Gazpacho!

Damn! It's hot! (the weather, not the soup)

Words, words, words.  What are the words for this one?  Everyone else goes on about how when it is hot you want a refreshing cold soup to cool you down.  Bah!  This is just good soup.  The fact that it is vegan, never cooked, cold and delicious is beside the point.

I learned to make gazpacho because I usually order the specials at restaurants.  Scene 1: Mon Ami Gabi, Paris Hotel, Las Vegas, Monday midmorning.  Action!  We arrived about 10am for our traditional kickoff brunch with the crew.  As we were at the end of breakfast we could order off either menu. People were hemming and hawing.  I wanted nothing to do with that.  When our waiter (I think his last name was Malfoy) indicated the specials were oysters and the soup du jour was gazpacho I had my order.  Excellent choices both. After the meal I couldn't get that taste out of my mind.  Cool, slightly spicy, smooth but most of all tomatoey. (Is that a word?) 

After watching 70 YouTube videos and reading dozens of articles, here is my recipe.

You'll need;

• About a pound of Cherry tomatoes
• 3 or so med Roma tomatoes
• 1/4 of a red onion
• one Anaheim pepper (charred + skin and seeds removed)
• 1/3 cucumber (peeled and deseeded)
• one clove of garlic
• 5 leaves of basil
• tsp salt (more to taste after blending)
• tsp pepper
• tsp cumin
• 2 shakes of cayenne
• 1/4 cup sherry vinegar
• 1/3 cup good olive oil

Roast your pepper until it is completely charred and then cover it in a bowl to let it cool and steam.

Cut the stems out of the Romas and roughly chop.

Peel and seed the cuke portion and roughly chop.;

Same for the onion and pepper when it is done steaming.

Stuff everything in the blender and blitz on med for at least a minute.  If you have one of those super blenders that can heat soup stay on low.  No heat here.

When it is smooth taste for seasoning.  A little more salt and pepper goes a long way.  If it is too watery you can add a bit more olive oil.

Now pass it through a fine mesh strainer into a bowl.  Let it have time for the liquid to separate and drop through while you gently scrape the collected skins and seeds up exposing fresh mesh.

Now rinse your strainer and pass through again -- this time into a large measuring cup with a spout.

From here you can decant it into a pitcher and stick it in the fridge for at least and hour before serving.

I like to serve 2 to 3oz in a wine or martini glass as an aperitif.  Garnish with a little chiffonade of basil, a crouton, some crumbled feta or a sliver of jalapeno. Oh, and did I mention that you can add a splash of vodka or silver tequila...

Life changing dishwasher video!

This video changed my life!

For realsises.

Technology Connections Dishwasher Video

I have always washed my dishes by hand before putting them into the dishwasher.  I didn't trust it to get stuck-on cheese off my plates.  I just trusted it to degrease and sanitize my dishes.  After watching this video I started putting an extra pod in the dishwasher for the pre-wash. We have been putting in day-old to four-day-old unrinsed dishes in and everything comes out clean.  We switched from pods to liquid so that we can use the prewash reservoir in our dishwashers -- no rinsing dishes before the dishwasher and we are saving money!

You gotta love this guy for butchering a dishwasher in order to show us this.  Subscribe to his channel immediately if not sooner.

Lasagna

Whole Lotta Baby Going On

I made a big batch of bolognese for no reason a couple of weeks ago and figured I would try my hand at an American-style lasagna.  After a couple of iterations it is pretty good.  Here we go...

You'll need...

• Batch of Bolognese Sauce (made with one extra can of water)
• 16 lasagna noodles (but boil up the whole box)
• 16oz whole ricotta cheese
• 20-25oz grated mozzarella (I used pre-grated this time but fresh grated full fat is best)
• One egg
• 1 cup milk or cream
• 12-15 good sized fresh basil leaves
• about 1 cup freshly grated parmesano reggiano

Make the sauce, but add one can of water after the two cans of tomatoes in order to get a more spreadable sauce.

Preheat your oven to 375F and put a 9x13 baking dish on top of a sheet pan. You don't want lasagna filling dropping onto the bottom of your oven.

Add the ricotta, mozzarella, egg and milk to a bowl and mix thoroughly.

Chop the basil and stir it into the cheese mixture.

Boil the noodles about one minute less than the package says.

Get the noodles out of the hot water and into some cool water to stop the cooking.

Spray some cooking spray in your 9x13 and begin assembling the 3-story building...

We start with the subfloor which is 2 ladles of sauce.

Next we tile together the first floor.

The first floor consists of sauce and then cheese.  2 to 3 ladles of sauce 

and 1/3 of the cheese.  The cheese doesn't need to be spread perfectly as it will melt into position.

Second floor.  Trim the noodles so that you can lay them perpendicular to the first floor.  This adds to the structural 'tegrity.

Sauce...

...and cheese.

Third floor.  If you want to avoid crispy edges (I hate 'em but some people love them) then make sure that the third floor noodles have a half-inch gap between the pasta and pan. I didn't do that this time.

More sauce and the rest of the cheese.  You can pick up the baking dish and tap it on the counter a couple of times to even out the ingredients.

Now top with your grated parmesan.

Cover with foil in such a way that the foil doesn't touch the cheese.

See the "dome effect" of this foil.  The heavy-duty foil really helps here.

At this point the dish can be stored in the fridge as long as overnight.  Warning!  This thing is deceptively heavy.  Make sure you have the door open and ready anytime you try to move it into or out of a fridge or oven.

Bake for 30 min covered (40 if your lasagna spent time in the refrigerator) then 30 min uncovered.

Remove from the oven and allow to cool for 20 min before you try to cut and serve.

This is what happens if you try to serve lasagna before the 20 min resting period

Lasagna tip.  If you cool the whole casserole in the fridge before cutting you get perfect-looking slices. Just zap 'em for a bit at 50% power.