Cucumber Gazpacho

Printable version

This gazpacho was the final step in the evolution of a simple and creamy cucumber salad. Originally it was just that - a cucumber salad. Next, I used it as the creamy cool vegetable element of a tostada. Then I got crazy, took it a step further and made a palette cleansing soup that turned out delicious.

It’s also a great way to get rid of extra cucumber if the garden is still teaming with them or they are on sale at the local grocery.

I loved this recipe.

It features great flavors that work well together. It’s really fresh but has some tang with the pickle brine and ranch seasoning. I’m proud of this one and can’t wait to make it again for a catered dinner or late summer pot luck.

BEHIND THIS BITE

Cucumber Gazpacho

This was probably the last cucumber recipe I'll make for the blog this summer, I'm starting to get burned out on them. There are still tomatoes and peppers out there that need to be cooked so there is plenty of other garden bounty to work with, but the winter squash is coming on and it’s already starting to populate counters, so it might be time to switch over to fall-garden mode. I have two recipes planned already, one with spaghetti squash, the other with acorn squash. Stay tuned for those.

As always the last part of summer seems to have flown by. Football is in full swing and the high temperature here in Fort Wayne won’t even reach 70 on Friday. Halloween decorations are on the shelves at most chain stores and it won’t be long before the leaves are a brilliant red and yellow. I hate to see summer go, but the beauty of fall awaits along with my soup pot - it's time for comfort food!

Eat well, cook often ...

THE RECIPE

Cucumber Gazpacho

Serves 12 to 14; 25 minutes
1/2 C Sour cream
1/2 C Mayonnaise
1 pkg Ranch seasoning
1/4 C Pickle brine, strained from jar of bread and butter pickles
1/2 C Red onion, diced (divided)
10 Cucumbers seeded, diced (divided)
3 pints cherry tomatoes, halved

Make base
In a blender, mix together half of the cucumber, half of the onion, ranch seasoning, sour cream, mayo and pickle juice. Blend until mixture is liquefied. Pour into a large bowl.

Finish
Add reserved cucumber, reserved red onion and tomatoes to gazpacho base, stir together until well incorporated. Serve cold.

Spicy Chicken Creamy Cucumber Tostada

Printable version

The cucumber salad used to dress this tostada makes it an all star. The salad is absolutely delicious on its own, here it acts as a balance to the spicy chipotle chicken.

I used McCormick chipotle chili powder and when compared to their normal chili powder, the chipotle is off the scale as far as heat. I ate a spoonful of the chicken by itself to check the flavor and it literally made me cough – needless to say, the chicken has some kick. That's all neutralized by the cucumber salad though, it compliments the chipotle just perfectly and it allows the flavors to stand out and not be overtaken by the heat. The spice is there but the creamy ranch swoops in to tame the fire before it can set the tongue a blaze.

The end result is an absolute show stopper. If I owned a restaurant or food truck I would use this cucumber-ranch-chipotle combo in some sort of way on the menu.

It’s a winner.

BEHIND THIS BITE

Spicy Chicken Creamy Cucumber Tostada

I was so impressed by this cucumber salad that I have made three dishes with it. This dish is made from the leftovers from the first time I made it. The next dish it will appear in features a fresh batch, but that is for another post. I'm really impressed by its flavor and have just went crazy with it. When you have a winner you ride it to the championship! This cucumber salad is the Walter Payton of my kitchen right now.

I have found over three years of writing my food column that when you have something that works it’s best to go with it and see where you can take it. Eventually you’ll get tired of it but by building on flavors you can really get creative and make some outstanding stuff that is really original. I wish I could do that with every single thing I make, but for now I’ll pick and choose what I can go crazy on. This happened to be coast effective and plentiful enough to go the extra mile.

I wish ribeye were as cheap as cucumbers - that would be an experiment I could never get tired of!

Eat well, cook often ...

THE RECIPE

Spicy Chicken Creamy Cucumber Tostada

Serves 4 to 6; 35 minutes
5 Cucumbers, peeled, seeded and diced
1/4 C Red onion, diced
1 pkg Ranch seasoning
1/2 C Sour cream
1/2 C Mayonnaise
1/4 C Pickle brine, strained from jar of bread and butter pickles
1 lb Ground chicken
1 tsp Onion powder
1 tsp Garlic powder
1 Tbs Chipotle chili powder
12 Tostadas
2 C Monterrey jack cheese, shredded
3/4 C Lettuce shredded
1/2 C Cherry tomatoes halved

Mix together
In a large bowl, mix together cucumber, onion, ranch seasoning, sour cream, mayo and pickle juice until thoroughly combined.

