Gazpacho

This is a cold tomato soup perfect for summer. Very nice too. It's a slight adaptation of a recipe I found on food.com.

Ingredients:

800 g flavoursome tomatoes
Tomato juice
1/2-1 cup cucumber, peeled, deseeded and chopped up
1/2-1 cup red pepper, deseeded and chopped up
1/2-1 cup red onion, chopped up
1 chilli (or to taste), finely chopped
Garlic to taste (usually 1-2 cloves), minced
Olive oil
Lime juice to taste
2 tsp balsamic vinegar
2 tsp worcestershire sauce
1/2 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp salt
1 tsp pepper
Coriander, to serve

To peel and deseed the tomatoes, cut a cross into the top or bottom of the tomato and then drop it into boiling water for 15 sec. When deseeding, put the remains into a sieve over a pot or bowl and try and get as much juice as you can from it, and then top up whatever juice you get with the tomato juice until it is about 1 cup. Put everything into a blender or food processor and blend until quite smooth. Leave overnight in the fridge, or serve with ice cubes and coriander.

Fresh pickled cucumbers (Värsked hapukurgid)

One of summer's great treats in Estonia. Also known as soolakurgid. Make sure you use little cucumbers rather than the long English variety.

This recipe is for 1 kg, but if you want to make more, just adjust the quantities as need:

1 kg cucumbers
1 bundle (kimp) of flavouring (horseradish, dill, blackcurrant leaves, garlic) - this is usually on sale in Estonian markets, but you might have luck finding it where you are
1.5 l room-temperature water
30% vinegar, salt, sugar

For every 1.5 l of water, mix in 3 tablespoons each of salt, sugar and vinegar. If using 8% vinegar, increase the volume of vinegar by 3.5 - use around 10 tbsps of vinegar.

Before salting, soak the cucumbers in cold water for a few hours. Before salting, top and tail the cucumbers and slice them in half lengthwise.

Line a big bowl or bucket with the kimp, and then add the cucumbers on top. Add your water/vinegar/salt/sugar mixture, and leave out in a room somewhere to pickle overnight, or ideally for 24 hours. Make sure the cucumbers are covered by the water - I usually weigh mine down with a plate, but whatever works for you.