Dragon Boat Gazpacho
The end of June/start of July marks the season of Dragon Boat racing in Hong Kong. Teams line up donned in their colourful lycra to do battle against each other in pockets of the South China Sea. The most popular and well attended event for Dragon Boat racing takes place in Victoria Harbour and thousands pack the Tsim Sha Tsui waterfront to cheer on the participants.
Dragon Boat Carnival
Entrance to the Dragon Boat Carnival
This year was especially symbolic as 15 years have now passed since the handover from UK to Chinese control. To honour the occasion, Chinese President Hu Jintao flew in to lead the main events and swear in the new territory leader. This in itself caused a lot of protest and heated debate more of which you can read about here, but for the thousands that attended the Dragon Boat Carnival, they were there to celebrate and enjoy the fun of such a great sporting occasion.
For a good part of the year the sky of Hong Kong is covered in clouds, but on this day we got a sneaky peek at a blue sky which meant that the teams were competing under a baking hot sun. Good from a photo perspective but tiring from a participant’s point of view.
Hong Kong Island under a baking hot sun
It was very hard to take shots of the teams in motion as crowds of supporters and visitors packed the promenade, coupled with very fast and determined teams, the best I could manage was a photo post finish line!
Dragon Boat racers post race
Then I got to thinking… if I was taking part in the Dragon Boat race, apart from water, what would be the one thing I would like to have just to make me feel human again. How about Gazpacho? That might do the trick…at least as a starter anyway. Cool and refreshing and full of ripe juicy tomatoes. Just the ticket, eh?
I then did a bit of digging and noticed that Felicity Cloake had done quite a bit of research on making the perfect gazpacho. You can read all about it here. I’m using Felicity’s recipe as a base with a few changes.
Felicity’s recipe promotes a generous portion of extra virgin olive oil at 150ml. I’m a huge fan of extra virgin olive oil but I just couldn’t bring myself to put that much in and reduced the measurement down to 80ml (even that was worth a wince!)
I couldn’t get my hands on sherry vinegar so I used balsamic instead. Although red wine vinegar also works well with this recipe.
I also used a yellow pepper instead of a green pepper.
Just like the dragon, I like a bit of heat so I added 1 bird’s eye chilli to the recipe. This wasn’t overpowering but provided the subtle heat I was looking for.
A Dragon watches over us
Like all my recipes, this one is extremely easy to reproduce. I would say the most effort associated with the recipe is passing the mixture through a sieve but it is an absolute must for this recipe. Otherwise traces of pepper and tomato skin will coat the roof of your mouth and if you are really unlucky, get caught in between your teeth. Not a great look! You could peel the skin from the tomatoes and pepper before blending but I find the sieve method less fiddly.
As gazpacho is an Andalusian dish, I thought I would garnish with grilled chorizo, Spanish olives and parsley.
Felicity has recommended other garnishes including hard boiled eggs, cucumber and pepper which would suit my Vegetarian chums.
Here are the ingredients I used for the Dragon Boat Gazpacho. Have a go and see what you think.
Ingredients for Gazpacho
A wonderful soup for Summer. Ideal for lunch or to be served as a starter at a Dinner party. Please note, you will require extra time for chilling the soup.
Ingredients
- 100g slightly stale crusty white bread, soaked in cold water for 20 mins
- 1kg very ripe tomatoes, diced
- 1 ripe red pepper and 1 yellow pepper, deseeded and diced
- 1 medium cucumber, peeled and diced
- 2 cloves of garlic, pressed
- 80ml extra virgin olive oil
- 2tbsp of balsamic vinegar
- 1 bird's eye chilli, deseeded and sliced
- Salt, to taste
- 2 slices of grilled chorizo * 4
- 2 black olives *4
- A bunch of chopped parsley
Instructions
- Mix the diced tomatoes, peppers and cucumber with the crushed garlic, chilli and olive oil in a food processor or blender.
- Squeeze out the bread, tear it roughly into chunks, and add to the mixture.
- Blend until smooth, then add the salt and vinegar to taste and stir well.
- Pass the mixture through a fine sieve, then cover and refrigerate for at least 3 hours (ideally you should do this overnight).
- When the soup is sufficiently chilled, serve with grilled chorizo, sliced olives and chopped parsley.
