eclaire (what’s in a) name?

for my birthday, i received some amazing new cookbooks from my friends and family – they obviously know me very well. since i was gifted the cookbooks, i’ve been perusing through the influx of recipes, trying to decide which dish to make first. since it’s the height of the summer season, i quickly landed on gazpacho as a first recipe to sample from fields of greens, by annie somerville.

i had never made gazpacho, but i enjoyed it when other people made it for me, and i figured that it would be a good way to use fresh ripe tomatoes. when i decided to use roma tomatoes instead of the much larger vine-ripened tomatoes the recipe suggests, i had no idea how much time i would be spending to prepare each tomato. it was quite time consuming, and halfway through the recipe, after coring, blanching, peeling, halving, seeding, and dicing tomatoes, i started thinking mean things about tomatoes, debating whether i would ever eat another one after this recipe was complete.

as soon as i got to the blending part, however, i immediately overcame my grudging feelings about tomatoes, and got excited about eating some soup!

most of the gazpacho i’ve had before was completely blended, leaving you wondering if you should be slurping it with a straw or using a spoon to consume the food. this gazpacho, however, has lots of beautiful chunks of cucumber, tomatoes, and onions, however, which i think takes a standard gazpacho recipe to the next level.

so while the tomatoes are still ripe, i suggest you go out and get a bunch (but not romas – make sure they’re big!), and make this delicious soup, which is perfect with a salad and some good bread on a warm summer evening. enjoy!

gazpacho

adapted from fields of greens, by annie somerville
yields 6 servings

• 1 medium cucumber
• 5lbs vine ripened (not roma!!) tomatoes
• 1/2 medium red onion
• 2 jalapeno chili (watch out for those seeds!)
• 1/4c fresh basil
• 2T white vinegar
• 2t fresh lime juice
• salt and pepper to taste
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1. boil water in a large pan
2. wash and core tomatoes, then place into the boiling water for 1-2 minutes, until the skins begin to crack
3. pull the tomatoes out of the boiling water using a slotted spoon or skimmer, and rinse under cold water
4. peel the skins off of the tomatoes, then slice them in half
5. place a strainer over a large bowl, and squeeze out the juice and seeds of the tomato, allowing all seeds to fall into the strainer (discard them after you’ve gone through all the tomatoes), and the bowl to catch the juices
6. place half of the tomatoes in a blender or food processor and blend until pureed, pouring the puree into the large bowl with the tomato juices
7. dice the other half of the tomatoes and place them into the bowl with the puree and juices
8. peel and seed the cucumber, then chop and place in the large bowl
9. finely dice the onion, chili, and basil, and add to the soup
10. add the  vinegar and lime juice along with salt and pepper to taste
11. stir the soup and allow to chill in the fridge for at least an hour, so all flavors are well mixed