running with tweezers

the scent of summer

Standing at the kitchen counter earlier this week, I let out this relaxed shudder while chopping away at tomatoes. Twisting each tomato off the vine and smelling that wafting smell - you know which one I'm talking about. The smell of summer that lives between the stem and the fruit of a tomato. It's clean and familiar and homey and so...specific. It's my sign that the season is here and we're living in summer's cornucopia. I've been waiting to be able to make gazpacho - in some form - and this was truly a moment for me.

After the hectic month of work and travel I've been through, I've been seeking out my gazpacho in restaurants and take out containers. I've just not had the fortitude to chop every vegetable on earth, whether I know it's worth it in the end or not. Having two of my favorite girlfriends over for dinner was reason enough to pull down the Vitamix (off a top shelf, mind you) and let it do some of the work on this lovely cold tomato soup. I found the inspiration for this back in winter and have held onto it. It's a great year-round cold soup recipe because the tomato paste helps prop up sub-par tomatoes. In the summer, it adds a smoothness and sweetness to already-wonderful fruit that is just divine.

You can garnish this however you'd like - some croutons, chopped herbs, a drizzle of seasoned oil - but I recommend this whipped cream. The marriage of two of my favorite things - gazpacho and green goddess dressing - is brilliant, herby and fresh...and the silky texture is so refreshing. I've used the Vitamix here to make both components - you can whiz together whipped cream in about 10 seconds. Even if you have to use a blender and a mixer or whisk, this is well worth the time...as little as that is. The complexity of flavors you'll get far outweighs the input so just inhale and enjoy.

Chilled Tomato Soup with Green Goddess Whipped Cream - serves 6 as a soup course - adapted from this recipe on Food & Wine

• 5 pounds ripe red tomatoes - de-seeded and roughly chopped
• 3 tbsp. fruity extra virgin olive oil
• 2 tbsp. tomato paste
• juice of 1 lemon
• 1 tsp. celery salt
• 1 cup vegetable broth
• 1 cup cold water
• 1 pint heavy whipping cream
• 1/2 cup loose packed assorted herbs - I used chives, basil, tarragon and oregano
• kosher salt & fresh ground black pepper, to taste

- For the whipped cream: In your Vitamix or blender, add the loose herbs. You can roughly chop them beforehand if you feel your blender isn't up to the task. Pour in the cream and whip until it's lightly foamy - you're not looking for stiff peaks but you're looking for a slightly firm texture. Gently scrape down sides of blender and refrigerate until you're ready to use it.

- For the soup: If you're using a Vitamix, you can pretty much throw your tomatoes in there and whiz them up in one batch. In a blender or food processor, this will take at least 2 batches. Combine your seeded & chopped tomatoes, olive oil, tomato paste, water, vegetable broth, lemon juice and water. Pureé until very smooth and incorporated. Taste as you go and add kosher salt & pepper, as needed. I would go light on that because the flavors will mingle & change in the fridge. You can always re-season before you serve. Cover and chill for at least 2 hours

- To serve: Take soup and whipped cream out of the fridge. Taste your soup and re-season if necessary. While you're ladling the soup into bowls, the whipped cream will soften slightly. Stir it with a spoon or small whisk until you have an airy, loose cream. Drizzle the cream on top of the soup and serve immediately.

not just for winter

Lentils are a year round thing for me. So easy to prepare, filling, packed with protein...but my favorite thing about them is their versatility. Most people think of heartier, cold weather dishes when it comes to lentils but I truly enjoy them in salads and cold preparations just as well. They really take on any flavor that's given to them with a background taste of earthiness & nuttiness.

In an effort to use up some of the dried legumes and produce that was around the house (so one of us doesn't die under an avalanche erupting from the cabinets), I put together this summery lentil salad. Roughly chopped heirloom tomatoes, the remainder of a red onion, the last hearts of palm in the jar - it all mixed wonderfully with the tangy lentils. To make it a more substantial meal, I topped the salad with a thin slice of pan fried Kasseri cheese. Just a few minutes in a hot pan will slightly melt this cheese and give it a nice char on the outside. You could do this with Halloumi or even a thick slice of Feta, as well. 

