Lordy it’s hot in New York. Really hot. Like sweat dripping down my body hot. Like get me as far away from a stove as possible hot. Like I’d like to go stand in front of a broken fire hydrant hot. Like I don’t know if I’m soaking wet because the humidity is 100% or because the temperature is 100˚F – that hot!
Yes, it’s definitely no fuss, no heat gazpacho and ceviche weather. Why not combine them? This gazpacho is simply watermelon blended with a little sea salt, sherry vinegar, and olive oil. It’s salty, tangy, sweet and just as good on it’s own as it is with the ceviche.
The bay scallop ceviche, cooked in the the acids from lime juice, gets a kick from a few pinches of allspice (a Cuban interpretation) plus some ginger, red onion, and cubanelle pepper. Cucumbers slices and mint chiffonade add on another refreshing layer. So here’s my ultimate cool-down recipe for the summer. What’s yours? (Pouring a bucket of ice over your head doesn’t count).
Related recipes around the blogoshpere:
Karina’s Kitchen Watermelon Gazpacho
Eating Well Watermelon Gazpacho
Eating / SF Watermelon Gazpacho
Ingredients
- 1 small (size of your head) seedless watermelon, rind cut off and cubed
- 4-5 T sherry vinegar
- 1/4 cup olive oil
- 1 tsp. sea salt
- 1pound bay scallops
- 1/2 cup freshly squeezed lime juice (do not get the pre-squeezed stuff, it tastes funny, I tried it)
- 1/4 small red onion, sliced thin
- 1/2 cubanelle pepper, brunoised (diced very small, 2mm)
- 1 small nub of ginger, brunoised (about 1 T)
- 1 small cucumber, cut half into thin rounds and half into a brunoise
- 7 mint leaves, chiffonaded (sliced thin)
- 1 T olive oil
- 2 small pinches allspice
- Sea salt
Blend first 3 ingredients together in a blender on high until smooth. If for some reason there are seeds strain them out. Season with salt. Add more vinegar and salt to taste. Chill.
Combine scallops, lime juice, red onion, ginger, cubanelle pepper, and all-spice in a small bowl. Cover and refrigerate for 2 hours. Before serving mix in olive oil, sea salt to taste, brunoised cucumber, and mint. Spoon ceviche in the center of bowls filled with watermelon gazpacho and decorate with cucumber slices.
Note: Mint has a tendency of turning black if it is mixed in with acidic ingredients. Mix it in last, right before serving, and it will keep its color for up to 15 minutes.
Seconding the notion that the bottle lime juice is putrid. It ruined some perfectly good gin of mine!
This looks delicious. I’m not a huge fan of scallops, so I’m thinking little chunks of halibut might work well, too. (Anything with cucumber instantly cools your body by five degrees, it’s a scientific fact.)
Drago – Really? I didn’t know cucumbers could do that! Halibut would be delicious or a combo like halibut, shrimp, calamari.
Yes, definitely, science is not usually wrong. For summer cookouts a great alternative to gloppy potato salad is: sliced cucumbers, a little red onion, dill, rice vinegar, good olive oil. Chill for a few hours, enjoy.
Alternatively, ask work if you can just hang out in the walk-in fridge for a few minutes.
Drago – Unfortunately it looks like I’ll be out of work for awhile longer. My 3rd degree burn is not healing (on my foot) and the doc is recommending a skin graft. On the brighter side, it gives me some time to play around in the kitchen – something I haven’t done in months.
My pal Mario, the ceviche/tiradito specialist chef/owner of Raza, would be all over this recipe tweaking it to be more Nuevo Latino. However, it’s a great dish all on its own and I’ll be trying this, though the watermelon will be smaller as my head is fatter than yours.
If I were in Taiwan (average thermometer temperature of 38ºC with 100% relative humidity), to cool down my second paternal aunt would give me my choice of hot tea, room-temperature fruit juice or room-temperature soda, and serve meals with hot steamed rice, anywhere from 7-12 plates (all hot) and a hot soup. This is of course finished off with room-temperature fruit, which would also serve as a snack shoud I not want to go out for say, a nice steaming bowl of Taiwanese beef noodles.
