Corn gazpacho

Recently we went to Napa to buy some beans at Rancho Gordo, and used that as an excuse for a mini trip. We were unlucky, Napa had some kind of a parade going on. It was packed, and parking was impossible to find. Our luck turned and we ended up having lunch in La Taberna, we walked in just as they were opening up. The choice of the restaurant was perfect, the melange of tapas we ordered was the best lunch we have had in a long time. Standing out was corn gazpatcho. Smooth, silky, sweet yet the flavors were balanced. It also looked really pretty, which makes it really unfortunate that I failed to take a picture.

I started looking for recipes for corn gazpacho and started to tinker. It didn't take too long before I had something that has been causing me to go to the farmers market to get fresh corn. Let me record the recipe so that I don't forget like I did with the tomato gazpacho I made a few years ago.

Ingredients:

• kernels from 3-4 ears of corn
• 2 medium size cucumbers washed and peeled if you want pure yellow color and less bitterness. 
• 1/2  sweet onion, chopped
• 1 large yellow pepper, chopped
• 1-2 cloves garlic
• 2 medium yellow tomatoes, peeled and chopped coarsely
• 1 tsp miso paste - not too much, just to add a hint of umami
• 1/4 cup olive oil
• 1 tsp hot sauce, optional
• juice of 1/2 medium lemon
• 1-2 TBS rice vinger
• salt and pepper to taste
• 1 cup water or kelp water

Preparation:

Blend all of the ingredients, and let stand in the fridge for a few hours or a day or two for the flavors to combine.

We prefer this gazpacho very smooth, so we blend it at the highest speed. At the same time, do not blend to long if you have a powerful blender like Vitamix so that the ingredients don't heat up too much. 

You can also leave gazpacho somewhat chunky. I prefer to introduce texture through garnish - some fresh corn kernels, green onion, pine nuts, diced ripe tomato, all of those have worked very nicely.