Jacobfox
Well-Known Member
I'm no professional, nor am I a rib-making champ like The_Finn or Punisher Bass, but I'd consider myself a decent cook. I can do a nice gazpacho or panini, I can make pretty much any Indian food (including some chaats), and I can grill a nice steak or burger. This thread, however, isn't just my cooking, which has been a bit intermittent as of late, but just my exploration of food and drink in all forms.
We're going to start off with Gazpacho, a recipe which I just used this week. Gazpacho is a classic summer recipe, created by the Spanish in Andalusia as a cold bread-based soup for summer days. Once the tomato and bell pepper were introduced to the recipe in the early 1500s, the character of the soup changed. Since my grandmother always cooks this at least three times a summer, it's been a mainstay of my time at home and always conjures up fond memories for me. Unfortunately, I didn't want to cover my camera with tomato juice, so I have no pictures from when I prepared it this week although I have a few notes on possible missing ingredient improvisations.
GAZPACHO RECIPE
16 oz. tomatoes (peeled or unpeeled depending on preference)
1 large cucumber, peeled & halved
1 med. onion, skin off & halved
1 Med. green pepper, quartered
24 oz. tomato juice
1/3 C olive oil (it's not as good with other veggie oil)
1/3 C red wine vinegar (see if you can find a 7% acidity vinegar, you can substitute others, but it's really best like this, add more to taste)
1/2 Teaspoon Tabasco or hot sauce (add more to taste)
1&1/2 Teaspoons salt (add more to taste)
1 clove garlic
Avocado and Cilantro garnish
In an electric blender/Cuisinart, combine one tomato, half the
cucumber, half the onion, a green pepper quarter, garlic clove and 1/2
cup tomato juice. Blend for 30 seconds to puree,
In a large bowl, mix the pureed vegetables with remaining tomato
juice, 1/4 C olive oil, the vinegar, Tabasco, and salt. Then puree most of the remaining tomatoes so that the unpureed tomatoes constitute roughly 1/4 of the original total amount of tomatoes. Add salt, pepper and tabasco to taste. Chop separately into very small dice: remaining tomato, cucumber,
onion and green pepper. Add to all the rest of the ingredients.
Chill for about two hours. Serve with cubed avocado and chopped
cilantro.
The key here is to tailor the soup to your tastes. I personally like either very simple tastes, like much japanese food, or very bold flavors. In this case, I chose to use about twice/three times as much hot sauce as the recipe called for, partially because it was Indian knockoff tabasco and partially because the soup didn't seem flavorful enough. I probably should've used a bit more garlic. I also loaded up on the salt and used a bit more vinegar, because the tangy flavor in red wine vinegar (from fusel oils?) was just not nearly as obvious in what I had, which was pretty much acetic acid, water and sugar. If tomato juice isn't available, tomato puree diluted with water works nicely. I used a two parts-one part puree to water dilution, which was okay. I also didn't have the avocados or cilantro, which are a nice touch, but not necessary. The avocado does improve the taste, so it's worth having if possible.
I also made some garlic bread, which was a baguette that I put garlic butter on (lots of butter, cloves of peeled garlic, cuisinart, blend until easily spreadable) and then toasted until crispy and delicious. The two dishes go well together.
Good luck.
Jake
We're going to start off with Gazpacho, a recipe which I just used this week. Gazpacho is a classic summer recipe, created by the Spanish in Andalusia as a cold bread-based soup for summer days. Once the tomato and bell pepper were introduced to the recipe in the early 1500s, the character of the soup changed. Since my grandmother always cooks this at least three times a summer, it's been a mainstay of my time at home and always conjures up fond memories for me. Unfortunately, I didn't want to cover my camera with tomato juice, so I have no pictures from when I prepared it this week although I have a few notes on possible missing ingredient improvisations.
GAZPACHO RECIPE
16 oz. tomatoes (peeled or unpeeled depending on preference)
1 large cucumber, peeled & halved
1 med. onion, skin off & halved
1 Med. green pepper, quartered
24 oz. tomato juice
1/3 C olive oil (it's not as good with other veggie oil)
1/3 C red wine vinegar (see if you can find a 7% acidity vinegar, you can substitute others, but it's really best like this, add more to taste)
1/2 Teaspoon Tabasco or hot sauce (add more to taste)
1&1/2 Teaspoons salt (add more to taste)
1 clove garlic
Avocado and Cilantro garnish
In an electric blender/Cuisinart, combine one tomato, half the
cucumber, half the onion, a green pepper quarter, garlic clove and 1/2
cup tomato juice. Blend for 30 seconds to puree,
In a large bowl, mix the pureed vegetables with remaining tomato
juice, 1/4 C olive oil, the vinegar, Tabasco, and salt. Then puree most of the remaining tomatoes so that the unpureed tomatoes constitute roughly 1/4 of the original total amount of tomatoes. Add salt, pepper and tabasco to taste. Chop separately into very small dice: remaining tomato, cucumber,
onion and green pepper. Add to all the rest of the ingredients.
Chill for about two hours. Serve with cubed avocado and chopped
cilantro.
The key here is to tailor the soup to your tastes. I personally like either very simple tastes, like much japanese food, or very bold flavors. In this case, I chose to use about twice/three times as much hot sauce as the recipe called for, partially because it was Indian knockoff tabasco and partially because the soup didn't seem flavorful enough. I probably should've used a bit more garlic. I also loaded up on the salt and used a bit more vinegar, because the tangy flavor in red wine vinegar (from fusel oils?) was just not nearly as obvious in what I had, which was pretty much acetic acid, water and sugar. If tomato juice isn't available, tomato puree diluted with water works nicely. I used a two parts-one part puree to water dilution, which was okay. I also didn't have the avocados or cilantro, which are a nice touch, but not necessary. The avocado does improve the taste, so it's worth having if possible.
I also made some garlic bread, which was a baguette that I put garlic butter on (lots of butter, cloves of peeled garlic, cuisinart, blend until easily spreadable) and then toasted until crispy and delicious. The two dishes go well together.
Good luck.
Jake
