Tomatoes are in season. This is not quite Christophe Dehosse's
amazing tomato soup (illustrated) which we wrote about this week, but you can add what he did
and make this more complex. If you use good flavourful tomatoes like Roma or
huge beef tomatoes, you will capture the flavour. This cold soup, which does
not require any cooking, is a light starter for 3 or 4 people, not complicated
to make and looks very pretty. There are lovely ripe tomatoes in the markets at
the moment
1 kilo of ripe red
tomatoes, beef or Roma - 1 small clove of garlic - 1 tspn each of fresh
marjoram, basil and parsley - salt and pepper - 1 or 2 extra tomatoes - 10 cm
fresh cucumber - 1 dessertspoon chopped chives, - some torn basil - a few micro
herbs - good green extra virgin olive oil
Cut a small cross in the top of each tomato. Drop them into
a litre of boiling water for just a minute or two, then remove them and put
into iced water. You can then easily remove their skins, their cores and their
pips. Liquidise the remaining tomato flesh with the chopped garlic and the
herbs. Then put them into a muslin or very fine mesh sieve or jelly bag to
drip, and you will have essence of tomato, which you will then need to season
gently with salt and pepper. You can make this a day in advance and chill. Skin,
core and deseed the extra tomato and cut the flesh into tiny 1 cm squares. Do
the same with some slices of cucumber; you can leave the skin on. You only need
about 2 to 3 table spoons of each. When ready to serve, adjust the seasoning
and add the tomato and cucumber squares. Top with the chives and other herbs
and a drop or two of good green olive oil. You can also add some cold cooked or
ceviche peeled prawns. Do not use raw, it is too dangerous. If you want to stretch this further, add some
clear sieved vegetable stock
© John & Lynne Ford, Adamastor & Bacchus 2018
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