Gazpacho Revisited

Recently, my long-time blogger friend Liz, of That Skinny Chick Can Bake posted a delightful Gazpacho recipe which made me immediately crave this summer sensation! Liz’s recipe took her back to her childhood when her dear Mom recreated the recipe on a summer car vacation to Aspen after having it at a favourite restaurant. My recipe isn’t quite as romantic, in fact, it has no history nor does it conjure up childhood memories because cold soup in a Hungarian household is Sour Cherry Soup, a delicious soup made from European Sour Cherries in a lightly sweetened syrup, yogurt and cinnamon — it is delicious but it does not come anywhere near the complex flavours a Gazpacho has. Each vegetable contributes a certain aspect and my proportions are intentional. Some gazpachos are onion heavy so I used a very small French shallot, and I didn’t use garlic this time, I wanted a mellow flavoured soup with depth. Liz chose tomato juice or V-8 which adds a lot of flavour, I went with plain ordinary vine-rippened tomatoes and water — you could use a veg stock instead. I like a smooth soup so I press it through a fine sieve several times, I find the tomato seeds and the red pepper skin adds a little too much texture, and I do blend for several minutes a few times to get as much out of the pulp as possible. I loved Liz’s crouton garnish, because it adds such texture and interest but we’re going light this week and omitted it. Thank you Liz, your inspiration was perfect timing as we’ve been having 35° C (95° F) with high humidity.

To see more chilled soups that I created in the past, please click below:

• Chilled Watermelon Gazpacho Scented with Almond with Basil and Mint,
• Chilled Watermelon Gazpacho with Watermelon Cucumber Salsa
• Gazpacho – Chilled Tomato Soup with Raw Vegetable Salsa
• Chilled Roasted Red Pepper and Tomato Soup with Warm Sesame Crusted Goats Cheese Balls
• Green Pea and Basil Soup, chaud ou froid (hot or cold)
• Cold Avocado Soup with Cilantro Oil
• Chilled Caramelized Vidalia Onion Soup with Gruyère Brûlé
• Hungarian Sour Cherry Soup

A full flavoured soup, perfect for hot and muggy summer days.

Gazpacho

A KitchenInspirations Original Recipe

Makes 1.5 L strained soup (about 4 servings)

Ingredients:

• 300 g Red Pepper (Capsicum)
• 125 g celery
• 140 g zucchini
• 100 g radish
• 120 g cucumber
• 15 g shallot
• 25 g avocado
• 430 g vine ripened tomatoes
• 500 mL water
• 1 tsp salt
• mint
• basil
• parsley

Corn Salsa

• 40 g sweet corn
• 40 g cucumber, finely cubed
• 40 g celery, finely cubed
• 5 g cilantro, chiffonade
• zest of one fresh lime
• splash of lime juice
• sea salt

Directions:

1. Chop everything roughly and add to a large 4 L bowl. Blend with a stick blender (immersion blender) until smooth.
2. Press through a fine sieve and blend the remaining pulp with about 500 mL of the strained soup, press through a fine sieve again. I usually repeat twice to get the most out of the pulp. Discard pulp (or compost) and refrigerate strained soup for a couple of hours.
3. Combine sweet corn, cucumber, cilantro, lime juice and salt, stir well. Top each bowl with 1 tbsp of the salsa just prior to serving.

Note:

• I used about 2 large mint leaves, 20 basil leaves and 4 parsley sprigs.
• Avocado would be an excellent addition to the salsa garnish.

Based on 4 servings without the garnish.

Based on 4 servings without the garnish.

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Adult Grilled Cheese Panini (Toasties) revisted

Cooking at the cottage means simple recipes using fresh ingredients. I don’t want to be in the kitchen any longer than I have to. Don’t get me wrong, I adore cooking but I also adore this view:

This is the view looking out into the lake from our little bay.