Anyway, I digress. My ultimate summer cool-down recipe is called an “air conditioner”.
Wattacetti – Yes, I think it could be tweaked depending on what you’re looking for. A little orange juice in the ceviche could work or even the addition of a garlic rubbed crostini for some added crunch.
What is is about super hot countries that love to eat super hot spicy food? I lived in India for a year and remember drinking hot tea throughout the day and spicy curries. Talk about sweatin’ it out!
Champagne. I love cold champagne on a hot day.
In SE Asia, there are two strategies. Make you sweat – in other words add chilli. Or icy, in which case you’re looking at desserts and drinks.
Let’s take the pain first. I’m not a fan of this, because it hurts so much (am I the only one who needs to take painkillers before delving into chilli?) – but I can see the logic, forcing you to sweat due to the chilli when you’re not actually hot enough to want to sweat – this will definitely cool you down. That’s why hot spicy food works.
On the icy side, if champagne is not available (most of the time, sadly), stirring salty sweet preserved plum into ice water will actually drop the temperature below freezing. Nice. Or salty sour calamansi lime juice.
But my favourite has to be “ice kacang” – shaved ice drizzled with various sweet and milky/creamy liquids over sweet red beans. If you choose the colours of the sweet sugar solutions carefully, you can get a surreal melting mountain of ice – I’ve seen people make patterns out of this, some of which are Daliesque in execution. If they knew who Dali was, of course.
Jeremy pretty much hit it on the head, though with the admission of being somewhat of a spice weenie. It has to do with capsaicin in the chilis activating vanilloid receptors (which help sense temperature changes) to generate a “cooling” response.
I know ice kacang as shaved ice, which is a great also-ran to AC but I like mine without milky/creamy toppings (mouth feel thing). The fruity salty-sweet drinks are in Taiwan too; they really help with electrolyte balance in the heat.
Yum. I am a big gazpacho fan and have a bowlful on the go in the fridge during what passes for Summer here in London. I also have half a watermelon lying around right now, so will definitely give this a go.
Ms Glaze, My god, you should not be wanting for champane in your condition and the heat and humidity. What is your wine store and do they deliver? How about lobster and champagne. john
John – I don’t know who you are but I love you. Clearly you understand the female temperament.
Fran – Let me know what you think!
Watacetti – And the hot food? Is there something in temperature hot food that is cooling internally as well? I see you have a scientific background 😉
Jeremey – I love champagne any day and all day. What’s calamansi lime juice?!?!
Wikipedia to the rescue! – “In the west it is variously known as acid orange, calamondin orange, or Panama orange. The fruit of the calamondin resembles a small, round lime…It has the odor of a tangerine with a very thin green or orange colored peel. Despite its appearance and aroma, the taste of the fruit itself is quite sour, though the peel is sweet.” Hmmm, wonder if our [huge] Asian grocery store carries these? I’ll have to check.
See, that’s another fish match. If you’re stuck for things to do with fish, check out those citrus cross-breeds….
Verbena’s nice and unusual too.
Jeremy – Verbena is such a neat ingredient. I used to grow it in my backyard and make verbena lemonade. I’ve also made ice cream with it, but I’ve never used for savory cooking.
SAS – Man, I have got to get with all these new citrus fruits. I’m so curious about this sweet peel / sour fruit calamondin orange. I hope I can find one…
So sorry to hear about your burn! I did that myself one day, right down my clog! I was carrying a container of near boiling water to my wooden baker’s table to scrub it down at the end of my shift, I remember tripping over something and hot water tipping right out of the container and down in my clog! It blistered up pretty good, but luckily it healed without too much effort. I still have a faint scar…
I never thought I’d have a burn scar on my foot from baking; they are everywhere on my arms and hands though. =)
Good luck, and I hope it doesn’t too long to heal!
Very tasty look…. its like awesome.. let me try
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