laocook

I have often posted about (and get emails about) our chilled Clear Tomato Soup which we use as an “amuse bouche”.

When the dish is first presented on the table as “Chilled Tomato Soup”, there are glances of bewilderment on our guests faces, these glances of confusion soon turn to surprised acknowledgment when the summery taste of garden tomatoes hits the palate.

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INGREDIENTS:

This is really a simple, yet flavour packed recipe.

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Ripe Tomatoes. We often use Cherry Tomatoes too, which results is a clearer finished product. The type of tomatoes is up to you, (Tomatoes on Vine are a good choice) 3kg´s will normally give you just under 1½ litres of soup.

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A bunch of fresh Basil. You could also use Coriander, but the flavour of Basil and Tomatoes is one of the oldest culinary partnerships.

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Icing Sugar and Salt. You will need about 35g of Icing Sugar and 7 g of Salt per KG of Tomatoes (a little less if using Cherry Tomatoes).

That’s it for the ingredients. I told you that it was an easy recipe!

METHOD:

If using whole tomatoes, cut them in to manageable sizes. Roughly chop the Basil.

Place the Tomatoes, Basil, Icing Sugar and Salt in to a blander and blend for only a few seconds.  Make sure that you do not “over-blend”, you want it to be a little coarse, not pulp.

Most likely you will need to do this is batches.

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Taste and adjust the seasoning if necessary.

Place all the ingredients in to piece of muslin or cheesecloth, we use Superbags, and suspend in the fridge over a container to collect the extract.

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The first few drops (about 50ml) will be red coloured, discard this extract.

Leave suspended for about 6 hours or better still, over night.

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The weight of the ingredients and gravity will do the rest of the work. Try to resist squeezing the bag, this may taint the colour of the soup.

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When the drops have stopped, discard the remaining mixture and keep the liquid chilled until ready to serve.

That´s it! The easiest (though not quickest) soup in the world!

Just watch your friends faces when they taste the soup!

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