Spiced Cucumbers and Coconut Milk

Recipes that use cucumbers as a main ingredient are pretty hard to find. I almost overlooked this one in a BonAppetit issues. My husband pointed it out and wanted me to make it. It is easy to prepare and absolutely tasty. The cucumbers are cooked for just a couple of minutes and combined with tomatoes and green onions. The dish finishes by cooking in coconut milk and gets a nice splash of lime juice to round up the flavors. Another plus is that the Curry is very low in calorie.

Spiced Cucumbers and Coconut Milk

From BonAppetit
serves 2


1 tablespoon vegetable oil
2 cups 1/4-inch-thick slices peeled lemon cucumber (or any other cucumber)
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
2 small tomatoes, peeled, seeded, and coarsely chopped
4 scallions, thinly sliced
2 red Thai chiles (with seeds), thinly sliced
1 garlic clove, smashed
½ cup unsweetened coconut milk
1 ½ teaspoons honey
¼ cup fresh cilantro leaves
Fresh lime juice


1. Heat oil in a medium saucepan over medium heat. Add cucumber. Sauté until beginning to soften, about 1 minute. Season with kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper.

2. Add tomatoes, scallions, chiles and garlic. Sauté until vegetables are soft, 2–3 minutes.

3. Add coconut milk and honey; simmer until vegetables are cooked through, 2–3 minutes. Stir in cilantro leaves and a squeeze of fresh lime juice. Season with salt and pepper.

4. Serve with rice, if desired.

Two Cold Summer Soups

Today I have two cold soups for you. The first one is a White Gazpacho.
I have always wanted to try a White Gazpacho and my first attempt was a great success with my family. It is so rare that all four of us love a recipe equally but it was just the case with this soup. Light and refreshing, this soup makes a great dish on hot summer days. My soup turned out not to be white, but light green because I used small cucumbers and left the skin on.
I let it sit over night and found that the flavor improved over that period of time. Both soups need to be really really cold. So put your serving dishes in the fridge as well before serving the soup.

My second recipe for you is a cold tomato soup from Cooks Illustrated.  Half of the tomatoes are roasted in the oven which gives the soup an intensive sweet and aromatic flavor. There is no bread in this soup. Instead, Olive Oil is added to the pureed tomatoes which thickens the soup and gives it body.
Enjoy these soups on hot summer days and you will wish that summer never ends.

Dovetail’s White Gazpacho
Yield: 4 portions

¼ cup whites of leeks, sliced thin and washed
3 slices white sandwich bread, crusts removed
10 green grapes, washed
¼ cup blanched almond slivers (use Marcona Almonds if you can find them)
1 ½ tablespoons sherry vinegar
2 cups cucumbers
½ cup English cucumbers, peeled and juiced
½ tablespoon sour cream
¼ cup good quality olive oil
2 cups cold water
1 tablespoon salt

1. Cook leeks in a medium-size sauté pan over medium-low heat until translucent and tender, then chill in refrigerator.

2. Combine all ingredients in a blender and purée until smooth. (I soaked the bread for a couple of minutes in the water first before adding everything to the blender.)

3. Season with salt, adjusting amount as needed.

4. Pass through a fine-mesh sieve or chinois.

5. Serve very cold.


CHILLED FRESH TOMATO SOUP

Chilled Fresh Tomato Soup

(Cooks Illustrated)

serves 4

• 2 lbs. tomatoes, cored
• 1 shallot, sliced thin
• 2 garlic cloves, unpeeled
• 2 teaspoons tomato paste
• ⅛ teaspoon smoked paprika (optional)
• Pinch Cayenne pepper
• Salt
• 6 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil, plus extra for drizzling
• 1 teaspoon sherry vinegar, plus extra as needed
• Pepper (optional)

To create a chilled tomato soup recipe that produced a dish with complex flavor, we used a combination of fresh and roasted tomatoes. This gave us a dish with bright, tangy freshness as well as a deep, sweet flavor. We also used a small amount of tomato paste and lightly roasted garlic and shallot to boost the chilled tomato soup’s flavor.

1.Adjust oven rack to middle position and heat oven to 375 degrees. Line rimmed baking sheet with aluminum foil and lightly spray with vegetable oil spray.

2.Cut 1 pound tomatoes in half horizontally and arrange cut side up on prepared baking sheet. Arrange shallot and garlic cloves in single layer over 1 area of baking sheet. Roast for 15 minutes, then remove shallot and garlic cloves. Return baking sheet to oven and continue to roast tomatoes until softened but not browned, 10 to 15 minutes longer. Let cool to room temperature, about 30 minutes.

3.Peel garlic cloves and place in blender with roasted shallot and roasted tomatoes. Cut remaining 1 pound tomatoes into eighths and add to blender along with tomato paste; paprika, if using; cayenne; and 1/2 teaspoon salt. Puree until smooth, about 30 seconds. With motor running, drizzle in olive oil in slow, steady stream; puree will turn orange in color.

4.Pour puree through fine-mesh strainer into nonreactive bowl, pressing on solids in strainer to extract as much liquid as possible. Discard solids. Stir in vinegar. Cover and refrigerate until well chilled and flavors have blended, at least 2 hours or up to 24 hours.

5.To serve, stir soup to recombine (liquid separates on standing). Taste and adjust seasoning with salt and vinegar, as needed. Ladle soup into chilled bowls, drizzle sparingly with extra oil, and grind pepper over each, if using. Serve immediately.

Asparagus Frittata

When the temperatures hit almost 100 degrees here the other day I wanted something light for dinner. Our supermarket had just gotten a delivery of  very fresh asparagus and as the season is almost over I decided to make an asparagus frittata. The original recipe calls for boiling the vegetables. I like them better roasted, so I baked them for 15 minutes in the oven to intensify the flavor and soften them a little.

Asparagus Frittata
(adapted from better homes and garden)


1 ½ lbs. fresh asparagus or two 9-ounce or 10-ounce packages frozen cut asparagus
1 medium yellow sweet pepper, cut into 1/4-inch strips
⅓ cup chopped onion
1 small zucchini, halved lengthwise and sliced 1/4 inch thick (about 1 cup) (I used broccoli instead)
10 slightly beaten eggs
1 cup half-and-half, light cream, or milk
2 tablespoons snipped fresh Italian parsley
1 ¼ teaspoons salt
¼ - 1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
1/2 - 1 teaspoon smoked paprika
1/4 cup freshly grated parmesan


1. Butter a 2-quart rectangular baking dish; set aside.

2. If using fresh asparagus, snap off and discard woody bases. Scrape off scales, if desired. Cut into 1-inch pieces.

3. In a saucepan, bring about 1 inch water to boiling. Add asparagus, pepper strips, and onion; bring just to boiling. Reduce heat slightly; cover and boil about 1 minute or until crisp-tender. Drain well, reserving some asparagus tips for garnish. . (Here is what I did: Preheat your oven to 350 F. Line a baking tray with aluminium foil and put the prepared vegetables in one layer on the tray. Drizzle with some olive oil and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Bake for 15 minutes or until the vegetables get soft.) Spread asparagus-pepper mixture evenly in baking dish. Layer zucchini (or broccoli) slices over.

4. Combine eggs, half-and-half, parsley, salt, and pepper, parmesan and smoked paprika. Pour over vegetables in baking dish. Bake, uncovered, in a 350 degree F oven about 35 minutes or until a knife inserted near center comes out clean. Let stand 10 minutes before serving . Garnish each serving with asparagus tips, if desired. Serve warm or cold.
Makes 8 servings.