Pan Fried Kasseri Cheese & Summer Lentil Salad - serves 2 as a main course

• 4 tbsp. extra virgin olive oil
• 2 2 ounce-ish slices of Kasseri cheese (the packages I've seen are 6 oz. so make a third or have leftover cheese!)
  
• 1 cup dried brown lentils
• 2 cups vegetable stock
  
• 2 tbsp. red wine vinegar 
• 1 large heirloom tomato (any variety) - de-seeded and roughly chopped
• 1 small red onion, thinly sliced
• 20 Kalamata olives, pitted and roughly chopped
• 4 hearts of palm, chopped
• 3 large radishes, thinly sliced
• 1 handful fresh herbs (think basil, marjoram, oregano, even mint) and edible flowers, for garnish
• salt and fresh ground black pepper, to taste

- In a medium pot, heat the lentils and vegetable stock until they come to a boil. Reduce the heat and simmer until tender - between 15 and 25 minutes depending on the age of your lentils. Drain, rinse and allow to cool.

- In a large mixing bowl, combine 2 tbsp. of the olive oil, red wine vinegar, chopped tomato, sliced red onion, chopped olives, chopped hearts of palm, and radishes. Mix thoroughly & salt and pepper to taste - remember that you are topping this salad with a slightly salty cheese so err on the side of under-salted. You can always add more at the very end. When the lentils have cooled, stir them in along with the herbs and flowers. Cover and allow the flavors to mingle for at least 30 minutes. Taste one last time and re-salt & pepper if you need to.

- To complete the dish, portion out the lentil salad on two plates. Heat the remaining olive oil in a nonstick skillet over medium heat. When the oil is shimmering, quickly pan fry the Kasseri cheese slices - 1 to 2 minutes on each side should do it. You're looking for a slightly loose, gooey texture but with a nice griddled char on the sides. Place a slice of the fried cheese on each plate of lentil salad. Serve immediately.

Tour de France 2010 - Sisteron

It's been a very long time since I've taken part in a blog event. However, I will whole-heartedly participate in anything that Barbara from Winos and Foodies puts in front of me. She's been one of my longest blog buddies and her struggles with cancer & the inspiring way she puts her battles to good use are something we should all emulate. Her Tour de France blog project - where each stage is represented by a different blogger - was a way for me to learn something new about a cuisine that I adore...and a great excuse to cook dinner for friends.

Chris from Mele Cotte talked about Stage 10 and the section of the Tour before me - her post about Gap & the accompanying duck recipe look fabulous! My region is Sisteron, which is part of Stage 11, which spans 119.3 miles to Bourg Les Valence. Sisteron is known as "The Gate to Provence". With a population of around 8,000 residents, its located 135 km from Marseille and Grenoble & 180 km from Nice. From all accounts, they have around 300 sunny days per year. Who's moving with me?

The cuisine of Sisteron follows much of the same flavor profiles as the other regions of Provence. Sisteron is most well known for their lamb. Lamb stews, garlicky lamb shanks and roasted chops rubbed simply with Herbes de Provence. There are plentiful amounts of wild herbs as well as grains, goat milk and cheeses. Bread rubbed with garlic and tomatoes. For that matter, tomatoes in many forms. Briny olives and capers tempered by mild citrus and starches. 

Our Sisteron meal started with icy cold Rosé and homemade black olive tapenade. I just lightly toasted the bread after I rubbed the slices with garlic cloves. The quick, almost fridge-cleaner recipe I used made plenty & enough to throw into pasta the next day.

Black Olive Tapenade - serves 4 as an appetizer

• 30 pitted Kalamata olives, coarsely chopped
• 1 Tbsp rinsed, drained, and chopped capers
• 1 tsp fresh lemon juice and zest of one lemon
• 2 tsp olive oil
• 1/2 tsp anchovy paste
• Fresh cracked black pepper

At dinner, the lamb chops were rubbed with a bit of Dijon mustard and Herbes de Provence then roasted in the oven for about 25 minutes at 350. While I don't eat much lamb, this was proclaimed by our guests to be their favorite preparation of lamb they've ever had. The real star of the main course - for which I also made a Tian de Courgettes that was too dense to recommend here - was the Tomatoes Provencal. I used Laurent Tourondel's recipe and they were divine - garlicky, flavorful, herby and a great source of texture on the plate. I'd make this over and over again. 

