I love soup. Even on a hot day.

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But you can't have hot soup on a summer's day like today. 

I've been working a lot lately, so I decided to play hooky with my Bride today. I even took off early yesterday afternoon so we could meet up at Ceia, my favorite restaurant up on the Massachusetts north shore to try out their current charcuterie menu as a kick off to a self-granted long weekend. We got a plate of beef lingua pastrami and house-cured lardo.  Anyplace that cures their own lardo gets top marks in my book. 

The Critter is off at camp, but the Boy was along for the ride. I didn't tell him that he was happily chowing down on beef tongue. I'll save that little revelation for later.  

 

Today, I gave the pigs a bigger water trough, and spent a little time in the garden before it got too hot. They were all appreciative. The heat has been hard on my early greens and peas, but some of the warmth-loving plants are thriving. The cucumbers are in full crop at the moment - I got a new variety this year that's short and fat and super sweet.  

We ended up with a stack of cucumbers (and zucchini. But I expect that from zucchini). My Bride set them next to our new Vitamix blender (which I love) and suggested we do a gazpacho taste-test. 

Who am I to say no to that? 

She's never really cared for traditional tomato gazpacho. But the bounty of cukes we ended up with inspired her to try a few different recipes.  

We tried three different recipes - a pineapple + cucumber (Whole Foods recipe).   Cucumber & avocado (Food 52) And cucumber mint (BBC Good Food).   

 

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With nice chilled batches of soup, it was pleasant to sit out on the porch and have a taste test in the warm sunshine.  

The cucumber mint tasted too bready for me. Not a bad taste, but I wanted the mint to come through more clearly. I'd double up on the amount of mint next time (and we certainly have more than enough in our garden).  

My bride threw a slice of bourbon-pickled jalapeño into the pineapple + cucumber gazpacho, which gave it a nice heat. A little too much for the small batch we made. We could have doubled the recipe and still kept it at one slice. Still. Those jalapeños are the absolute bomb. 

My favorite was the avocado cucumber gazpacho. Which isn't a surprise. Pretty much everything we've tried from Food 52 is excellent. It was also the simplest, cleanest recipe of the three.  

  • 1 avocado
  • 1/2 cucumber
  • 1 small garlic clove
  • 1/2 teaspoon sherry vinegar
  • salt & pepper to taste.
  1. Peel everything. Blend with a half cup of ice water to taste & desired consistency. 

Chill. Serve. Enjoy. Get yourself another helping.  

 

Bourbon makes everything better

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For Father's day, my bride got me a couple of new books. One was River Cottage Veg, by Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall. This is the guy that inspired the original desire to have our own flock of chickens puttering around the back yard. I love almost all his stuff. And I've already cooked out of this book. 

But perhaps even more inspiring was the new book, Smoke & Pickles by Edward Lee.  He's a son of Korean immigrants, who grew up in Brooklyn, married a German woman, and moved to Louisville, KY to open a restaurant. His food reflects all of the above, with a healthy dose of bourbon and country ham. On top of a rice bowl. Covered with ground pork rinds. I think I just had a moment. 

The first thing I made from his book is bourbon-pickled jalapeños. 

Because of course it was. 

Recipe:  

  • 1 pound jalapeños 
  • 1.25 cups of white vinegar
  • 1 cup bourbon
  • 1 cup honey
  • 1 tsp salt
  • 2 tsp coriander seeds
  • 1 tsp yellow mustard seeds
  • 2 bay leaves
  1. Slice the peppers into quarter inch rounds and drop into jars.
  2. Combine everything else and bring to a boil. Reduce to a simmer for five minutes.
  3. Pour the hot liquid over the peppers and seal the jars with a tight fitting lid. Let cool to room temp before refrigerating.
  4. The peppers will be ready in 3 days, and will keep for a couple of weeks.

I used my favorite bourbon, which pained me a bit (this stuff is not cheap). But the best ingredients make for the best flavors, generally. 

Make plenty. You will want to share these.