Tuesday, September 8, 2015

Agua de Sandia

When M and I visited Mexico a few years ago, we loved getting agua fresca. This translates to "fresh water" and refers to a blend of fresh fruit, water, and sometimes ice. My favorite was agua de sandia, or watermelon water. It is a perfect treat for a hot summer evening! I had forgotten about it for a while, but saw it again in a Whole Foods earlier this summer and decided I had to make it. It turned out really well! It turned out even better the second time I made it, when I added rum (of course).

Agua de Sandia (virgin)
Serves 2
Fill blender with chunks of watermelon (seedless or seeded) up to the 5 cup measure
Add the juice of 1 lime
Add 1/2 cup cold water or rum (do the rum.... trust me)
Pack the rest of the blender with ice (about 2 handfuls)
Blend until there are no more big chunks.
Garnish with a sprig of mint.



Enjoy!

As I sipped it, it separated into the prettiest layers of translucent orange and opaque pink.

Will post a picture soon.

Sunday, September 6, 2015

Choose your own ending Chocolate Pudding

Ideally, start with an 8 cup Pyrex™ measure, or else be prepared to watch closely.  Add 3 1/2 c. Milk, 20 Scharffen Berger petite baking chocolate squares (I think this comes to 5 oz.), 1/2 c. Sugar and 1/2 t.salt.  Start the microwave for 10 minutes.  Now take 3/8 c. Cornstarch and whisk with 1/2 c. Milk.  Next start whisking the mix in the microwave.  It may take a few visits over a minute or two.  Add the cornstarch mix and whisk the whole thing we every minute or so. After 7 minutes or so, the mix will foam at the top as it starts to boil.  Whisk it down every 30 sec. Or so.  After the ten minutes are up, it should have some body and show a whisk Mark.  Remove it from the microwave and whisk it every few minutes until you can touch it (maybe 105 degrees).  Then add 3  tablespoons of the liquor of your choice – Drambuie, Cointreau, sham board, etc.  Or Chambord if you like Francois I better than you like voice recognition.  And put it in the frig.

Watermelon gazpacho

This gazpacho calls for two batches of vegetables, each processed differently - one batch finely chopped, the other pureed.  I used the food processor for the first batch and the blender for the second.  Everything needed to be roughly chopped first.

Ingredients:
1 red onion - one half for each batch
2 red bell peppers, one for each batch
1 big or 2 smaller cucumbers, peeled and seeded, half for each batch
1/2 of a jalapeno, again divided equally - increase if you want more kick

 One half of each of the above ("batch one") goes into the food processor to be finely chopped, not puréed.

 The rest of the above vegetables, plus the following (collectively, "batch two"), will all go into the blender to be puréed:  2 cups tomatoes, 6 to 7 cups of chopped seedless watermelon , and 1/4 cup cilantro.  A watermelon the size of a medium big cantaloupe will give you a good amount.

 My blender works better with diverse textures, so I'm jumbled up all the chop of batch two and threw it in. (It did not all fit at once.)  Once all of these were puréed, I added 1/4 cup of red wine vinegar , and then another tablespoon.  I used Brandywine tomatoes and a fairly sweet watermelon , and, even so, the vinegar just seemed to make it sweeter.

 Then process and mix in the finely chopped vegetables from batch one.  Chill and serve, garnished with sour cream or diced avocado .

 The recipe I had did not call for bread , which I thought was the sine qua non of gazpacho.  I thought that the results of the above needed more fortitude. I had on hand about 2 tablespoons of crumbs from toasted whole wheat pita, so I added that, and I think that more breadcrumbs would be welcome.  The recipe also calls for salt and 1 tablespoon olive oil.