Two of our three are on the no-cook, no-oven policy because of the August heat. We're dealing with it through salads, cold soups, and searching for cooler air. Melissa escaped to the Smokies for a break from the Nashville heat. I took off for New Paltz Friday morning. As for Laurel, she's yet to sweat since Ironman Canada and actually made roasted chicken for dinner last night. Since I'm scared of what turning on the oven will do to our non-airconditioned house, for dinner we had SJ's mom's gazpacho, watermelon mozzarella salad, and a big platter of charcuterie and cheese...and the temperature in my kitchen didn't go up one degree. --Bec
SJ's Mom's Traditional Gazpacho
I adapted Mrs. H.'s original recipe to use fresh tomatoes and skipped the cream. I'm pretty sure she usually skipped the cream too. I included the original recipe below because it's been going strong without any adaptations for about 40 years and is worth making this way if you don't have good fresh tomatoes or herbs available.
2 pounds fresh tomatoes, cored and cut in chunks
1 cucumber, peeled, seeded, and cut into chunks
2 stalks of celery, cut in quarters
1/2 green pepper, roughly cut
1 clove garlic
2 scallions
1 teaspoon chopped fresh tarragon
1 tablespoon sherry vinegar
3 tablespoons olive oil
salt and pepper
Put tomatoes in a blender and process for a few seconds to make room in the blender for everything else. Add remaining ingredients and puree on high until smooth. This will take a few minutes of blending. Serve chilled. Garnish with fresh herbs.
Alternate versions:
For yellow gazpacho, use yellow tomatoes and a yellow pepper. For green gazpacho, use roasted tomatillos or heirloom green (not unripe) tomatoes.
