Gazpacho!

I remember my first experience with gazpacho.

I ordered it for lunch at Olde Main.

I had never tasted it before because I didn't really think tomatoes as a soup

sounded good at all.

I was so surprised with the flavors of the soup.

From then on, Doug and I started looking for gazpacho recipes so we 

could make it at home.

I do have two recipes that we I blogged:

Gazpacho Soup on 06-12-12

Motherlode Gazpacho posted on 07-23-14

My brother had a bountiful supply of tomatoes this year, so Doug started

looking for "the perfect" gazpacho recipe.

He hit the jackpot.

We looked at the ingredients to make this recipe, and decided it would

be worth a try.

This is my favorite gazpacho so far.

It is the perfect blend of  fresh garden vegetables and spices.

These beauties were freshly picked from my brother's garden.

Irresistible!

My basic recipe was modified  Chef John's Gazpacho from All Recipes.

http://allrecipes.com/recipe/222331/chef-johns-gazpacho/

Ingredients
⦁ 8 large fresh tomatoes, peeled and diced 
⦁ 1  cucumber, peeled and finely diced 
⦁ 1 finely diced red bell pepper 
⦁ 1/2 cup minced green onion 
⦁ 2 large jalapeno pepper, seeded and minced 
⦁  5 cloves garlic, minced 
⦁ 2 teaspoon salt 
⦁ 1 teaspoon ground cumin 
⦁ 1 pinch dried oregano 
⦁ 1 pinch chipotle pepper, or to taste 
⦁ freshly ground black pepper to taste 
⦁ 1-1/2 pints cherry tomatoes 
⦁ 1/2 cup extra-virgin olive oil 
⦁ 2 limes, juiced 
⦁ 2 tablespoon balsamic vinegar 
⦁ 1 tbsp. Worcestershire sauce 
⦁ salt and ground black pepper to taste 
⦁  thinly sliced fresh basil 
Directions
1. Combine diced tomatoes, cucumber, bell pepper, green onion, jalapeno, and garlic in a large bowl. Stir in salt, cumin, oregano, chipotle pepper, and black pepper.
2. Place cherry tomatoes, olive oil, lime juice, balsamic vinegar, and Worcestershire sauce in a blender. Cover and puree until smooth. Pour pureed mixture through a strainer into the tomato-cucumber mixture; stir to combine.
3. Place 1/3 of the tomato mixture into the blender. Cover, turn blender on, and puree until smooth. Return pureed mixture to the remaining tomato-cucumber mixture. Stir to combine. Cover and chill in refrigerator for 2 hours.
4. Season cold soup with salt and black pepper to taste. Ladle into bowls and top with basil.

To peel the tomatoes quickly and not lose a lot of the tomato itself, 

use this method to peel them.

Boil a pan of water.

Then submerge the tomatoes in the pan until you can see

the peels just start to loosen from the skin.

Do not cook them.

Plunge the tomatoes into a bowl of ice water.

This will loosen the skin.

Then just pull the peel from the tomato.

Dice the tomatoes into small uniform pieces.

Seed and dice the cucumber.

Dice the bell pepper.

Slice the green onions with the tops.

Seed and dice the jalapeno pepper.

The seeds and white membrane contain the heat.

Remove them.

Dice into small pieces.

Dice the garlic.

Add to the diced tomatoes.

Measure salt, cumin, oregano, chipotle pepper, and black pepper.

Clean and stem the cherry tomatoes.

I gathered these from my garden!

Add spice mixture to the bowl of diced vegetables.

Place cherry tomatoes into a blender.

Add olive oil.

Freshly squeezed lime juice.

Balsamic vinegar.

Worcestershire sauce.

Cover and puree until smooth.

Pour pureed mixture through a strainer into the tomato-cucumber mixture;
 stir to combine.

Place 1/3 of the tomato mixture into the blender.

 Cover, turn blender on, and puree until smooth.

 Return pureed mixture to the remaining tomato-cucumber mixture. 

Stir to combine. 

Cover and chill in refrigerator for 2 hours.

I grew several varieties of basil in my garden this year.
I used some of this beauty for the gazpacho.
Great color and flavor!

Clean and chiffonade the basil leaves.

Chiffonade is a slicing technique in which herbs or leafy green vegetables 

are cut into long, thin strips. 

This is accomplished by stacking leaves, rolling them tightly,

 then slicing the leaves perpendicular to the roll.

Ladle the cold soup into bowls.

Add basil and season with salt and pepper.

This soup just gets better with age.

This is the best recipe we have found so far.
Bon appetit!

Cooking with Camden- Banana Bread Revisited

Camden and Aiden came to visit for a couple of days.

They love to cook.

It was Camden's turn to bake something with Grandma.

He wanted to cook some banana bread after seeing the Lemon Zucchini Bread his brother made 

the day before.  Cam prefers banana bread, so I looked up the recipe from one of my previous blogs.

See Banana Bread

Camden's first Banana Bread!

Ingredients: 

⦁ 1/2 cup oleo or shortening 

⦁ 1 cup sugar 

⦁ 2 eggs 

⦁ 3 bananas 

⦁ 2 cups flour 

⦁ 1 tsp. soda 

⦁ 1/4 tsp. salt 

Cream together 1/2 cup oleo or margarine.

Add 1 cup granulated sugar.

Crack 2 eggs into bowl and add to oleo and sugar mixture in bowl.

Cream together.

Peel and mash 3 bananas.

In a separate bowl measure 2 cups flour.

Add 1 tsp. baking soda.

Add 1/4 tsp. salt.

Add bananas to the shortening, sugar, and egg mixture.

Mix until evenly incorporated.

Then add the flour, soda, and salt mixture.

Pour into a greased bread pan (sprayed with nonstick vegetable spray).

Bake in a 350 degree oven for 1 hour.

Camden is not only a great baker,
but also an aspiring Ninja.
Thanks, Cam, for a great day!


The Banana Bread was delicious!
One of the best I have eaten.