Showing posts with label cucumber. Show all posts
Showing posts with label cucumber. Show all posts

Sunday, August 1, 2010

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.

Monday, July 12, 2010

Sea Scallops with Pineapple Cucumber Salsa

You know you're getting old when you're Target browsing habits change. It used to be all about cloths, cosmetics and ridiculous women's magazines. Now, you give me 15 minutes to fill a prescription and I'm all over the cooking section.

I picked up these scallops at Target on just such an occasion. They appear to be high quality, though my knowledge of real seafood is surely lacking. At least the freezer pack they came in is releasable.

Ingredients:
7-10 sea scallops, bought frozen but later thawed
Oil for searing
1 medium-sized cucumber, coarsely chopped
1/2 medium-sized red onion, coarsely chopped
1 8oz. can of crushed pineapple
1-3 green chillies, diced
A few dashes of tabasco
1/2 teaspoon vinegar (optional), I used apple cider vinegar
Salt and pepper to taste

First, you wanna make that salsa. Assemble your veggies, pineapple and spices. Then mix well. Sear the scallops in a frying pan over a medium heat for 2-3 minutes on each side. Top scallops with salsa an serve.