Habanero

Another week, another impulse buy at the farmers market. What am I going to do with 20 habanero peppers? Who cares when they cost $3!

But seriously, what am I going to do with them... I suppose I could share with friends, so let me know if you want any.

So far I made some spicy baba ganoush.

As you might guess from the photo, I roasted both the eggplant and the habanero for this recipe. I figured it would tone down the intense spiciness of the habanero. I also had the foresight to deseed that hot little pepper.

That method seemed to work. So I did the same for this raw vegetable curry, which I served with brown rice and a fried egg. This "curry" was made from leftover gazpacho ingredients (i.e. tomatoes and bell peppers). It was so spicy that most people probably would not have been able to eat it. I, however, loved it.

Gazpacho

The most difficult thing about this recipe was getting to the farmers market before noon on Saturday. You see, a trip to the Northeast Minneapolis Farmers Market was absolutely vital for my gazpacho because store bought tomatoes would never do. For me, gazpacho is dependent on the quality of your ingredients, all of which are in season right now.

While I ventured out on a Saturday morning for tomatoes and cucumbers, the market had a lot of other useful produce for this dish. I bought these white peppers, but I don't know their actual name.

They sort of taste like bell peppers. I also bought some fresh garlic, which I had never cooked with before.

Anyway, this is my (first) recipe for gazpacho. It's pretty easy to play with the quantities of the ingredients, and I'll definitely be making gazpacho again soon.

Ingredients:

6-7 plum tomatoes, coarsely chopped

1 medium sized red onion, coarsely chopped

2-3 small cucumbers, coarsely chopped, not peeled

2-3 cups of chopped bell pepper, any color or kind

1/2 cup parsley

4-5 cloves garlic

3/4 loaf french bread, torn into chucks

The juice of 1/2 lemon

3 tablespoons red wine vinegar

1/4 cup olive oil

A few dashes each of: dried oregano, dried thyme and coriander

2 teaspoons salt

Pepper to taste

Enough tomato juice to cover your veggie/bread mixture

In a food processor, you need to lightly process all of your vegetables. I did this on the "pulse" setting, one vegetable at a time. I used my food processor to shred the bread chunks and garlic too.

Add all vegetables and bread to a large bowl. Add olive oil, lemon juice, vinegar, spices, salt and pepper. Cover with tomato juice, mix well and chill overnight.