Dazz Switalla Flavour Secrets No.1 The Strand Chef www.no1thestrand.co.nz

This year the garden has gone ballistic and recently after an absence of 3 days, neglect had led to an over-abundance of very ripe tomatoes.

There were some shiny green capsicums along with the basil pumping its pungent aroma as I picked ripe tomatoes from the ground were they had fallen. The temperature was soaring, the cicadas singing a constant song. Yes this is summer!

Away from the heat in the cool of the kitchen the tomatoes are washed, a few cloves of garlic peeled capsicums diced and a few scrapes of bread are soaked. Nothing beats the flavour of your own tomatoes and when you have heaps and it's a sticky hot day, a cooling gazpacho soup is quick and easy to make and has to be good for you.

Gazpacho has ancient roots and is a variant of a middle eastern soup made with bread, olive oil, water and garlic. Once in Spain it became a part of the cuisine with the addition of tomatoes. Most variations of Gazpacho use soaked bread which acts as an emulsifier when either pounded or blended with the garlic and olive oil, believe me I have tried without the bread as a gluten free version but the soup lacks the creaminess and texture.

You can enjoy this soup before the long lazy barbecue with some grilled pita or flat bread, garnish with chopped fresh herbs such as parsley, chives and of torn pieces of basil and drops of olive oil.

Garden Gazpacho
Serves six

Ingredients

1.5kg tomatoes diced

150 grams slightly stale crusty bread diced soaked in ½ cup water for

20 minutes

1red and 1green de-seeded capsicums

2 cloves fresh garlic

1 short cucumber peeled de seeded diced

150 ml virgin olive oil

1 tablespoon of tomato paste

2-3 tablespoons red wine or sherry vinegar

salt and pepper to taste

a few basil leaves

a few parsley sprigs

1cup ice water

Method

Drain off the bread and place in food processor with almost all of the remaining ingredients. Reserve some for garnishing finished soup.

Blitz most of the ingredients together until a fine purée, then stain though a sieve pulse remaining ingredients and add without straining to texturise the soup and

finally add the diced left over capsicum ,tomato and cucumber, salt and pepper shredded basil and chopped herbs chill down with 1cup of ice water. The amalgamation of fresh ingredients just picked then mixed together comes through immediately and if left chilled down for an hour or so to develop the flavour becomes an instant summertime favourite to utilise the abundant garden.