Call it Span-ese…

…or Japan-ish, I don’t know what. Regardless, I had bought too many tomatoes last week (forgot to check the fridge before shopping) and decided it was time for some gazpacho.

As I’ve posted before, gazpacho requires bread and unlike most recipes I prefer to make fresh croutons rather than using stale bread. But that was just it. Although I had tallied a bunch of tomatoes, the only bread I had was multi-grain black sesame bread. Oh well, why not.

Black Sesame / Multi-Grain Gazpacho

2 large tomatoes

4 hearty slices of multi grain and or black sesame bread

1/2 a cup of black sesame seeds (if you are using regular multi grain bread or like me, like to add some more)

Handful of chopped coriander/cilantro

Salt/pepper/cumin to taste

1 lemon (depends on how much you are making; my rule of thumb: half a lemon per whole tomato)

Boil tomatoes until the skin comes off. Discard the skin and mash the tomatoes to sauce like consistency. Cut the bread into croutons and toast to a slight golden color. Squeeze in lemon, add seasoning and croutons. Now you have to ways to go: mash and mix in the croutons or if you have a blender/mixer, blend until smooth. Chill for a couple of hours. Serve cold, garnish with some parsley or fresh coriander/cilantro.

Enjoy!

Friend or Foe?

Alien or marine? Decorative or edible?

A few years back I was asking myself these questions in the middle of the kitchen of a restaurant I was working at. The oddity in question was romanesco, and it was on display as a part 1 of 3 possible new entrées for our winter menu. For reasons I can’t recall, it never made past the prying sampling forks of the wait staff, but the image of said “veggie” was forever burned in my noggin.

Fast forward a few years and a few countries later and a friend hands me one and says,”Ever see one of these?” Like any TV or film grainy, strobe-like flashback sequence, the images came flooding back. The alien rock, sea anemone, whachacallit sat on my counter while I searched for ways to cook it.

Most recipes I found basically said to cook it like broccoli or cauliflower: cheese it, bread it, fry it, you know, fatten it up. So instead, I washed it, chopped and sauteed it in olive oil with herb de provence, cayenne and red pepper. Served it as a side to baked parmesan salmon.

Tis the season for romanesco, so keep an out for it in your local grocery, or deep sea exp

edition, or crop circle.