Gazpacho, The Perfect Summer Soup, from Vicki Delany

This has to be the perfect summer recipe. If possible, try to use local in-season tomatoes for the best possible flavor.  

This is a cold soup, originating in Spain, usually made with cucumbers and tomatoes.  Best of all, when the hot weather hits, it requires no cooking. It makes a gorgeous lunch if served with a loaf of crusty bread, or it can be a refreshing first course at a barbeque.

Gazpacho 

1 cucumber, peeled and chopped

2 red pepper, deseeded and chopped

1kg ripe plum tomatoes, cored and chopped

2 garlic cloves, peeled and crushed

2 spring onions, trimmed and finely chopped

75g stale crusty white bread, chopped (or 75g bread crumbs)

2 tbsp sherry vinegar, or to taste (or any white vinegar)

2 tbsp olive oil

 

Place the cucumber, peppers, tomatoes, garlic and spring onions in a large bowl.

Add the bread and salt and pepper. Add the sherry vinegar and a two tablespoons of olive oil.

Mix. Cover and put the mixture in the fridge for 45 minutes.

Put the vegetable mixture into a blender and whiz until smooth. Add more olive oil if soup is too thick.

Follow Vicki at www.vickidelany.com, on Facebook at www.facebook.com/evagatesauthor. You can sign up to receive Vicki’s quarterly newsletter at Vicki Delany – Canadian Author of Mystery Novels and Suspense Novels » Contact

Coming July 23: TROUBLE IS BREWING, the fifth Tea by the Sea mystery from Kensington Publishing.

Please Welcome Guest Elle Brooke White & #Giveaway

Please welcome today's guest Elle Brooke White.  She has a delightful new series debuting in April!
 

I have a new whimsical mystery series debuting on April 7^th that I’m excited to tell you about. It’s called the Finn Family Farm Mysteries and the first installment is titled DEAD ON THE VINE. Here’s the scoop:

Reluctant farmer Charlotte Finn needs the help of the livestock to sleuth a mysterious death.

Charlotte Finn never wanted to inherit the family's produce farm--much less plow a heap of money into it. Her plan is to hammer a great big FOR SALE sign into the farm's fallow furrows--but Charlotte's sunny hopes of a quick sale succumb to a killing frost when she finds a dead body entwined supine in the tomato vines. The poor man, it seems, was run through...with a pitchfork?

Now, Charlotte is stuck with running the farm in the midst of a murder investigation. Charlotte's knowledge of farming is smaller than her bank balance, so she relies on caretakers Joe and Alice Wong and their farmhands. Can she trust them? She doesn't know them. There's also farmer Samuel Brown, who still carries a childhood grudge. But the case gets personal when Charlotte learns that the victim might have been her own kin--and seeds of suspicion grow into a fertile field of suspects.

Charlotte turns to the farm's baby pig to help root out the killer. Soon, the goats, geese, and horse join in, but will Charlotte harvest a murderer--or buy the farm?

         Can’t wait to find out? You can pre-order the book on Amazon today!

The Finn Family Farm Mysteries are set in the rich and verdant land in the Santa Barbara Mountains of California where nature is respected and revered. For today’s recipe it seemed most organic to go with something that is tomato based. This is a great summer refresher but if you are lucky enough to have access to tomatoes year round. Perhaps from a hot house?

Green Tomato Gazpacho

Serves 6

3 ounces of French bread, crusts cut off (about a handful)

1½ cups of water

¼ cup chopped shallots

1 teaspoon chopped garlic

2 tablespoons grapeseed oil

1 tablespoon sherry vinegar

½ teaspoon salt

½ teaspoon sriracha sauce (Optional)

2 large cucumbers, peeled, seeded and chopped (I use a melon baller for the seeds)

2 large green tomatoes, chopped (I remove the seeds to avoid any bitter taste)

3 tablespoons crème fraiche

1 tablespoon chopped fresh chives

¼ pumpkin seeds

This is all about the prep work, once this is done your blender or food processor does the rest.

Tear bread into pieces and place in a bowl with the water and let it soak for 5 minutes.

Add bread mixture, shallots, garlic, oil, vinegar, salt, sriracha, cucumbers and tomatoes into food processor and blend until smooth.

Whisk chives and crème fraiche and divide among the 6 bowls of soup. Garnish with pumpkin seeds, (flavored or plain).

About The Author

Elle Brooke White is the author of the new series, The Finn Family Farm Mysteries, coming April 7, 2020.

         Born in Shaker Heights, Ohio Elle became a world traveler at a young age when her family moved to Europe. She grew up in Paris, Brussels and London until returning to the U.S. to attend Vassar College.

         She then moved to New York City with the hopes of becoming a renowned actress but took a job in advertising, as Elle says, “just until”.

         Success followed in the ad world where she worked on both coasts. Elle started an interactive agency in the ‘90s creating web sites, apps and social media.

