How to Make Gazpacho

On hot summer nights, it's nice to have something cool and refreshing for dinner. Why not take advantage of the full swing of late summer vegetables and make gazpacho?

Gazpacho is the best known of Span's chilled soups, and is made best with fresh summer vegetables, blended with olive oil, vinegar and bread. It is a smooth and creamy soup, although there is no milk or cream. It makes a great soup course, or appetizer, but works equally well as the main course for a simple dinner.

Gazpacho takes no more than about ten minutes or prep time, and should be chilled in the refrigerator for about twenty or thirty more minutes. The quick preparation makes it perfect for a weeknight meal.

Although baguettes are specified in the recipe, any white bread will do. Adding a dash of red pepper flakes will make the dish more colorful and add a bit of spice, if desired.

Equipment Needed
Blender or Food Processor
Cutting Board
Kitchen knife
Measuring spoons
Large strainer
Mixing bowls
Rubber spatula
Plastic wrap
Vegetable peeler


Ingredients
4 baguette slices, 1 /2” thick
2/3 cup water
6 small ripe tomatoes (or 5 medium ones)
1/2 green pepper
1 1/2” length of cucumber
1/3 small onion
1 small garlic clove (or 3/4 medium garlic clove)
3 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
1 tablespoon white wine vinegar
salt (as needed)
ground black pepper (to taste)
additional extra virgin olive oil to finish

Directions
Cut the baguette slices into 3/4 inch pieces and put in a large mixing bowl. Add the water and let them soak while preparing the other ingredients.

Remove the stems from the tomatoes, the seeds and stem from the pepper. Peel the onion, cucumber, and garlic clove. Cut each vegetable into 3/4 inch pieces and add to the bowl with the bread.

Add 3 tablespoons of olive oil, 1 tablespoon of white-wine vinegar, a pinch of salt and ground pepper, and mix well.

Put the vegetable mixture into a blender of food processor. Blend the ingredients until smooth and creamy.

Don't over fill your blender. It's okay to do this in batches.

Place the sieve over a clean bowl (rinsing and wiping cleaning the bowl you just used will be fine) and pour in the mixture. Strain the mixture through the sieve using a rubber spatula to push the liquid through. Taste and add more salt and pepper if needed.

Cover the bowl in plastic wrap and refrigerate until well chilled (about thirty minutes).

Transfer the soup to individual serving bowls and drizzle some olive oil over the top. Serve with additional baguette slices, or better yet, bruschetta, as desired.

Makes 6 servings.

You don't have to strain the soup through a sieve if you don't want. I don't mind the occasional tiny piece of tomato or cucumber seeds and skin. If I were serving this for an elegant dinner party, I would do it, though. What you may want to do is scrape the leavings out of the sieve, add a bit of salt, pepper and olive oil, and have a quick treat yourself, as a reward for making dinner. There's a lot of flavor in those bits!

Non Alcoholic Drink Recipes – Grapefruit Revival

Some neighbors have gifted us with a lot of grapefruit juice. A lot. The wife bought it for food storage only to discover than her husband hated grapefruit juice. I like grapefruit juice so I was happy to accept it.

But what am I supposed to do with it all? A glass of grapefruit juice, straight up, get's pretty boring after a while. The constant acidity isn't too good for my acid reflux, either. So I started mixing it with various things just to see how it would turn out. One morning as my teenage daughter was finally dragging herself out of bed around noon, inspiration struck. My work have finally paid off. The flavor is bright and creamy with a slightly bitter citrus edge. I like it.

If you don't drink anything with caffienne, and many Mormons don't, you'll need to find some kind of substitute. I suspect that a lemon-lime soda would work well (I like 7-Up), or maybe Fresca, if you're in a diet mode. I've not tried either one this way, so you're on your own.

After consulting with the rest of the family we decided to call it “Grapefruit Revival.” I'm not sure I'm happy with the name but I can't think of anything better. If you can think of a better name, leave it in the comments. If I like it, I'll use it.

