Well, it has been rather warm this past week in Sydney. Cooking meant converting your kitchen into a sauna and the meat was not the only one that was getting marinated. While the meal was being cooked, baked, deep fried, you were being marinated in you own sweat. Not a good image, so pardon my crassness and potentially putting you off food for a moment.
This is not the greatest span of above 35 degree Celsius temperatures I experienced. Many years ago, I experienced an Indian summer. The monsoon rains did not reach New Delhi that year. The evening temperature did not drop below 30 degrees on most nights. Each and everyday hit 46 degrees Celsius for two months before the temperature finally started to creep downwards. It was a dry heat and there was very little wind. Going outside only meant a hasty retreat indoors. I tried to combat the heat by crunching on ice cubes, guzzling down ice cold water and putting wet towels that I put in the freezer on my head. There was no air conditioning and we had coolers, I believe is what they called them that cooled the air as it past through the machine. Here in Sydney I tried to combat the heat by not cooking, sandwiches were my best friend and I actually looked forward to going to work to be in air conditioning. The last point... an exaggeration. I remembered a Spanish soup that I have heart about but never cooked, that was perfect to make during the warm summer months. Gazpacho.It is a cold vegetable soup served cold that requires no pan, no oven.
The ingredients
5 tomatoes, peeled, seeded and chopped
5 garlic cloves, minced
2 Lebanese cucumbers, seeded and diced
1 red onion, thinly sliced
1 ripe avocado, peeled and diced
4 cups of chicken stock
2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
2 tablespoons red wine vinegar
2 tablespoons chopped fresh basil
2 tablespoons chopped parsely
4 tablespoons chopped cilantro
salt and pepper to taste
half a cup of extra-virgin olive oil
The method
Combine all the vegetables in a bowl.
Add the stock, lemon juice, olive oil and vinegar and stir.
Add the fresh herbs and season with salt and pepper. Chill the soup in the fridge and served cold.
The perfect cool refresher for a hot day with no need for a heated, stuffy kitchen.
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