Get out of the kitchen! Walk out onto the front porch with a book and relax. Oh, some unexpected company has come walking by, and you have just invited them to sit with you in the warm shade, to enjoy the breeze, and watch the other neighbors doing their mundane chores. What are you going to serve? Do not panic! You are going to whip up a batch of gazpacho, my dear. Because at this time of the year you have got all the fixings in you fridge and right there on your kitchen windowsill. You do NOT need to go to the grocery store, I promise you. This is not a tricky damn woo Martha recipe, where you need walnut oil freshly pressed by Trappist monks. Even I have all this stuff, and usually I am only good for stale Triscuits, hard bits of Cheddar cheese and cheap white wine. (This summer there is a bottle of vodka stashed in the freezer. Shhh.)
Stick your head in the fridge. What do you see? I see Vidalia onions, half of a cucumber, limes, green peppers, radishes, V-8 juice and Tobasco sauce. There is an assortment of ripening tomatoes, a basil plant, and a poor, sad, wilting parsley plant on the kitchen windowsill. On the back porch the last few tiny heads of lettuce are struggling valiantly in the heat. And bread! The bread collection in the freezer yields a goodish loaf of last week’s ciabatta bread. Perfecto! In the cupboard I find olive oil and a big old can of Marzano tomatoes – in case we need to stretch the recipe once news of this impromptu party goes viral through our active social media accounts. This beauteous gazpacho should be quite Instagramable!
Gazpacho can be very versatile. It can be a soup, a dip or a cocktail. I am opting for the cocktail, because it is Friday, after all. And after last week’s experience in the hot Vulcan-like kitchen, I plan to kick back and find some coolth. (And if no one walks by, Luke, the wonder dog and I will curl up with Gabriel Allon and discover the mastermind of The Heist, my latest Kindle read from Daniel Silva.)
Grab a bag of Doritos (ours might be a little stale, sorry) and pour some in a bowl and drop it on the table next to the porch swing. Excuse yourself for a few minutes. Luke is good for entertaining people because he always wants to chase the ball. Hours (and hours) of endless amusement for him…
Thaw and soak the bread, peel, chop, slice and dice your vegetables, and then whip them up in the blender, or with your food processor. Chunky – great for dip. Slurpy – good for soup. Smooth – get out the straws and the vodka.
Gazpacho Soup: https://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/ina-garten/gazpacho-recipe.html
https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/wordofmouth/2010/jun/24/how-to-make-perfect-gazpacho
Gazpacho Dip: https://www.myrecipes.com/recipe/gazpacho-dip-10000001733020/Gazpacho
Gazpacho Bloody Marys: https://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Gazpacho-Bloody-Marys-236770
Gazpacho without a Recipe:
https://food52.com/blog/10925-how-to-make-gazpacho-without-a-recipe
“It’s difficult to think anything but pleasant thoughts while eating a homegrown tomato.”
-Lewis Grizzard
Jean Sanders says
And look what I just found – I never made it to Mark Bittman’s column in The New York Times Magazine last week: https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2012/06/03/magazine/cold-soups.html?src=tp#Strawberry-Orange_Soup?module=Search&mabReward=relbias:r,{“2″:”RI:12″,”1″:”RI:6”}
Enjoy his variations!
Jean