Gazpacho!

To say it's been hot here lately is a serious understatement. It has been hot everywhere. Gone is the desire to cook, gone is the appetite, hello desire to sit on patio, drink beer and eat gelato.

The heat has really cramped our foodie style. One painful example- hoofing it out to Como Park in nearly 100* heat to check out the 32nd Annual Hmong Sports Tournament, purely in search of some good homestyle Hmong cooking. Namely, fiery papaya salad, sausage, BBQ and tapioca with coconut. After our journey we were, tragically, too hot to eat any of it. We settled for a coconut popsicle and vowed to hit the Hmong flea market on Rice Street some day soon. So sad.

Fourth of July comes around, as do a number of friends. We figure we would cook some chicken outside and make Gazpacho. Really, what could be more perfect in this sweltering weather than the creamy, cold, spicy soup made from fresh tomatoes, cucumbers and the chiles in our garden? Not much else I would want to eat. Oh, except my friend Lynn's corn and avocado salad, but she was already bringing that.

There are two main components to this gazpacho recipe. First you have the vegetables you will chop and blend with bread crumbs and oil to create a creamy broth. Then you take a second batch of nearly the same chopped vegetables to put into the broth. What you end up with is the best of both worlds.


Due to this two part process, half of the vegetables below will be coarsely chopped and go into the blender, the other half will be  chopped into 1/4 " pieces, strained and dropped directly in.  

 Ingredients:
 3 pounds tomatoes, cored, (2 lbs chopped coarsely, 1 lb, finely)
 1 English cucumber, peeled, seeded and chopped (1/2 coarse, 1/2 fine)
 1 green bell pepper, seeded and chopped (1/2 coarse, 1/2 fine)
 2 large shallots, chopped (1 coarse, 1 minced)
 2 garlic cloves, chopped
 1 Serrano pepper, chopped (2 or 3 if you like it spicy)
 Kosher salt and black pepper
 1 white sandwich roll, or piece of hearty white bread, torn into pieces 
 1/2 cup olive oil
 2 tbsp sherry vinegar
 2 tbsp fresh minced parsley
 1 tbsp fresh minced basil 

First:  Take the finely diced vegetables (1 lb tomatoes, 1/2 cucumber, 1/2 green pepper, 1/2 red onion minced) and add to a medium bowl. Toss with 1 tbsp salt and transfer to a finely meshed strainer, place the strainer over a bowl to catch the liquid and set aside.

Second: Put the remaining coarsely chopped vegetables in a bowl, add garlic, the Serrano pepper and 1/2 tbsp of salt, toss to combine.

Third: Take 1/4 cup of the liquid exuded by the finely diced vegetables, discard the rest of the liquid. Add bread pieces to the liquid and soak for 1 minute. Add the soaked bread to the bowl with the coarsely chopped vegetables and toss thoroughly to combine. 

Transfer 1/2 of the vegetable-bread mixture to a blender and process for 30 seconds. With blender running, slowly drizzle in 1/4 cup oil and continue to blend until it's completely smooth, about 2 minutes. Strain soup through fine mesh strainer into large bowl, using the back of a ladle or rubber spatula to press soup through. Repeat with remaining vegetable-bread mixture and 1/4 cup oil.

Stir vinegar, parsley, basil and the finely chopped vegetables into soup and season with salt and pepper to taste. Cover and refrigerate for at least 2 hours to chill completely and develop flavor (overnight is ideal).