Cook chicken
In a sauté pan over medium heat cook chicken in a little olive oil until cooked through, 6 to 8 minutes. Stir and break up chunks while cooking, mix in chipotle, onion and garlic powder half way through.

Finish
In batches, place tostadas on a baking sheet with a spoonful of chicken and cheese. Cook in a preheated 400° oven until cheese is melted and tostadas crispy, 5 to 7 minutes. Remove and garnish with lettuce, tomato and cucumber salad.
Then serve.

One of the Best Pork Chops You'll Ever Eat

My first experience using a brine resulted in the most delicious turkey I have ever eaten. My second experience was a culinary disaster.

I was at the family campground for a summer vacation from New York when I challenged my uncle to a pork loin throw down.

My uncle makes money on the side cooking pork for large parties with a giant cooker that he could tow to the Grand Canyon if he had to. He is a pork cooking samurai. I was not fazed by this. After all, I was the young blood in the family who was showing a lot of promise in the kitchen with the grilled pizzas and fresh herbs that my elders had been noticing.

My aunt had a whole loin thawing. I said let's brine it! She said no. My uncle would be cooking it in the roaster. This was where I got ahead of myself. I was still a couple of bits of knowledge away from really understanding how to experiment with food. But as any young and ambitious man would do, I decided to challenge a tribal elder. "Let's cut it in half. You take a piece and I'll take a piece. We'll serve it side by side tomorrow night at diner!" My uncle agreed.

The challenge was on.

My aunt gave me half and kept the other for my uncle. I proceeded to get a box of kosher salt and dump about 4 or 5 cups into a gallon of boiling water with some dried herbs. I let it cool completely, then submerged the pork for an all-night bath. I had visions of my family biting into succulent pieces of pork loin so tender and juicy that they thought they were biting into a rib eye at a high-end steakhouse.

The next morning, I removed the pork from the brine. I could tell right away there was something horrifically wrong. The salt hadn't created a surface barrier to lock juices in, it had cured the pork. It turned the entire chunk of meat into a salt-riddled mess. I had used about 10 times the amount of salt I needed for a brine. As I learned the hard way, the most important aspect of brining is the ratio of salt and/or sugar to water.

But I was determined. The show would go on!

Near dinner time, I took the pork from the fridge and sliced it into chops. I grilled them and served it along side my uncle's typical award-winning loin. The salt did me in. The final cooked product, which was grilled, was so salty that it was virtually inedible. I hadn't just served a lesser product in the competition.

I served a nightmare on a plate.

My relatives were polite and said things like. "It's different. I'm not sure if the brine really worked."

Hell no it didn't work! Two bites and you'd be dehydrated from the amount of salt in your body! I took my lumps. It was not my day for this round of culinary combat.

I would like to have a rematch sometime. My skills have matured and now I can actually serve up a mean pork loin, but for now my uncle still has the title.

THE COLUMN

In the paper these ran as two separate columns, both of which I was very proud of. The chops ran first and the next week were followed by the pasta salad. Space in print is limited and the meal had to be divided into two columns.

But the web presents a forum where space is unlimited!

For this post, I have created a visual recipe with no space limitations. It is a "poster" of the meal I intended to create. Instead of publishing my blog as individual blog post I redesigned and combined two columns as a "summer barbecue web exclusive." It just another adventure in the renegade world of being a visual food writer.

FINAL THOUGHTS

This piece has roughly 500 words and 19 photographs. I have been very pleased over the last year at how my style of visualizing a single recipe has evolved. Honestly, I'm stunned with how this turned out.The combination of two recipes that appear on a single plate takes the presentation to a new level. It's visualizing a meal – not just one tasty bite. I am going to start to model my column after this. I will keep featuring single recipes, I'm just going to do them in series like this that sometimes feature meals or spreads for a party. It seems to be the next logical step. ALONG with getting a book of my first 50 columns published, of course.

Eat well, cook often ...