Several years ago, our dear friend Barb (Profiteroles and Pony Tails) and her then beau (now hubby) came up to our cottage, The Upper Deck. We traded off days for cooking and for one lunch Barb made this excellent grilled cheese sandwich (Toastie)! We’re not talking about a processed cheese slice slapped between two slices of Mungie-cake white bread. No, this is a serious blend of cheeses with a splash of whiskey or cognac and some delicious green onion thrown in for good measure. Believe me, when I say: once you have this grilled cheese, you will NEVER want any other.

I posted this recipe originally in March 2009 and it was a bit of a sore spot because a named magazine asked to use my photo in a grilled cheese story but since I was relatively new to blogging, I wasn’t paying attention to the comments, so I missed out! Sigh. The flavour of the whiskey or cognac is essential, the cheese blend is entirely up to you, but I suggest hard cheese and not soft like goats cheese.

Adult Grilled Cheese

Serves 2

Ingredients:

• 125-150 g shredded cheese, in total
• 1 tbsp butter
• 2 slices sourdough bread, use this recipe
• 1 green onion, thinly sliced
• 2 tbsp cognac or whiskey

Directions:

1. Combine shredded cheeses, green onion and cognac and mix well.
2. Butter one side of each bread, lay one slice buttered side down and top with the cheese mixture. Lay the other side of the bread on top, buttered side up.
3. Heat a grill pan and place sandwich on top, lay a weight over it (I used 3 cast iron pans but I put a piece of parchment on top of the sandwich first).
4. Grill until cheese has melted. Cut sandwich in half and serve with celery sticks and homemade salsa.

Notes:

• For this sandwich, we used Applewood Smoked Cheddar, Extra Old Cheddar and Mozzarella.
• We have also used Mozzarella, Gruyère and white Cheddar, the combinations are endless. It is nice to use a stringy cheese for this type of sandwich.
• You could also put additional cheese on the exterior (omit butter) and instead of grill, lay a piece of parchment down in a cast iron frying pan and cook, repeat for other side. See instructions from my dear friend Lorraine, here.

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No Knead Sourdough Bread

After the huge job I recently had, I needed a little R&R so we retreated to our cottage (cabin/lake house) for a couple of days up north. It was nice to be there because it was during the week and the lake was pretty deserted. Mother nature could have cooperated a bit more as we had some pretty chilly weather at the beginning but at least there was sunshine. And what better way to heat things up than baking some homemade sourdough bread? I am using the offspring of Celia’s Priscilla (of Fig, Jam and Lime Cordial), we call him SoB (Son of Bob). Please recall that poor old Bob had an early demise as he was unfortunately baked as I was trying to dry him out (someone, who shall remain unnamed, but lives in the same house that I do turned the oven on). Celia read of the unfortunate incident on my blog and kindly sent me another dried starter. Thank you, Celia!. SoB has developed a gorgeous texture and aroma that made this bread absolutely wonderful. I chose a no knead recipe because I don’t have a stand mixer at the cottage and I’m lazy.

No Knead Sourdough Bread

A KitchenInspirations Original Recipe

Makes 1 boule about 20 cm (8 inches) in diameter

Ingredients:

• 100 g sourdough starter, fed (I usually feed it 30 g water and 30 g flour)
• 200 g water
• 8 g quick rising yeast
• 4 g sugar
• 300 g AP flour (unbleached)
• 6 g salt
• Olive oil to coat

Directions:

1. Combine water, sugar and yeast and allow to proof for about 10 minutes.
2. Add the sourdough starter to a medium sized bowl, add the yeast mixture and stir until well combined. Add the flour in batches and stir until the result is a slightly shaggy dough. Drizzle a little olive oil into the bowl and coat the dough thoroughly. Set aside in a warm area to rise until double in size (about 2 hours).
3. Preheat oven and cast iron Dutch pot with lid (mine is about 20 cm or 8″ in diameter) to 400° F (200° C).
4. Tip dough out onto a lightly floured surface and using a flat spatula, fold sides over a few times. Cover with a clean dry cloth and allow to rest for 30 minutes. I’m experimenting with some creative cuts into the boule, but it was far too shaggy to work properly.
5. Tip the rested dough into the preheated pot and cover, bake for 30 minutes and then remove the lid and continue to bake for an additional 10 minutes or until golden brown.
6. Allow to cool for about 30 minutes and then dig in!

