Dim Sum Sunday - Summer Soup

Cucumber Soup

Being that we are getting a lot of cucumbers out of the garden right now, the old light bulb went off and I got the idea to do a chilled Cucumber Soup for this weeks Dim Sum Sunday. I got the Cold Cucumber Soup with Mint recipe from Epicureous.com.

Here's what the garden looks like as of last week. There's a lot of cucumbers in there (you just can't see them in this picture). We've had so much rain this summer (and this week - we got pounded again today) that the tomatoes are starting to rot. We have a lot of green ones but I bet I pulled 15 rotten ones off yesterday. Seems like they start to ripen and go right to rot. I'm hoping we get some this week.


I followed the recipe fairly closely. I substituted Low-fat Vanilla Yogurt for the buttermilk, added a little red pepper and I doubled the egg yolk and rice wine vinegar.



I garnished with mint, fresh ground pepper and red onion as was suggested by several reviewers.




After Action Report

I really liked this soup. Sweet and cool and better than I thought it'd be. It could have been a little colder (chilled in the fridge for 2 hours) but other than that, it was nice. The Mrs. liked it but didn't like the onions on top. She even said to save the leftovers for another day. I'm anxious to try it after a day in the fridge. The Pudge didn't like it because he's 11 and soup should be hot. The Boy sort of liked it but had problems with the texture (too gritty). I'll admit it was a little gritty but not off-putting. I pureed it for about 2 minutes.

General Consensus

Will make it again - next summer.

MUTE MONDAY - (Co)MEDICAL

For the Troll Poll - My answer is #1 but I don't think it was a trick.

MUTE MONDAY - FLORA & FAUNA

Flora Montgomery


Fauna Hodel


Flora Martinez


Fauna Chambers


Deborah Flora


Fawna MacLaren


Flora Fauna

Dim Sum Sunday (Monday) - Grilled Fruit

I finally got a Dim Sum Sunday together - a day late. The Pudge and I were too busy on Sunday because we went to the Phillies game to watch them humiliate the Pirates (5-2 Phils, they won all 3 games in the series). Before we left I did have enough time to make Barbecued Pineapple.

I used fresh pineapple and followed the recipe exactly with the exception of substituting real ginger for powdered. Then I let it marinate overnight in a zip lock.

The marinade was a little strong to the taste, but I didn't think it would carry over as strong into the pineapple. I put them on the grill with some mesquite wood chips and grilled them for about 6 minutes per side.





I also threw on some chicken breasts that were marinating in a store-bought South Western Spice Marinade that the Mrs made while we were at the game. Here's what it looked like off the grill. The plate was a Valentines gift for the Mrs that was hand-painted by the Pudge (one of those kid's ceramics stores). This was the first time I used it.

And here it is as the complete dinner with the chicken, corn, asparagus (steamed - I should have grilled it but ran out of time) and baked potato.
Overall, this wasn't a big hit. The Mrs and the Pudge didn't like it at all. She said the rum taste was way too strong. The boy and I liked it because of the bold flavors. Anything less than a 100% approval doesn't get made again. I liked the idea of grilling pineapple though and will try a different recipe some other time.

MUTE MONDAY - (Cult) CLASSIC(s)

How did this one get in here?