Tomatoes Provencal - serves 6 as a side dish

• 6 tomatoes, halved lengthwise and cored
• Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
• 3/4 cup fresh bread crumbs
• 5 tablespoons chopped parsley leaves
• 1 tablespoon finely chopped garlic
• 3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil

- Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Season tomato halves with salt and pepper, and set them on a baking sheet. Mix together the bread crumbs, parsley, and garlic in a bowl, and season to taste with salt and pepper. Cover tomatoes with the mixture, and drizzle with oil. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes, or until golden brown.

My dear friend Helen, who considers Sisteron her backyard in her native France, consulted with me on my menu. When I asked what I should serve to finish the meal, she gave me a wonderful recounting of desserts in Provence: roasted fruit, a little honey, some ice cream or sorbet - maybe a drizzle of port on sliced fruit.

Roasted Apricots with Goat Milk Ice Cream - serves 4

• 4 just-ripe apricots, sliced in half vertically & pitted
• 1 tablespoon fruity extra virgin olive oil
• 1 pint good quality goat's milk vanilla ice cream or your favorite good quality ice cream
• 2 tablespoons best quality local honey
• 1 tsp. dried lavender flowers

- Preheat oven to 325 F. In a shallow roasting pan, place apricots cut sides up and drizzle them all with the olive oil. Roast until just tender - this was about 15 minutes for me. Once the fruit is roasted, set aside to cool slightly while assembling the rest of the dessert. Scoop 2 small scoops of ice cream into serving bowls, Top with roasted fruit, a drizzle of honey & a sprinkle of lavender flowers. Serve immediately.

Thanks again to Barbara for organizing this event and coordinating it so well - it's been so much fun. Keep following the Tour via food bloggers - there are still lots of stages left. Next up, Stage 12: Borg de Peage - Mende, brought to you by Tammi of Tammi Tasting Terroir. 

keeping it cool

There's no other way to put it, folks: it's brutally hot in Atlanta. Triple digits hot. Glad-to-be-inside-all-day-under-studio-lights-hot outside. Most of my past few weeks have been spent inside in photo studios but I've also had a few days of styling food outdoors, which is quite a challenge. Regardless, they've been some days that have happily ended with a relaxing glass of bubbly or Sauvignon Blanc. It's just too darned steamy for anything else!

I've been daydreaming about this recipe for weeks now. It was inspired by my Athens, Georgia dinner-party buddies The Four Coursemen - if you have a chance to attend one of their sell-out-in-seconds supper clubs...you SHOULD! They served a version of this drink at a recent dinner...and the photo of it made me let out a dreamy sigh. A refreshing, low alcohol cocktail made with Vinho Verde (one of my summertime staples) and prickly pear syrup. Their recipe had a drizzle of St. Germain in the mix. Since I am not a fan of overly sweet drinks, I went the other way and added a splash of blood orange bitters. If you can't find the bitters, just the simple combination of the unusual prickly pear syrup & effervescent white wine would be wonderful enough.

Prickly Pear Cooler - makes 1 well-crafted summer cocktail

• 1/2 ounce blood orange bitters
• 3/4 ounce prickly pear syrup
• 8 ounces Vinho Verde 
• mint springs, basil sprigs or flowers, lemon verbena sprigs or edible flowers - for garnish
  

- Fill an oversized highball glass or stemless wine glass with 8 to 10 ice cubes. Pour in blood orange bitters then prickly pear syrup. Top with Vinho Verde. If you want to leave the drink slightly "layered", do not mix. Otherwise, gently stir together. Garnish & serve immediately...although I will say this drink is delicious when it gets super chilly and sits for a minute - no need to chug it!