Fruits of Summer, Solanum Style! Pt 1

First, my apologies for a month-long hiatus without any warning.  Gardening duties and my social life required a little attention (not to mention my work with the NH Rivers Council)!  Here in the northeast there has been minimal rainfall--at least in terms of what vegetation requires (good, long soaking rains).  So in addition to pruning/thinning, weeding, rotating crops (um, in my case, small beds) and staying on top of harvesting, I've also had to deal with the "dreaded hose" (I hate having to tap into an aquifer!).  Regardless, our heirloom tomato plants have provided plenty of fruit (as have our eggplants, but more on those in the next post, promise - they're so easy to grow and super fun to experience!).  Here's a glimpse of the varieties of tomato we're growing this summer:

Clockwise from 9 o'clock: One slice of Brandywine (super unbelievable flavor!); two slices of Cherokee Purple (not just great flavor, but unique coloring as well); one slice of Black Prince (a small version of the Cherokee, really); and two slices of Green Zebras nestled in with some grape tomatoes.  Zebras are not heirlooms, but they've been grown for a very long time without any muddling, so they tend to get sold under the same category.

And what to make to capture the essence of these babies?  You could always settle for a plate of sliced juicy toms with fresh mozzarella cheese and torn basil leaves, finished with a generous swirl of luscious olive oil and a healthy sprinkling of coarse sea salt!  (I'm drooling already....)  But how about a bowl of gorgeous gazapacho?  It's truly summer's elixir, and I have just the recipe for you in four easy steps!

Here's what I used for this summer's version (pretty typical choices, actually):

Garden- and farm-fresh heirloom tomatoes, crunchy cukes, bell and jalapeno peppers, sweet onion, peaches, cilantro and more!

For 6-8 people, I used:

4lbs of tomatoes
1-1/2lbs of cucumber
a couple of bell peppers
1 large sweet onion
5-7 peaches
1 jalapeno

Have on hand a lemon, a bunch of cilantro, some veggie/tomato juice, olive oil and sea salt.  Balsamic or sherry vinegar is good, too!

And, use your food processor - this is the perfect opportunity for it.

1. Begin with your cukes.  Seed them and chop into chunks and add all at once to the processor.  Process until you have a fairly fine, chunky mash.  Set aside in a very large bowl.

2. Next coarsely chop and add your tomatoes to the processor.  Something to consider first, though, is their seeds.  To leave in or leave out is entirely up to you.  I leave them out.  Lop the tops of the tomatoes off and carefully spoon out the pockets of seeds.  A GREAT use of this delicious little gelatinous seed caviar, btw, is on top of toast with cream cheese.  Or on top of squares of mozzarella with a little basil leaf garnish (very chic!).  In fact, they're even delicious all by themselves.  Try some!  You'll be delighted at how good they taste outside of their tomato shell!

3. After processing the tomatoes, which you can dump into the bowl along with the cuke "mash," next process the remaining ingredients in one fell swoop, minus the peaches.  That is, add your onion and all the peppers, coarsely chopped, the cilantro and a healthy squeeze of lemon (~1-2 Tbsp).  I also add a good cup of tomato/veggie juice at this point.  Maybe even a squirt from my tomato paste tube.  Use the peaches to offset the heat from the jalapeno.  Now's the perfect time for local peaches, too, so forget the sugar and go for the freestones!

Friend and farmer Mel Low's delicious freestone peaches.  Freestone peaches are the best for using in recipes like gazpacho - they pull apart super easy from their pits, and their skins pretty much slip right off when they're perfectly ripe.  They're certainly not bad for eating, either!  Drip-down-your-chin juicy sweet!  :)

4. Once everything has been processed and combined in a big bowl, add a very healthy glug of extra virgin olive oil, a healthy pinch of salt--I add two!--and check for cilantro and lemon flavor.  You can add red pepper flakes or black pepper at this point, not to mention other minced herbs if you're so inclined.  You know, that should be the name of my next blog: "If You're So Inclined..."  :~)

Note the glistening effect from the olive oil.  And the tomato flavor is out of this world from those brandywines!  This batch of gazpacho is ready for chilling!

Refrigerate the whole kit-n-kaboodle for at least a few hours.  The longer the better.  Garnish with chopped cilantro, diced avocado, an extra swirl of olive oil, and a swig of either sherry or balsamic vinegar.  You could even add a small dollop of creme fraiche!  Yum!

Silky, syrupy aged balsamic vinegar (thanks to my friend Sally) makes for an awesome addition to a bowl of gazpacho, especially when there's a little heat (as in jalapeno!) to balance it.

Remember, gazpacho is meant to be served ice cold, so plan on making it well ahead and refrigerating for as long as possible - overnight is best!  And just for sh*ts and giggles (my husband's expression), here are the plants that contributed to all this:

My tomato pla...er, trees!  Just to keep things in perspective, the pots they're in are 2 FEET tall!  See that railing in the background?  That's a 42" railing.  I'm reminded of an Alanis Morissette song:  Thank You compost, Thank You chicken poop, Thank You fish and seaweed emulsion!