Cucumber Avocado Soup: Recipe

Last Summer I spent my birthday up in the Napa valley. I stayed at a spa, went wine tasting and ate out, of course. It was sunny and relaxing and just a little bit indulgent. I had a terrific time and especially terrific meals, the highlight of which was a cool creamy soup at chef Douglas Keane's restaurant Market, in St. Helena.

Frankly the soup ingredients sounded like a spa treatment--yogurt, cucumber, avocado, was it a soup or a facial? Inspired to create my own version I gathered a whole bunch of fresh green ingredients and started experimenting. If your cold soup repertoire consists of gazpacho, try this one on for size. It's a great solution for dinner on a hot night, especially since it can be made in minutes and without heating up the kitchen.

So how is my soup different from Keane's? Rather than using red wine vinegar, I used lime juice. I used only yogurt, no buttermilk. I also peeled the cucumbers which means the soup does not need to be strained. I garnished the soup with a little diced cucumber and some dill. But on reflection I remembered Keane's soup had some mint. No bother. I am convinced mint, dill, chives, cilantro or chervil would work.

Note: Though raw and vegetarian, this soup isn't vegan, but it easily could be. I tasted the soup before adding the yogurt and it was very good that way. So if you want to leave it out, by all means do. Either way it makes a very virtuous meal.

Cucumber Avocado Soup
makes 4 servings

4 cups cucumber, peeled, seeded and cut into small, about 1-inch chunks (2 - 3 cucumbers)
1 cup avocado, peeled, pitted and mashed up (2 -3 avocados)
2/3 cup plain yogurt (nonfat is fine)
1/3 cup fresh lime juice (2 limes)
pinch sugar
pinch salt

1/4 cup cucumber diced for garnish
fresh herb of choice for garnish (dill, cilantro, mint, etc.)

Puree the cucumbers in a blender until completely smooth. Add the avocados, yogurt, lime juice and blend, blend, blend until silky smooth.

Chill thoroughly if not already cold, correct seasonings with salt and sugar. Serve each portion with a garnish of about one tablespoon of diced cucumber and minced herbs or a dollop of yogurt.

Enjoy!

FOOD

Photo du Jour

Green olive tapenade. Black olive tapenade. Sun-dried tomato tapenade.
Tapenade heaven!

Photo du Jour - Carcassonne

The exterior walls of la Cité, the old, fortified city of Carcassonne, on a cloudy day.

A 2006 report states that this medieval, walled city is the most visited site in France, even more popular than Mont Saint-Michel. It is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and is absolutely heaving in the summertime with visitors from around the globe. The rest of the year it is crammed with school children and visitors from around the globe.
The walls in the photo are not actually medieval. La Cité was slated for demolition in the mid 1800's until a protest led by the town's mayor halted the plans for razing the structure. La Cité was classified a Historical Monument and an architect, Eugène Viollet-le-Duc, restored the site, giving it the medieval appearance that visitors currently enjoy.

The ''new town'' of Carcassonne, population around 45,000, is adjacent to la Cité.

Random Food Photos- Best of 2008

These are just a few of my favorite photos (or favorite tastes!) from last year - all from our home kitchen. Doing these things helps me "train" or fine-tune cooking techniques, create new dishes, or allows me to simply work with natural products. Bon appétit!


Filet de sole, feneuil, betterave, pomme de terre "Ratte" à la sauce orange.

Sole, sautéed fennel, beets, fingerling potatoes and orange sauce.








Les Cèpes en saison (environ Novembre).

Porcini mushrooms, in season (around November).








Rôti de boeuf sur un lit de girolles et des épinards, potiron et jus de boeuf.

Filet of beef on a bed of sautéed chanterelle mushrooms and spinach, with baked pumpkin and a light beef sauce.






Pâte de tomate, farci de chèvre et ciboulette.

Tomato pasta ravioli with goat cheese and chive filling.










Tagliatelles aux épinards à la maison.

Home made spinach linguine.









Recette de Yannick Alleno, Le Meurice (3 étoiles): Timbale de langoustines et èpinards, avec coques à la sauce nantua, cappucino de langoustine et truffe noire.

Yannick Alleno recipe (3-star chef of Hotel Meurice): Norwegian lobster in a macaroni & spinach tower, with cockle in two lobster sauces and black truffle.






Truffes de chocolate

Chocolate truffles












Croquettes de pomme de terre.

Potato Croquettes (elegant "tator tots" if you will - mashed potatoes rolled in a cylinder shape & fried in olive oil).











Macarons aux vanilles et ganache chocolat.

French almond cookie (vanilla-flavored) with chocolate filling. Not to be confused with the American version called macaroons (based on dried coconut)!