During a home remodel Elle was forced to go through old files and discovered that she had been a writer her entire life. She found plays, articles, scripts and book ideas. It was time for her to return to "a world of pure imagination".

Elle lives in Southern California with her famous diving dog, Bardot. Together they often take a spur of the moment drive to Santa Barbara to visit the farms, wineries and enjoy traditional local fare. Elle has a deep passion for California’s history and a great respect for its natural beauty. She also has an uncanny habit of giving a name to every living creature she meets, regardless of their species, color or number of legs.

You can follow Elle Brooke White on Facebook.

GIVEAWAY

To celebrate my new series, I'm offering a giveaway of an advanced, signed copy of DEAD ON THE VINE.

Leave a comment and your email to enter.

Winner will be notified by 1/27/2020

Tangy Gazpacho Soup from Linda Wiken #recipe, @LWiken

Last time I posted a soup recipe, it was a chilly winter's day. And that wasn't so long ago! These days we're into early summer temperatures and what better way to start a dinner or enjoy a refreshing lunch, than with homemade gazpacho. I love it because it usually has a bite, as with this recipe. I started with one I've been using for decades, from Anne Lindsay's New Light Cooking. And then I added some twists and turns of my own because of that extra bite I mentioned.

I realized when it was too late -- guests arriving shortly -- that I'd forgotten to get some croutons. So, since I like potato chips when it's really hot, I crumbled a handful and used that for garnish. It's always nice to have a bit of crunch in a soup.

End result -- tangy, tasty, and refreshing.


Ingredients:

4 large tomatoes, quartered
2 clove garlic
half an onion, quartered
 1/4 c. chopped cilantro

1 sweet red pepper, seeded and quartered
1 cucumber, peeled, quartered and seeded
1 tomatillo, halved

1/4 balsamic vinegar
2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil

1 can tomato paste
1/2 tsp each salt, freshly ground pepper, and pinch of chili flakes

In a food processor, add garlic and onion; then add red pepper, tomatoes, tomatillo, and cucumber and process until finally chopped. Pour into a large bowl.

Add tomato paste, cilantro, vinegar, oil, pepper, salt, and chili flakes. If it's too thick, add water to get whatever consistency you like.


Cover and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes. (Note: can be refrigerated for up to 2 days)

Enjoy!

The countdown has started. Just 26 days to go until release day!

 TOASTING UP TROUBLE, the first in my new Dinner Club Mystery series (includes recipes)

is coming July 5th!

To pre-order, click here 
http://tinyurll.com/oco85lv 




Writing as Erika Chase -- the Ashton Corners Book Club Mystery series are available on-line or at your favorite bookstore.

 
           

Visit Linda at www.lindakwiken.com
Love to hear from you at my Facebook author page and
on Twitter  @LWiken  
Also appearing at www.killercharacters.com
                                                                               

Visit Erika at www.erikachase.com 
 at my Facebook author page
and on Twitter  @erika_chase. 

South of the Border Gazpacho

This last weekend, I had a little celebration at my house.  We had two reasons to be happy.

First, Mr. Wendy--who is a man of many talents--managed to basically rebuild a toilet in our guest bath that had been useless for the past year.  So, technically, it would have been great if he had done it a year ago.  But he did it this last weekend, and after the year-of-one-toilet, I couldn't be happier to have this one back in working order.

Yay, Mr. Wendy!

Our second reason to celebrate was that I typed "The End" on a manuscript and zipped it off through cyberspace to my editor.  I know I'm not actually finished with the book: I see many revisions in my future.  What's more, I have another project burning a hole in my hard drive, desperate to get done.  I'm not exactly in a lull, writing-wise, but I cleared one significant hurdle.

I celebrated in the way I usually do (crazy partier that I am):  Mr. Wendy and I got caught up on season two of Boardwalk Empire (for those who watch, those last two episodes were ... well, wow); I did a little laundry; we took a run to Home Depot to dream about new tile in the bathroom; and I cooked.

Or, in this case, I didn't cook, because this yummy gazpacho requires zero stove or oven time.  What's more it makes splendid use of the last of the summer's harvest.  (Don't worry about the uncooked corn ... the vinegar and other acids in the soup will "cook" the corn a bit, and you want it remain crisp and sweet.)

Fresh Food!

I served the soup as a first course, followed by bean tostadas, but it would be equally good as the main dish in a light supper, perhaps with a loaf of crusty bread at its side.  I highly recommend drizzling the soup with olive oil and adding a bit of chopped avocado.  They give a luscious creaminess to balance out the tart/sweet/bright/crunchy notes of this zippy soup.