Notes
Tomatoes and peppers should be very ripe when used in Gazpacho.
I’m adding this entry to the blogging challenge called One Ingredient for July which is the Tomato. This challenge is run by Laura at howtocookgoodfood and Nazima at Londonworking mummy. There are so many tasty entries so far. Have a look and indulge yourself!
What are your thoughts on Gazpacho and how would you garnish it? Do let me know in the comments below!
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{ 26 comments… read them below or add one }
I absolutely love Gazpacho and yours sounds like a perfect version. I agree and doubt I would use 150ml of olive oil if I was making it myself. But, I would certainly add a bird’s eye chilli as I am a chilli addict! A delicious entry to One Ingredient…..Thank you! xx
A real pleasure Laura. It’s a fun challenge
I’ve never had Gazpacho. It sounds like a great dish if you are a vegetable lover and you live in a warm country. I love extra virgin olive oil , but I also would use 80 ml instead of 150…, the black olives floating on the top are a great idea, I would use sundried tomatoes (uhm …maybe they would sink) . Hong Kong looks fantastic, are you learning chinese?
Sun dried tomatoes? Great addition with a super contrast in flavours!
They speak Cantonese in Hong Kong but if I was to learn a language here it would probably be Mandarin as even the locals are brushing up to welcome the thousands/millions of Chinese mainlanders visiting HK.
It’s not an easy language to learn, one word can have similar meanings with different intonation.
I’m not ruling it out though
I imagine this soup has a warm taste even though it is cold – looks delicious and your photos of Hong Kong Harbour are fabulous!
I guess the warmth may come from the chilli and the depth of flavour from the chorizo. It is wonderful when it is baking hot outside.
Thanks so much for the kind comment about my photos. I’m trying my best
Just by reading it, I would love to have some gazpacho now. Yum!!!
Thanks Chris! Why don’t you make some for tomorrow then? Really easy and a great way to start the weekend
Hmmm I’m afraid cold soup isn’t doing it for me in dull grey Scotland, but I can see the appeal where you are! Great photos of the dragon boat race.
Oh no Janice! I hear there has been lots of flooding too. How awful! Going back to Scotland in August/September so hope it gets better. Thanks for stopping by
What lovely pictures and what a delicious soup. Thank you for sharing it with me! It has brightened my day. Hugs and love.
Thanks for dropping by Monet
I love gazpacho, this is a such a classic. I bet it’s good with balsamic vinegar too!
Thanks Caroline it was really tasty. It was a toss up between balsamic and red wine vinegar as I couldn’t source sherry wine vinegar but the balsamic worked really well
I’ve finally become a fan of gazpacho. It just happened this summer. Your version with the added bird’s eye chile sounds great, and I love the olives for garnish!
Thanks Lisa! Yes I thought they added a more Spanish feel to the dish along with the chorizo
this would be a wonderful thing to have after the hot race looks great. didn’t make it to lego land maybe on a future trip when kids are bigger have a great weekend
Thanks Rebecca! You too
Legoland is worthwhile if you are in the Windsor area. Quite long queues – so yes probably wait until the kids are a wee bit older
WONDERFUL! I lived in HK for 12 years and this is such a poignant post for me….and many a time I have stood by the Tsim Sha Tsui waterfront……oh yes, the Gazpacho is also LOVELY too!
Thanks Karen. Glad it brought back some happy memories for you
I really enjoyed looking through the photos. We sometimes do crafts with children in the library for the dragon boat festival, so it was nice to see the actual festival.
Thanks Jacqueline. I tried dragon boat racing back in London a few years ago on a much smaller scale. It was terrific fun but really exhausting
I have been to HK twice in my life and I still feel it’s not enough and can go there again to see something new.. like this race in the harbor!
Thanks for your comment Kankana. Hong Kong is truly a fabulous place to visit. It goes way beyond your expectations. The people are great, there is a wide variety of restaurants and the buzz of the city is marvellous
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thank you so much for this wonderful entry to one ingredient. A tomato linky without a good gazpach0 recipe would not be right! Now we have good enough weather over here too for this lovely soup. I shall be trying this out. Love it but never got round to making it.
Thanks for dropping by Nazima. Yes, I can’t quite imagine taking this soup if it was a damp and cold Summer like it has been only until recently in the UK.
Do let me know if you try it
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