Sheer luxuries, with chevre

I love to cook. But if there’s one thing that I like even more, it’s having someone else cook for me. Playing hostess is very nice, but it has nothing on the sheer luxury of sitting (or heck, even standing) in someone else’s kitchen, sipping a glass of wine (or, in a pinch, a cold Pabst), and watching that someone whip up a meal for me. Just tell me where to show up and when, and I’ll be right

Lentil Chili Burgers

So let's say you made Mollie (with an "ie") Katzen's Lentil Chili, like I did the other night. But let's also say that you live in a family of two and didn't bother cutting the recipe down. You might be thinking, what in the world should I do with all of that chili? I've learned to admit to myself that things which end up in the freezer tend to stay in the freezer until out of desperation I throw them away. So freezing's out (although Katzen does say the chili freezes beautifully). Eating lentil chili for every meal for the entire rest of the week is also out because nothing is good three times a day.

What to do, what to do... Here's a hint. Remember when I complained that whenever I deal with lentils they suck up all water with which they come into contact, making it difficult for me to keep them in a soup or stew? Well if you have a similar problem, you can take your greedy little lentils which have soaked up all of their broth, and make them into pre-seasoned, already cooked burger patties. Genius. You can even include the tomato and onion chunks. Here's how you do it.

Lentil Chili Burgers
Original Recipe, or at least, original idea

2 1/2 cups leftover Lentil Chili, which has absorbed all of its liquid
3/4 cups rolled oats
3/4 cups bread crumbs, I used panko, but if you make your own, use them
Fixings for burgers, you know the drill

Give your rolled oats a wizz in the food processor to grind them. Combine the ground rolled oats, the bread crumbs and the lentils. Use your hands to form the lentil mixture into nice round patties.

Heat a pan over medium, then pour in a little olive oil to coat. Place each lentil patty in the pan and cook on each side for 1-2 minutes, depending on how hot it is. Remove and serve, maybe with a bun, tomato and lettuce, or plain with some A1 sauce. (I'm a sucker for A1 sauce.)

Five (French) Things to Eat Before You Die

It took about nine months, and it's not a baby. I have finally been tagged for a meme -- by Estelle from My French Cuisine. We share the same blogging subject and Blogger template, so I am happy to respond to her request.

I had already decided to limit my list to French food when I took a look at Estelle's post on the subject and saw she had taken the same tack. So I forced myself not to look at her list lest I be influenced. I wonder if we'll have any dishes in common?

So here we go, from the simplest to the most complex:



1. French sheep's milk cheese other than Roquefort: Not that I don't like Roquefort, but I think a lot of food lovers are familiar with it. But make sure to try, someday, a Pérail or a Brebis des Pyrénées. You won't forget them. Goat's cheese is great, but sheep's milk cheese is chic.

2. Potimarron soup: This is one of the simple dishes that I love in French cooking. What is a potimarron? It's a small squash, that looks a bit like a pumpkin but tastes like a cross between pumpkin and chestnut -- chestnut being "marron" in French. Cucina Testa Rosa has a nice post and photo on the topic if you want to know more. A blended soup with potimarron, onions, carrots, leeks and a bit of crème fraîche makes the darkest winter evening heavenly.

3. Aligot: This is a local specialty of Aveyron and the Southern Auvergne . It is a filling dish made of melted Tomme cheese blended into mashed potatoes, sometimes with garlic and crème fraîche. It's very tiring to cook, so I usually buy the locally-made prepared version. But if you're really eating this cheesy specialty "once before you die", try it in an Aveyronnais restaurant such as the Hôtel Aubrac in Laguiole on the Aubrac Plateau.

4. Real Swiss Raclette: I'm straying from France here, but just a little. Many winter meals in France revolve around raclette , but raclette is actually a Swiss tradition and there, the raclette cheese is often cooked over an open fire. I was lucky enough to taste this type of raclette once in Switzerland, and the tabletop version pales in comparison.

5. The "Gargouillou de jeunes légumes" at the Michel Bras restaurant: Michel Bras is one of France's chefs with three Michelin stars -- le top du top. I've eaten four times at his restaurant in nearby Laguiole (see above) and have tasted one of his signature dishes, the Gargouillou de jeunes légumes -- a fabulous vegetable sauté. To give you an idea, my Bras cookbook, "Le Livre de Michel Bras" -- currently out of print -- devotes 18 pages to this recipe.

So thanks to Estelle for giving me this most interesting topic to write about. It was great timing as I didn't have much culinary subject matter for this week, having spent my time going back to work, getting my kids back to school, and shopping for school supplies!