Gazpacho

Finally! Sorry about the long pause, I'm really truly back now.

First, some pix of those heirloom tomatoes we got (don't worry, we didn't throw them into the gazpacho):















Just look at the amazing stripes inside the yellow one:















And now for that gazpacho.

Surprisingly, couldn't find a recipe that had all the characteristics I remembered. Mark B. had bread, but minimal ingredients. Alton Brown had a lot of ingredients, but not bread. Ditto for Pioneer Woman, but she had the texture, smooth and chunky, that I was looking for.

Don't think you can really go wrong with gazpacho, but it came out great. We ate it with crusty bread, but you can get much crazier than that, depending on your mood (Pioneer Woman has shrimp, avocado, sour cream, etc.)

The Recipe: GazpachoAdapted from How to Cook Everything (10th Anniversary Edition) by Mark Bittman, and various other sources.

• 2 lbs tomatoes, peeled, seeded, and diced [be careful to retain the juices]
• 1 medium cucumber, seeded, and diced [you can peel it if you like]
• Half a large red onion, diced [I soak it in cold water and drain, makes it easier to digest, apparently]
• Half a yellow bell pepper, seeded and diced
• 2-3 slices of day-old bread, crusts removed, torn into pieces
• 0.25 cup extra virgin olive oil, plus more for garnish
• 1 medium garlic clove, minced [I left this out, as can't eat it]
• Juice of 1 lime
• 2 tspns vinegar (sherry, red/white wine, or balsamic), or more to taste
• 2 tspns Worcestershire sauce (optional, see Tips)
• Tabasco to taste
• Salt and freshly ground black pepper

Serves 4-6.

1. Put the bread, olive oil, garlic, and about two-thirds of each of the diced vegetables in a blender, and blend till smooth.

2. Pour into a large bowl and stir in almost all the remaining vegetables, reserving a little of each for garnish. Add the lime juice, vinegar, Worcestershire sauce, a few dashes of tabasco, and salt and pepper. Mix well, taste, and adjust seasoning as needed.

3. Refrigerate for about two hours, then serve garnished with remaining vegetables (which you'll also want to refrigerate, obviously), and a drizzle of extra virgin olive oil.

Thoughts/Tips/Mistakes

Not sure that the Worcestershire sauce really added a lot to the flavor, and too much of it would turn your gazpacho into a gigantic Bloody Mary. It would probably be fine to leave it out.

Can't remember what type of vinegar I used - it was either red or white wine vinegar, but balsamic sounds interesting (that's from Alton Brown), will try it another time.

You can dilute with water if the soup is too thick.

Pix

Look behind the blender - what do you see?















Step 2 (failed to get a pic of the finished product):