South of the Border Gazpacho

2 ears of corn (uncooked)

2 large ripe tomatoes (about 1 lbs)

1 English cucumber (about 3/4 lb)

1 tsp. salt (preferably Kosher)

2 Tbs. white wine or sherry vinegar

1 small bunch of green onions

1 clove garlic

½ jalapeno pepper, seeded and chopped

1 c. cilantro leaves

juice of 1/2 a lime

2 ½ c. tomato juice

4 ice cubes

Lime wedges, olive oil, and diced avocado for garnish

Slice the kernels from the cobs of corn.  Core, seed, and dice the tomatoes.  Cut the cucumber in about a 1/4 inch dice.  Combine all the vegetables, in a non-reactive bowl, with the salt and vinegar.  Allow to stand for about 5 minutes.

Vegies Resting in Vinegar

Meanwhile, combine the onions, garlic, jalapeno, cilantro and lime juice in the bowl of a minichopper, blender, or food processor.  Process until well chopped and almost past-like.

Stir the cilantro mixture into the tomato/corn/cucumber mixture.  Add the tomato juice and stir.  Add the ice cubes, cover, and refrigerate for at least 4 hours.

Serve chilled with a dash of fresh lime juice, a drizzle of olive oil, and a bit of fresh dice avocado.

Gazpacho

by Guest Vicki Lane

“The tomato vines, heavy with fruit, were sagging on their baling twine supports. Their lower leaves, spotted and rusty with incipient blight, would have to be clipped and burned, but the upper parts of the vines were continuing to put out tender new growth and star-like yellow blossoms. Elizabeth began to fill her plastic milk crate with the long, firm San Marzanos and Romas that would form the basis of herb-rich sauces to be stored in the freezer, as well as providing leathery oven-dried tomatoes bursting with the concentrated flavor of summer. There was a small basket for the tiny grape tomatoes whose seeds a cousin had brought from France – first choice for a tossed salad or eating out of hand.

Finally, there were the enormous slicing tomatoes – the aristocracy of the garden – deep crimson Brandywine, dark Cherokee, Black Krim, and a bright yellow nameless beauty whose seeds had come from Miss Birdie, a little bland in taste, perhaps, but so gorgeous in company with the others. Elizabeth laid these giants carefully in her big willow basket, envisioning a cobalt blue platter heaped with rounds of red and yellow interposed with slices of creamy fresh mozzarella, the whole glistening with generous amounts of olive oil, a prudent sprinkling of balsamic vinegar, shining crystals of sea salt, and fragrant ribbons of fresh green basil.”

This passage from my novel Art’s Blood inspired a reader in Hawaii to email me and accuse me of writing tomato porn – and causing her to lust after tomatoes that she had no hope of obtaining. 

Just now, as I write this in the first week of September, we are drowning in a sea of tomatoes. I have been canning and roasting and freezing and trying to use those luscious tomatoes in every way possible, all too aware that really good fresh tomatoes will soon be but a memory.

Gazpacho is a wonderful way to take advantage of this bounty. One can be very purist and chop everything by hand but then one wouldn’t make Gazpacho nearly so often – the processor turns this into fast food. My recipe is based on Classic Chunky Gazpacho from Sam at My Carolina Kitchen but I take some liberties. I also don’t actually measure – but I have a pretty good feel for what makes a tablespoon.

Begin by filling the food processor with cut up red tomatoes and whirring them till soupy – not pureed but not chunky either. Then pour this batch into a big container and fill the processor with more cut up tomatoes which you process into chunks. (I use a mix of tomatoes for this run – Green Zebras which are ripe and bright green, some yellows, some more reds – whatever’s ripe.)

Add this second batch of tomatoes to the container then use the processor to grind up two peeled cucumbers. Add to tomato mix. Repeat with onion and garlic – we like our gazpacho with lots more than Sam’s recipe calls for – I used one large onion and four large garlic cloves.) Finally, process till chopped, a bell pepper, green or red, or, if you like heat and I do, two or three jalapenos.

Stir all the veggies together, add the juice of a lemon, about four tablespoons each of olive oil and red wine vinegar or sherry vinegar (I used homemade herb vinegar,) salt and pepper to taste, and a dollop of hot sauce (again, to taste. I like Sriracha hot sauce.)

Serve very cold. Embellishments such as garlicky croutons or a bit of sour cream are nice but unnecessary.

Here’re some more ways to have fun with tomatoes – or maters, as we call them in my neck of the woods.

Quintessential Summer Sandwich    

Salad Caprese

Stromboli

Je Ne Sais Quoi Sandwich

Vicki Lane is the author The Day of Small Things and of the Elizabeth Goodweather Appalachian Mysteries which include Signs in the Blood, Art's Blood, Old Wounds, Anthony-nominated In A Dark Season, and Under the Skin (coming from Bantam Dell 10/18.) Vicki draws her inspiration from the rural western NC county where she and her family have lived on a mountainside farm since 1975. Please visit Vicki at her daily blog, her website or go HERE to learn more about Under the Skin.