Great Chefs Cook Vegan - Linda Long [42]
Strawberry Lime Soup with Yerba Mate Sorbet
Serves 4
Strawberry Lime Soup
1 cup water
1 cup turbinado sugar (reduce sugar if strawberries are very sweet)
2 pints fresh ripe strawberries
3 limes, juiced
Salt to taste
To make the Strawberry Lime Soup: Combine water and sugar in a nonreactive saucepan and bring to a boil. Remove from heat, chill until cold, and reserve. Place the fresh strawberries in a blender and purée thoroughly with the sugar syrup. Add the lime juice and salt. Purée until smooth and strain the soup through a fine mesh sieve.
Yerba Mate Sorbet
1/2 cup turbinado sugar
1/2 cup water
2 tablespoons yerba mate tea leaf
To make the Yerba Mate Sorbet: Prepare a sugar syrup by combining the sugar and water in a saucepan and bring to a boil. Place the tea in a bowl and pour the sugar syrup over it. Allow to steep for 10 minutes; strain and chill until very cold, about 2 hours.
Using an ice cream maker, churn the tea according to the manufacturer’s directions until desired consistency and place in the freezer.
Garnish
4 strawberries, tops and bottoms trimmed
Fresh mint, for garnish
How to Plate: Divide the soup among four shallow soup bowls. Place one strawberry in the center of the soup. Using two tablespoons, roll and shape the sorbet into a quenelle shape and anchor on top of the strawberry. Top with a mint leaf.
Jean-Georges Vongerichten
“Always begin simply, with the simplest classic ingredients, and from there the options for creating great dishes are limitless. I like combinations that are novel, even startling, yet appealing to anyone who likes to eat and sample new flavors.”
Jean-Georges Vongerichten is internationally known for his innovative and unconventional French-Asian cuisine. His impeccable culinary palate was acquired at an early age growing up in Alsace and tasting dishes that his mother and grandmother prepared for fifty employees in the family business. His sixteenth birthday present was a meal at the 3-Michelin star Auberge D’Lill. After training with Paul Haeberlin, Paul Bocuse, and Louis Outhier, he got an appointment at the Oriental in Bangkok. He’s opened ten hotels around the world and, in 1986, was named executive chef at the Drake Swissotel in New York. At twenty-nine he was awarded his first four-star review in the New York Times.
In 1993, Vongerichten opened his first restaurant, Jo Jo. It won Best New Restaurant in Esquire and three stars in the New York Times. Vongerichten then opened Vong with additional Vong outposts in London, Hong Kong, and Chicago. Vong introduced explosive Thai-French flavors inspired by his years working in the Orient. In 1997, Vongerichten opened his flagship restaurant, Jean-Georges, in the Trump International Hotel and Tower. It quickly earned four stars in the New York Times, three Michelin stars, a James Beard Foundation Best New Restaurant award, and a prestigious Relais Gourmand designation. Vongerichten’s culinary brand continues to grow through ventures with Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide Inc. and Catterton Partners. He is the author of four books Simple Cuisine, Jean Georges: Cooking at Home with a Four Star Chef, Simple to Spectacular, and Asian Flavors of Jean Georges. He has appeared on numerous TV shows and is master cook for Food & Wine magazine and chef in residence for CITY magazine and oversees eighteen restaurants worldwide.
Chilled Watermelon Gazpacho
Serves 8 to 10
Chilled Gazpacho
2 quarts watermelon purée (15 pounds watermelon)
2 medium red bell peppers, seeded
2 medium English cucumbers
1 pint cherry tomatoes
1 teaspoon chopped Thai chile
2 tablespoons red wine vinegar
Salt and white pepper to taste
To make the Chilled Gazpacho: Cut watermelon in half and scoop out, removing seeds. Purée by pushing through a mesh sieve or by using a blender;