We went for a little boat ride picnic. There was a loon family just by the shore and we did not want to disturb them.

I made the most delicious adult grilled cheese panini for lunch at the cottage (recipe to come).

I also made an avocado, tomato, cucumber and swiss cheeese sandwich for the drive home because food on the road just sucks.

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Chopped Canada Season 3 and meeting a blogger

Last summer I received a most welcome email from my dear blogger friend, Lorraine Elliot of the famed Not Quite Nigella blog. She was coming to Canada as a guest of the Canadian Tourism Commission and Tourism Yukon and she wondered would I be available to meet if she could arrange a slight diversion to Toronto! I was absolutely thrilled! Of course, I wrote back, who wouldn’t want to meet with one of their blogger heroes? I kept having to pinch myself! No, really!

I suspect that there were many arrangements to make/and subsequently change with the Canadian Tourism Commission so that Lorraine could be in TO for a couple of days. They booked her solid so it was a bit whirl-wind, but Lorraine made sure we had at least a half a day and it was awesome! (You can read about Lorraine’s Toronto experience here, here, here, here, and here). I had asked Lorraine to email me her Toronto schedule so that I could a) make the most of her time, and b) choose something to do that wasn’t on the Tourism Commission’s itinerary. I wanted to show her something unique.

I’m not too good at taking selfies.

I am very fortunate to know or be acquainted personally with many culinary giants in Toronto, mostly through my past life as a Client Service Rep for a design firm that specializes in Food Packaging, but some because of my current vocation, so I got out my address book. I called Claudia Bianchi, a very close friend of a friend, and an accomplished chef, food stylist and producer of several Food Network Canada shows. I knew Claudia was in the midst of the taping of Season 3 of Chopped Canada and I wondered if there might be an opportunity for us to visit the set and even stay a bit to check out the taping. Claudia very generously put me in touch with Cary Mignault, the PR guy for Chopped Canada, Season 3. It was such an amazing experience, Cary was open and more than happy to make the set visit happen. And such perfect timing too, because as it turned out, the day we visited the set was the LAST DAY of taping the show! Can you believe our fortuitousness? Had Lorraine made arrangements for the day after, it simply could not have happened and I would have been up the creek without a paddle!

I picked Lorraine up at the hotel at 7:30 am and we drove across town to Leslieville where they were taping Chopped Canada, Season 3. As soon as she stepped into the car, we talked and talked and talked, it was as if we were long lost friends! I can attest that Lorraine is as lovely, kind and sweet in person as she is on Social Media. Cary met us in the parking lot and we entered the building. To say this is a huge production is an understatement, there is even an enormous refrigerator/prep room filled with full-size refrigerators! And the set is outstanding, sparkly and new, filled with the latest gadgets and appliances, it is a cook’s dream!

The Fridge and Prep room

The off set Prep area.

Claudia met us on set and took us for a little tour, this little slide show includes some of the photos sent to me by Cary. Earlier this year, I had the opportunity to chat with Claudia about the show, so here are some insights:

There are a total of ten judges who participate on the show, but there are only 3 seats actually on the show, the judges alternate depending on availability (read about the judges here). The judges are not just there to assess and evaluate the participants but their interaction also provide mentorship to each culinary participant. I enquired how the secret basket of ingredients are determined and Claudia said that she gets her inspiration from many places…it could be a trip to the market, a weekend at their cottage or perhaps her husband’s restaurant (Actinolite) or even some of the judges! And the ingredients need not be Canadian! I asked what ingredient was sourced from the furthest place, sadly she could not mention it as the show had not aired! As you can see from the slide show below, the on stage pantry is exceptionally stocked (here is a link to some great pantry photos (BTW, my friend the designer Kim Sewell, designed most of the labels because they were not permitted to have branded product on set!)).

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