Spicy Watermelon and Cucumber Gazpacho -- a Raw, Vegan Recipe

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While at the IFBC last month I wrote about chef Josh Silver's watermelon gazpacho.  Gazpacho is traditionally made from tomatoes, but I have never been a huge fan of cold tomato soup.  Silver's use of watermelon as the base was a revelation for me, and it opened my eyes to the possibilities of cold soup from raw ingredients.  So, the other night I attempted to recreate it with a tangerine watermelon I picked up at the Lane County Farmer's Market.  The results, though perhaps not worthy of Syrah Bistro, were absolutely delicious.

Along with the FM watermelon, I used a cucumber from a friend's garden to add crunch, a small red onion for that allium bite, and the juice of a few limes for their tangy citric acid.  The lime juice and a pinch of sea salt also helped to break the fruit and veggies down and infuse the individual ingredients with each others' flavors, and to infiltrate them with several peppery additions to the mix.  The finishing touch: finely chopped cilantro for an aromatic character that excites the sense of smell before the soup even touches your tongue.

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It may seem a little late in the season for cold soups, but for the home gardener and the FM shopper the fruit has been ripening all summer and now is definitely the time to use it all up before it spoils.  The raw aspect means that there is no energy used at home to prepare the meal, and the fact that it is vegan means that no animals were harmed during the creation of this recipe (I did scold Cleo for trying to eat the onion, but that was for her own good; onions are poisonous to dogs).

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Spicy Watermelon and Cucumber Gazpacho

Ingredients:
1 small Watermelon
1 Cucumber
1 Red Onion
Juice of 2 Limes
1 fresh Chili, slightly spicy
1 handful fresh Cilantro
Red, Black and White Pepper to taste
A pinch of Sea Salt

Serves 6 as appetizer, 3 or 4 as main course.

Cut the watermelon into slices, and then dice finely.  Try to retain as much juice as possible and add with the watermelon to a bowl large enough to hold all ingredients.  Dice the red onion, chili and cucumber, and add to the bowl.  Finely chop or tear cilantro and add to the other ingredients  Add the spices, salt and lime juice, and refrigerate, covered, for at least an hour.

Serve in small cups or mugs, garnish with more cilantro if desired.

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A Few Surprises for My Nothing New Month

This week, I was taken on a surprise camping trip (which is why I have been incommunicado for most of the week).  If you are not familiar with the concept of a surprise camping trip, that is because it is not actually a thing.  It is not a thing because camping requires lots of planning, and making a camping trip a surprise makes planning impossible.

Of course I am exaggerating.  My wife and I had been talking with her parents for a few months about camping before the summer was over, but we have had a great deal of trouble working out our schedules.  When we stayed with them last month (while I was attending IFBC), we had all vaguely agreed that it must happen soon, or not at all.  Just last weekend, when we realized that we all had some time off, it was suggested that camping might happen.  Still, on Sunday at 3pm, when my wife informed me that her parents were driving down right now, and we would be camping as of tomorrow, it felt quite a bit like a surprise camping trip at the time.

My first thought was "how does this fit into my month of nothing new?"  Followed quickly by "they are driving all the way down here, is it rude to demand that they follow my arbitrary rules for my blog?"  Well, as it turned out, I hardly had to bring up the blog and my Nothing New month, because both they and us owned sufficient camping gear, and we really only had to buy food (which doesn't count) for the trip to be a success.

There were a few hiccups, of course.  The first was simply that I had not thought about whether gasoline counted as buying something new.  I am still not certain, but I must disclose that I purchased a full tank of gas.  Next, we were camping just north of Newport, and Courtney really wanted to go clamming, as the season is just about over and we could not conceivably go again until next spring.  All well and good, but I would need some serious waterproof boots.

Well, the local Salvation Army was our salvation on this trip, because they had exactly one pair of knee high waterproof boots that fit me like a hand-me-down glove.  As we were checking out, the cashier said "boy, you really lucked out with those, they don't last long here."  Since Newport is a coastal town on a bay, known for it's abundance of razor, butter, soft shell, gaper, and cockel clams (and even the odd geoduck), scallops, bay shrimp, and crab, I was  not exactly surprised to learn that good second hand galoshes were a hot commodity.

After a few days of camping, clamming, and taking in Newport (which I will surely write about soon, as it is home to the nicest people on earth), the in-laws and we (in-laws and us? anyone?) returned to Springfield with several clams and a surprise agenda.  If you are not familiar with the concept of a surprise agenda, that is because you don't have the same in-laws as I (as me? I am having pronoun trouble today).

Apparently, my father in law had heard through the grapevine about our efforts to fix up and sell the Honda, but had not heard about my moderately ambitious plan to not purchase anything new this month.  The result is that I found myself overwhelmed with a plan to fix up the paint job and some body damage which involved buying lots of little new things.  It was a sound plan financially, of course, the idea was to spend a very small amount of money to get the car into the next condition bracket, but it was antithetical to my plans for September.

My wife Courtney came to the rescue. While I was embarrassed to say that their reasonable, helpful plan didn't fit in with what I was blogging about this month, Courtney explained to her parent that I was trying to fix up the car in the "greenest" way possible, and we ended up adhering to the rules that I set out in my first post.  Nothing has been purchased, still, to fix the car.  My father in-law borrowed a trickle charger to re-charge the battery, which turned out to be in perfect condition.  We also found a mechanic that would charge only $10 to put the battery on a charger for a day or so, so if we couldn't borrow a charger we could have done that.  The car (after a good wash) is now running great and ready to sell, body damage, faded paint and all.

The last week, in other words, presented me with some completely unique and bizarre problems, but so far I have not broken the rules as they were originally laid out. Of course, the month is only 1/3 over, and anything can still happen.

