Cold Sour Tomato Soup

Cold Sour Tomato Soup excerpted from Fire, Smoke, Green by Martin Nordin.

In Fire Smoke Green by Martin Nordin Martin Nordin’s second book, he brings us a host of mouthwatering, modern vegetarian recipes, using the most elemental and ancient method of cooking: fire. Not just a barbecue cookbook, Fire, Smoke, Green is broken up into seven chapters that cover everything you need to know about making great food over the flame: from grilling directly onto fire, to cooking with indirect fire, smoked recipes, and even wood-fired pizza

Atmospheric photography and charming illustrations throughout bring you something other than your average vegetarian cookbook—as lovers of Martin’s first book Green Burgers will attest, his approach to meat-free cooking is anything but boring. Try the Roasted and smoked potatoes with beer-caramelized onions; the Fennel roots with shiitake, green onion, buckwheat and herb oil; or Harissa-marinated sweet potato with grilled cabbage leaves and black dukkah. Or if you still can’t get enough of the burger recipes, why not try the Zucchini and mungbean burgers with sriracha mayonnaise and furikake, washed down with a smoky Mezcal with grilled grapefruit.

Fire, Smoke, Green: Vegetarian Barbecue, Smoking and Grilling Recipes is available at Amazon.com and Indigo.ca.

Serves 6

1.5 litres (50 fl oz/6 cups) Fermented Yellow Tomato Sauce, see recipe below

360 ml (12 fl oz/11⁄2 cups) gin (60 ml/2 fl oz/ 1⁄4 cup per portion)

a few drops of habanero sauce (optional)

Kohlrabi in elderflower vinegar

2 small kohlrabi

100 ml (31/2 fl oz/scant 1/2 cup) elderflower vinegar, alternatively Champagne vinegar or apple cider vinegar

small pinch of sea salt flakes

To serve

Smoked Tomatoes + a little of the oil, see recipe below

multigrain crackers elderflowers (optional)

Peel and dice the kohlrabi into bite-sized pieces. Put the cubes of kohlrabi in a bowl then add the vinegar and salt and leave to soak for around 1 hour.
Thoroughly mix the Fermented Yellow Tomato Sauce with the gin and habanero sauce in a large jug.
Pour around 300 ml (10 fl oz/11/4 cups) of soup into each bowl, add 3–4 Smoked Tomatoes and drizzle a little of the smoked oil on top. Finish with 2 tablespoons of kohlrabi cubes, multigrain crackers and elderflowers, if they are in season.

COLDER SOUP Personally, I like my soup at refrigerator temperature, but you can also add a few ice cubes if you would like an even more cooling dish on a hot summer’s day.

Fermented Yellow Tomato Sauce

1 kg (2 lb 4 oz) yellow tomatoes

100 g (31/2 oz) celery stalks

24 g (5 teaspoons) salt, without iodine

200 ml (7 fl oz) white kimchi base, see recipe below

1 large (1.5 litres/50 fl oz/6 cups) sterilized clip-top preserving jar with a rubber seal (such as a Kilner jar)

Rinse the tomatoes and halve them. Clean the celery and slice it thinly. Put the tomatoes and celery in a bowl and massage in the salt. Apply plenty of pressure to the tomatoes so that they release liquid. Leave to stand at room temperature for at least 1 hour. Stir and apply pressure occasionally.

Pour the kimchi base into the bowl and mix using your hands.

Pour the mixture into the preserving jar, but leave 2–3 cm (1 in) of air at the top. Fill a plastic bag with some water, knot the bag and add it on top as a weight. Close the lid and seal with the bracket. Place the jar on a plate and ideally stand it in a plastic bag since it is very likely that some liquid will be ejected (make sure you don’t seal the bag at the top). Leave the jar to stand at room temperature for 5–7 days.

Put the jar in the refrigerator. Remove the jar after a few days, pour it into a bowl and blend until smooth. Strain the sauce and pour into sterilized bottles. Keep in the refrigerator.

White Kimchi Base

500 ml (17 fl oz/2 cups) water 2 tablespoons rice flour

100 g (31/2 oz) light miso paste 4 shallots, coarsely chopped

2 white or yellow medium carrots, coarsely chopped

100 g (31/2 oz) coarsely chopped radishes (around 3–4 mm)

about 12 g (1/2 oz) fresh ginger root

50 g (2 oz) coarsely chopped garlic

2 mild white chillies, about 50 g (2 oz) e.g. ajì pepper

Pour the water and rice flour into a saucepan and bring to the boil. Stir constantly to ensure there are no lumps. Reduce the heat and add the miso paste. Stir in and leave to simmer for around 5 minutes. Remove the saucepan from the heat and allow to cool. You can leave the mixture in the refrigerator overnight.

Add the shallots, carrots, radishes, ginger and garlic to a food processor and mix into a fine purée. If it is stiff you can add a little splash of water.

Pour the rice flour mixture, the vegetable purée and chillies into a glass jar and mix thoroughly. Keep in the refrigerator. If you don’t intend to use it for a while, you can also freeze it.

Smoked Tomatoes

500 g (1 lb 2 oz) tomatoes

1 garlic bulb, halved widthways

fresh mixed herbs, e.g. rosemary and thyme

rind of 1 unwaxed lemon

200 ml (7 fl oz/scant 1 cup) rapeseed (canola) oil 1/2 teaspoon salt

100–200 g (31/2–7 oz) smoker chips

Light the barbecue (grill). Get a large baking tray and a smaller heatproof plate with a 1–11/2 cm (1/2 in) high edge (the edge cannot be higher than the one on the large baking tray). Place a thin layer of smoker chips in the bottom of the large baking tray then place the smaller plate in the tray.
Position the tomatoes, garlic, herbs and grated lemon rind on the smaller plate. Drizzle with the oil and sprinkle with the salt. Cover with kitchen foil and place the baking tray with the plate on the grill while there are still flames. After a few minutes, the chips will begin to smoke and the smoke will seep out from under the foil (if the smoke doesn’t seep out, you can unfold the foil a little at one corner to check it is smoking). Remove the baking tray from the grill when it begins to smoke and leave it to stand on the ground for a few minutes. Repeat this step three to four times. Remove the foil to check whether the tomatoes and oil have taken on colour. Otherwise, repeat the procedure a few more times.
Place the smoked tomatoes in a sterilized glass jar, pour the oil over and seal the jar. If you like, you can fry the tomatoes quickly in some oil just before serving—this will add heat to the tomatoes and the flavours will blossom once again

SMOKE WITHOUT FIRE If you are unable to get hold of smoker chips or you don’t have a barbecue at home, you can cheat to obtain that smoky flavour by sautéing onions or tomatoes in a frying pan with oil and a little liquid smoke.

Recipe reprinted with permission from Hardie Grant Books.