Two Glorious Tomato Soups

I was so inspired by these two recipes, that I didn't contemplate two tomato soups on the menu together. They're even nearly the same color, but it is tomato season after all. Their differences though, are astounding. One is hot and one is cold, and these are, each standing alone, about as glorious as tomato soup can be.I've been asked for the recipes, by nearly every single person who has ordered one or the other, so here they are. Easy, spectacular, tomatoes with star quality!

Hot:
Creamy Sun Dried Tomato
foodandwine.com

1 Tbsp butter
1 Tbsp olive oil
1 small onion, chopped
1 garlic clove, sliced
1/2 c oil-packed sun dried tomatoes, coursely chopped (this is all going into a blender, so you can be careless)

1 tomato, diced
3 cups chicken stock
2 thyme sprigs
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp pepper
1/4 c heavy cream



In a large soup pan, melt the butter and oil. Add the onion and garlic, and cook over moderate high heat, stirring often till softened (about 4 minutes).

Add the sun-dried tomatoes, diced tomato, stock and thyme. Add salt and pepper; bring to boil.

Cover and simmer over low heat until vegetables soften (about 20 minutes)

Discard thyme sprigs and blend the soup in a blender, in batches. Add cream and serve with chunky gorgonzola sprinkled on top.



Cold:
Salmarejo
Bon Apetit, August 2011

4 lbs of tomatoes (16-20 Roma tomatoes)
3 toasted slices of sandwich bread, chopped into cubes
1/4 cup toasted slivered almonds
4 crushed garlic cloves
1 tsp red wine or sherry vinegar
1/2 cup olive oil
Salt and pepper

Cut an "X" in the bottoms of 12-15 of the tomatoes, and drop into boiling water for 1minute

Strip the skin off, and force pulp and juice through a strainer into a bowl (I use the back of a spoon to force through)

Discard the pulp left behind in the strainer

Core and chop the other 4-5 tomatoes

Add bread, toasted almonds, raw chopped tomatoes and garlic cloves to the bowl of strained tomato

Mix well, and puree in blender, in batches

Add vinegar

With blender still running, slowly pour olive oil in a stream, into blender

Puree until smooth and frothy---about 3 minutes

Season with salt and more vinegar, if desired


Chill for about 2 hours and serve with garnish

Garnish suggestions:
capers, chopped boiled egg, breadcrumbs toasted with olive oil and lemon juice, chopped prosciutto or thinly sliced ham, chopped bacon, chopped tomato, diced red onion...

Refrigerator Woes

I have absolutely no fun food news to report! Summer is heating up, so the kitchen is beastly, and I'm mired in the drear of owning a cafe. The refrigerator in the kitchen is freezing the eggs but is not cold enough for the butter...which is mooky melted when I reach for it in the morning. I've tried switching where I store these two things, but no dice. Aphids took over the big pine trees on the large dining patio in front, so eradication has resulted in little aphid bodies dropping from the trees for a few weeks now! How long can this possibly go on??!!! One of the feral cats we had fixed, is cozying up to people and then biting them...she has reformed for now, resulting in a temporary stay of execution. In the midst of all this...glamour, I decided to go camping.

Harrison and Carter and I packed up our salami and cheese, cherries, tangerines, chocolate covered peanuts and Ritz crackers. We reserved a cabin at the KOA campground in Shingletown, on the north side of Lassen National Park and sped out of here. I didn't give the refrigerator problem another thought! Instead, I immersed myself in the scent of campfire and pine, wildflowers and deer intent on standing in the road, snow on the ground and the sight of majestic volcanoes.

Lassen is all boiling mudpots and poisonous milky aqua lakes. We tested the little trickles across the trails, as we hiked along and either burned our fingers or chilled them in ice melt. The sky was cartoon-blue and the clouds were puffs and then suddenly thunder and lightening...then back to puffs. We drove along miles of highway shaded on each side by dense ceanothus---native California lilac. The blue blossoms completely hid the green so that blue flowers met blue sky! I just keep thinking that I've seen it all, and then I drive through 20 miles of miracle!

Mt. Shasta lured us north, so we visited the caverns at the lake. These are reached by boat, and then by a hair-raising bus ride up a narrow one way road, cut over rock slides. The cliffs rise up on one side of the bus, and drop straight down on the other. The caverns compete though, with hundreds of steps, flying bats, and astounding geology. After ice cream, the kids water-screened bags of dirt that contained rough emeralds, amethysts, rubies, pyrite, peridots, quartz crystals and raspberry quartz. They each collected two handfuls of gems! After driving along the base of the mountain, we hiked to a waterfall and walked through a lava tube, one-third of a mile long!

On the way home, we had marshmallow and boysenberry and Reeses peanut butter cup milk shakes. And so, though I have dozens of mosquito bites and I can't quite wash the smoke from my hair, I can face the refrigerator tomorrow with poise and rationality! What a few days!