soups you'll have all Summer- I promise

For a bit of added yumminess I served my soup up with some more of the bread topped with soft goat cheese- delicious!

So Dear Readers, what do you think of cold soup and do you like goat cheese too?



 

Hot Tomato Milkshakes

Yes, that's right. Don't navigate away from my page though, there's more to this story, I promise.

When MiddleC was just a little girl, she had some motor-skill issues. She had a lot of difficulty with dexterity and movement. Some things, like holding a pencil, turning on taps, and manipulating a spoon carefully, were very hard for her.

After a lot of physical and occupational therapy, she is now a lovely and accomplished young lady who can even use chopsticks. Very important in our household, where we eat so much Asian food and I have quite an extensive chopstick selection - polished wood, personalised engraved, pure jade(admittedly a bit slippery) coloured plastics, and others....

But I digress, this post is not about chopsticks. Nor about food you would care to eat with them. The chopsticks were merely an indication of MiddleC's amazing culinary progress. Today's post is about Hot Tomato Milkshakes.

This is the name we gave to Tomato Soup. As the steady spooning required for slurping soup was difficult, and I objected to kittystyle lapping, an almost phobia was beginning. The mere mention of the 'S' word would bring on tears. Being the sensitive, wonderful mother that I am, I came up with the concept of Hot Tomato(or other)Milkshakes. These fantastic culinary creations are soup cunningly disguised in a cup, served through a straw. Problem solved. Except for chunks - thankfully you can actually get large bore straws if you look hard enough, perhaps this soup issue is more common than I thought?
Todays recipe is my tribute to tomato soup. We have a huge glut of tomatoes as hundreds of plants self seeded in the vege garden- and compost heap, and herb pots, and on the lawn... determined little suckers. It's fresh and easy with loads of flavour. I even made this soup for one of my exam pieces for my apprenticeship, and it was gobbled up, no straw bribery required.

Ingredients:

Tomatoes, tomatoes, tomatoes

I like cherry ones as they are nice and sweet, or use whatever you have on hand. Use a lot because they squish down

1 red capsicum, whole

A few shallots, or a red onion roughly chopped

A few whole garlic cloves

A long red chilli, or more if you like a zing

Veggie stock, or water

Good splash of red wine vinegar

Method:

Heat the oven to about 200*

Bung everything on a tray, drizzle with olive oil and stick in the oven.

Wait until the tomatoes are squishy, the chilli and capsicum are charred looking, and the onion and garlic are softened and cooked. This intensifies the yummy flavours.

If you are lucky enough to have a mouli, pass everything through and put in a pot on the stove.

If you aren't lucky enough to have a mouli, peel and seed the capsicum, peel the onion and garlic, and blend the lot.

A mouli is a great tool that passes everything through a sort of sieve, that allows the good stuff through, but would catch the skin and most of the seeds of the tomatoes as a dry mass. The skin and seeds can sometimes have a bit of bitterness, so add some castor sugar to taste and neutralise the acidity.

Dilute to taste with some veggie stock or water. Heat and then add that good splash of red wine vinegar. You don't want to overpower, just add a bit of intrigue. Balsamic vinegar will be too strong. Taste and adjust with salt or sugar to taste. Use castor sugar for a good 'clean' taste.

Serve and garnish with basil leaves and a drizzle of olive oil- I'm lucky enough to have basil oil, yumm... If you are a complete basil fiend, or for a change, you can add fresh basil at the blending stage. Just don't boil the soup or you will lose a lot of it's fresh green taste.

This is a nice first course soup, or lunch dish, it's also yummy chilled. It's not a stick to your ribs winter dish, just perfect for the warm time of the year when you have so many tomatoes you don't know what to do, or can get a case of cheapie ripe tomatoes for a couple of bucks at the markets and it would be a crime not to give them a home.

So dear Readers, what culinary phobias have you overcome or battled with?