My Peanut Butter and Jelly-9/21/09
Nights like tonight, I'm glad I liked my lunch. This was not the most impressive dinner I've made. I found the Tomato and Tomatillo Gazpacho on page 104 watery and a little heavy on the heat. I put in only one Serrano chile and I actually took out the seeds and the white pith. I think the problem was that the other flavors didn't stand up to the heat and so the soup tasted pretty one-dimensional. I've had good gazpacho and this recipe was missing some flavor. Though I needed the cup of water to blend the vegetables, maybe a half cup would have been better.
The Xuxu and Shrimp with Chile and Lemon on page 105 was also pretty disappointing. Chayote, or xuxu in Brazil, is a classic South American ingredient and I found the thin lemon garlic sauce a bit weak. I understand it's tough to find a recipe with X but I think there has to be a better way to show off this new ingredient. I had a near miss at the grocery store. I found an unlabeled green vegetable and asked one of the men if it was chayote. His English was not good and he said yes. I almost made this recipe with green papaya so I guess it could have been worse.
Tomato and Tomatillo Gazpacho-D
Xuxu and Shrimp with Chile and Lemon-C
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