Cooking with our Curator: Red, Yellow & Orange Tomato, Shrimp & Avocado Gazpacho

Red, Yellow & Orange Tomato, Shrimp & Avocado Gazpacho for SBMM’s Sustainable Seafood Recipe Contest

“I buy my seafood from Get Hooked, Santa Barbara’s own Community Supported Fishery, and Santa Barbara Fish Market. These vendors exclusively support seafood harvested by our local fishermen and farmers. California has some of the strictest fishing regulations in the world. Southern California’s extensive network of Marine Protected Areas creates areas of limits to fishing, serving as insurance against large-scale over exploitation of several important fishery species. Local fishermen have also adopted fishing techniques that minimize interaction with marine mammals and bycatch (unintended harvest of species that aren’t consumed). Santa Barbara fishermen often get better prices by selling their seafood locally, and better profits allow them to fish more selectively, leading to lighter resource use.” Emily Falke

Ingredients
2 pounds chilled, mixed medium-size red, yellow and orange tomatoes
2 cloves garlic
1 jalapeno pepper, stemmed, seeded, chopped
1 tablespoon sherry vinegar
1 tablespoon lemon juice
2 tablespoon olive oil
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
2 chilled scallions, green parts only, chopped
2 chilled lemon cucumbers, peeled, sliced, roughly chopped
20 chilled extra-large cooked Wild Caught Pacific Shrimp, tails on, divided
1 avocado, halved, quartered, and quarters sliced into 4 pieces
1 pre-cooked hard-boiled egg, finely grated
1/4 cup mint leaves, chopped
1/4 cup cilantro leaves, chopped
Aleppo crushed pepper

Directions (Serves 4/Preparation 45 mins)
In a food processor combine tomatoes, garlic, jalapeño, sherry vinegar, lemon juice, olive oil, and salt and pulse until well combined but slightly chunky. Pour into a large bowl and stir in scallions and lemon cucumbers. Remove tails on 4 shrimp, roughly chop and add to gazpacho. Divide gazpacho into 4 bowls, hook 4 shrimp and 4 slices of avocado onto each bowl. Sprinkle with grated egg, mint, cilantro and Aleppo pepper.