gazpacho

with the heat coming (and the fact that my roommate's mother gave us some western sized-cucumbers) I made some gazpacho this weekend.

I've been making gazpacho for years. A friend of mine and I took a trip to portland, OR where we ate at this great spanish resturant downtown, fernando's hideaway (no, it's nothing like the SNL skit). They signed me up for their newsletter, and one of them had a great gazpacho recipe in it. I've since adapted it a litle bit but it goes something like this.

4 large tomatoes

2 red peppers

1 cucumber

4 cloves of garlic

4 tbsp Spanish sherry vinegar (or balsalmic if that's all you've got)

1/2 cup of spanish olive oil.

3-4 pieces of french bread

taragon, to taste.

Broil the tomatoes and red peppers until the skins can be removed (about 30 minutes) remove the skins over a glass bowl, catching all of the liquid from the vegetables. add the olive oil to the mixture. break up the french bread and soak up the juices and oil in the bread.

Cube the cucumber, and working in batches, put all of the ingredients in a blender until smooth. chill in refrigerator. garnish with sliced cucumber and additional tarragon.


This recipe calls for broiling the tomatoes, but if you want a more intense 'fresh' flavor, you could use a different method of removing the skin. I've tried roasting the garlic along with the tomatoes, etc, but found that it took the bite out of the finished product, and found it's not appropriate for a chilled soup...