Equipment needed
One glass per serving
Spoon for stirring

(This is a minimalist drink.)

Ingredients
grapefruit juice (fresh or canned, pink Texas is best)
lime juice
vanilla extract
kosher salt
ice cubes
Mountain Dew

Directions
Fill the glass about 1/3 of the way with grapefruit juice. Add a splash of lime juice and a splash of vanilla extract (about 1/2 teaspoon each) and a pinch of kosher salt. Stir with the spoon to dissolve. Add a few ice cubes. Fill the rest of the way with Mountain Dew and give it one more stir. Enjoy!

The lime juice and kosher salt work to reduce the bitterness of the grapefruit juice. Lime juice is less acidic, so it acts as a buffer between the grapefruit juice and the soda pop. Salt interferes with bitter taste receptors on the tongue. Kosher salt is less strong in taste than other kinds of salt, so if you use something else, I can't guarantee you'll get good results. You don't want to taste the salt.

Pepper – the King of Spices

Black pepper is nearly as common in cooking today as salt is. At one time, it was so rare a commodity that peppercorns were actually used as currency. While it can be found in Thailand and Malaysia, it's main roots are in the Malabar coastal region of India. It is the oldest spice known, and the most widely used.

Prior to the 1800's, pepper was a luxury item, only affordable to the royalty and the upper classes. Acquiring it was a major force behind the spice trade. Many a fortune was won and lost on this “black gold.”

There are several varieties of pepper and most come from the Piper nigrum. Don't confuse this with cayenne pepper, though. They aren't related. Cayenne comes from chili peppers, not the fruit of the Piper nigrum. Their heat sources differ as well. Cayenne gets its heat from capsicum, while peppercorns get their heat from piperine.

While pre-ground black pepper is available, I recommend getting a decent pepper mill and buying the pepper corns. There are two good reasons that Mormons, especially, should consider this. First, the flavor is much better. Second, like all spices, peppercorns will remain tasty in food storage much longer than ground pepper will. As ground pepper ages, I find it can take on an unpleasant mustiness.

Black Peppercorns
These come from the not-quite-ripe berries of the Piper nigrum vine. After they've reached full size, they are picked and dried in the sun. Enzymes in the berries cause the skin to turn black during the drying process. It has the strongest in flavor of all peppercorns, and is my favorite.

White Peppercorns
These are fully mature, red, ripened berries. After harvesting, the outer skin is rubbed off to expose the smooth layer underneath, and then dried and bleached by the sun. They are slightly milder than black pepper and are favored in white sauces because they don't speckle the food.

I use black peppercorns almost exclusively. I appreciate the flavor and don't have a problem with speckled food.

Green Peppercorns
This variety is picked at the same time as black peppercorns, but they aren't allowed to dry. Instead, they are pickled in a vinegar or brine solution. You can find them freeze-dried and dehydrated, but the dehydrated ones have more flavor. The flavor and heat are less pronounced than black peppercorns and they are the least pungent.

Red Peppercorns
This is a mature peppercorn that still has it's outer skin. They are is often difficult to find outside of gourmet shops, and can be very expensive. They are pungent like a black peppercorn, with a slight sweetness.

Pink Peppercorns
These are actually unrelated to the black peppercorn. They come from the Baies rose plant and are imported from Madagascar. As a result, they are rather expensive. They are pungent and slightly sweet, but don't have nearly the amount of flavor.

Pink Berries
Often called pink peppercorns, which they are not, they aren't related to the black peppercorn or the Baies rose plant. Instead, it's the seed of a plant known as either the Brazilian pepper tree, Christmas berry, or Florida holly, even though it's considered a scourge in that state. I've been told the flavor is more like sweet menthol, but I refuse to eat them. They can cause severe allergic reactions, especially in children, and are toxic when eaten in large quantities. Avoid these.

Mixed Peppercorns
In many gourmet shops you will find a blend of black, white, green, red, and pink peppercorns under the name of a “five pepper blend.” They are used mostly as a condiment or sprinkled on before serving as much for their decorative quality as their flavor.