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A Weekend at Theo Chocolate with the IFBC -- Day 1

Taken from theMaykazine's Flickr Photostream under CC license

After staying up late attending the Urban Spoon welcoming party at the ultra hip Cafe Purple, I got to the International Food Blogger Conference with only 5 hours of sleep.

Saturday morning, 6:25am, I walked into the conference hall at Theo Chocolate and found a dozen or so people bustling around in very efficient form, carrying things, moving things, cleaning things, generally doing things to other things in a near frantic state -- the sense of 'panic on the verge' that overwhelms the front line of employees at any conference.  Within a minute of arriving, I was carrying cartloads of POM drinks from Theo's industrial fridge to the hall.  Being one of only two male volunteers, I figured that I was in for some heavy lifting (people under duress default to traditional gender roles very quickly).

When my first task was completed, I asked about coffee, and was met with a deeply apologetic, wearied, hangdog look.  "The coffee vendor isn't here yet, but as soon as they are, you can drop whatever you are doing and get some coffee."  I was not about to argue with the severity of that expression, particularly because it came from staffer Reno, who aside from this one moment was the most persistently upbeat and cool guy I met at IFBC.

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Once Caffe Vita arrived, the general level of optimism and energy was instantly elevated from "why did I agree to this?" to "Hi-Ho, Hi-Ho."  The best way to keep volunteers and employees happy, especially through long or early hours, is with lots of caffeine and sugar.  When those volunteers and employees are all foodies, the caffeine had better come in a delicious package.  Vita did not, in any way, disappoint.

Then some people spoke, it was cool, but the real point, I think, was lunch (just kidding, of course, Barnaby Dorfman gave a very informative talk on SEO; I missed the other morning sessions due to duties).  Four wines from the Walla Walla region were paired with small plate offerings from Seattle Chefs.  There was also a well received GF table, but since I was flying solo (without the GF wife), I did not partake.

The winner for lunch, in my opinion, was a plate of spicy citrus chick peas topped with a whole marinated baby octopus.  The texture of the purple and white octopus was just about indescribable: slightly tough like squid on the outside, a little crunch on the inside, and wholly unique.  The red tinged spicy chick peas were a perfect accompaniment to the octopus too, for both their tooth pleasing combination of crunch and give, as well as the acidic tang of the (I think) lime juice.  It was prepared by Chef Shannon Galusha from Bastille Cafe and Bar.

After lunch, I was able to sneak away from my volunteer duties to see the session on the Law and Ethics of Food Blogging, which was largely about copyright.  The rock star of that talk was Robin Goldstein (sorry Barnaby and Robert) whose presentation was titled "Reducing Bullshit in Wine Writing," if memory serves.  As desperately as I wanted to stay for dinner, being completely floored by the fare thus far, I was exhausted and ready to be "off" for the day.  If it was a one day event, I might have pushed through, but I could not bear the thought of missing the food trucks on Sunday.

I could write a whole seperate blog post about the Walla Walla Wines, but I will post some links instead.  Hopefully that will help to reduce the overall level of Bullshit in Wine Writing.

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Panorama of IFBC 16 Hours Later

Just wanted to share this quick photo collage of Theo Chocolate's hall where we attended IFBC, about 16 hours after the guests left.  I thought some of the attendees might get a kick out of the quick work we made of their mess : )

I was volunteering at the conference (mostly for the food) and came back Monday (very briefly) to help out Anneka, Andrea, and the rest of the crew with the clean up.  You guys were great, you worked much harder than us volunteers, and I wanted to let you know that you were appreciated too.  Also wanted to say thanks to Audrey from Theo for being so cool.  Finally, thank you to Foodista and Zephyr for hosting the event.  Hope to see you all soon, I will tweet (@newaxiom) next time I come to Seattle, maybe we can meet up then.

IFBC Theo Chocolate 16 Hours Later

I will surely put up one or two posts describing the event and the food, glorious food in the next few days, but wanted to share this quick pic with you all while it was still hot.

At Foodista IFBC

I am volunteering at the International Food Bloggers Conference, and I could not be happier.  After helping the guests register, I was told to wander around and partake before getting my next assignment.  Next comes you being jealous.

I started by tasting the Deadlift Imperial IPA from Widmer, which was hoppy in a very mellow way for an IIPA, and their October Fest, which was one of the best malt dominant beers I can remember having in a long time.  As I was finishing my beer, I was treated by chef Lisa Dupar to a grilled steak Bahn Mi on a mini baguette with mango sriracha.

Immediately after thinking that was the best sandwich ever, I was forced to question myself.  Alaska Seafood gave me there version of a BLT, with Black Cod (smoked) instead of bacon.  Alaskan fish is generally the lowest mercury of any seafish, and this smoked cod was absolutely divine in flavor, texture, the very definition of perfect fish.

Speaking of sustainable seafood, I had a taste of Tonnino Tuna packed in olive oil with garlic.  Served with a touch of spice on a bed of asian slaw.  Tonnino is all line caught, verified by a third party, and their packing plant finds creative uses for their waste.  I am told that their waste water is so clean it is potable.  I washed that down with a wonderful spicy sweet gazpacho made with watermelon, cucumber, cilantro, cumin and about 10 different peppers, by chef Josh Silvers from Bistro Syrah.

Next I tasted some organic olive oil from Spain.  There were about 20 olive oils displayed, so I just told the girl manning the table to blow my mind.  She gave me an olive oil that had a strong aftertaste of cucumber (Abbe D Queiles, I think).  It blew my mind.  She also gave me an unfiltered oil (Nunez De Prado) that tasted distinctly of Kalmatas. 

There was lots, lots more, including Wonderful Walla Walla Wines, but that will have to wait for tomorrow.  All I can say for now is: NOM NOM NOM NOM NOM...