Chilled Cucumber & Melon Gazpacho
with Local Box Crab
by Chef Christina Ng of Chinitas Pies
Chef Christina and I had the pleasure of collaborating on a super fun farm-to-fork bachelorette party over the weekend! Chef decided that she not only wanted to highlight the seasonality of Cyclops Farms, but of our local fishermen too! I reached out to the folks of Tuna Harbor Dockside Market who connected me with Kelli Major. Her husband Dan, fishes off our coast in their boat "Plan B". Kelli let me know that Dan was out fishing and was hoping to bring back some gorgeous local Box Crab and that she'd keep me posted when she heard from him. Sticking to their plan, Dan had success fishing for the Box Crab (sidenote: Box Crab is in the King Crab family). Kelli was amazing and set a few aside for us to pick up before the market even opened Saturday morning. We brought the live crab straight to Cyclops Farms, steamed it and topped it on our gazpacho all by noon! Talk about a locally sourced FRESH meal!
We wanted to share Chef Christina's recipe with you and some photos from our day!
Ingredients:
1/2 cup blanched Almond slices, soaked in water for 30 minutes
1/4 cup bread crumbs, soaked in 1/2 cup water for 30 minutes
2 cups honeydew (skinned, deseeded, cubed)
3 Persian cucumbers, skinned
1 clove garlic
1/3 cup red wine vinegar
Zest and juice of 1 lemon
3/4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon honey
5 sprigs of mint, leaves torn off
1 cup sunflower oil or light olive oil
Directions:
Soak almonds for 30 minutes in water, then drain. In a separate bowl, soak bread crumbs in water for 30 minutes.
Once nuts and crumbs have soaked, (you will pour the whole bread crumb/water mix in) place them in the blender (Vitamix or high powered blender preferred). Add all the other ingredients into the blender and blend until smooth.
With the blender running, slowly drizzle in the oil using a liquid measuring cup. Pour the oil in the middle of the vortex of the mixture in the blender.
Once all the oil has been added, check by tasting to see if you'd like to add more salt. Serve with some diced up melon or add cooked crab or shrimp for a nice supper meal.
Interested in learning more about the Tuna Harbor Dockside Market? Check out their Facebook page.
To learn more about Dan & Kelli Major and Plan B Sustainable Fisheries, check out this recent article in Edible San Diego.