14 June 2007

Gazpacho! or "How To Get Away With Eating Pico de Gallo With a Spoon"


I've been experimenting with gazpacho! As far as I can tell, the only things that differentiate it from pico de gallo, are the celery and cucumber. It's so refreshing and spicy and cold and delicious... and who wouldn't want an exotic excuse to eat pico with a spoon? Here's the recipe I roughly followed:
ingredients:

2 pounds large tomatoes, skinned and halved
1 red bell pepper, seeded, diced
2 chopped peeled cucumbers
1 diced red onion
a few stalks celery, diced
lime juice
diced fresh cilantro
1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil
1 garlic clove, minced or crushed
cayenne pepper
ground cumin
paprika

preparation:
Working over bowl, gently squeeze tomato halves to release seeds and juices. Strain juices, pressing on solids to extract as much juice as possible (about 1/2 cup). Discard seeds. Chop tomatoes. Transfer chopped tomatoes and tomato juices to large glass bowl. Add the rest of the ingredients. Obviously add garlic, lime and spices to taste. Let stand at room temperature 1 hour then chill for another hour or up to a day. Some people blend it too.

my mistakes:
I got distracted while making this and threw in waaaaaaaaaay to much celery. I just got in to some sort of zen chopping mode and didn't stop, and I threw it all in! So my gazpacho was very salad-y. Also, I forgot to save the tomato juice at first and squeezed the tomatos in to the sink. Then i remembered to squeeze them in to a bowl, but it wasn't enough and it didn't turn out very soupy. I added a little water, though, and saved it.

2 comments:

texajoy said...

mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm!

Nisa said...

my friend sarah's mom, who is a serious CA gourmet cook, makes gazpacho with V8 juice as the base. seems like cheating, but if it was good enough for her it's good enough for me. you might try it and save the hassle of squeezing your tomatoes!