My Killer Gazpacho

We lived in Spain for a year when I was 10. My father got his gemology degree at the Instituto Gemologico Español. We fell in love with spanish food, (yes, I remember). My mother bought a gigantic Spanish recipe book and started trying recipes. My favorite was the gazpacho.
Gazpacho is a chilled soup with Spanish origins. It is widely consumed through Spain and Portugal.
It is the perfect summer dish for its freshness. It is like a salad made into a soup. There are many reasons to love gazpacho: It's easy to make, you can make it ahead, you don't need a stove, and the presentation can be beautiful.
I know it's the end of summer and I should have posted this way sooner but I hear it's still pretty hot everywhere and I just made this gazpacho this weekend for a dinner party and it was a success.
Here is what you need:

10 ripe tomatoes
1 small garlic clove ( I put half depending on the size)
1 slice of a nice crusty bread (sourdough works) in pieces.
red wine vinegar to taste ( I use 1 to 2 tablespoons)
1/2 cup good extra virgin olive oil
salt to taste

Start blending the tomatoes, in batches. when its a puree, add the olive oil, vinegar and garlic and salt. Blend some more. Add the bread pieces and taste for salt and vinegar. it should have a good balance of salt and tartness. You can add half cup of water or so to make it a little smoother.
Strain into a pitcher, check if it needs more water and chill for a couple hours.

Garnish:
Cucumber diced in small cubes (1/4 inch)
red pepper diced in small cubes
slices of bread diced in small cubes (1/2 inch)
chives

There are many ways to present gazpacho. The traditional way is to serve in in a soup bowl with the garnishes on separate little bowls so people can add as much or as little of each ingredient as they want.
Or you can bring the little bowls already assembled. For parties, you can serve them in shot glasses sprinkled with smaller garnish and a parsley leaf and a little olive oil drizzle. You can also get creative and add crab meat or a grilled shrimp skewer, and make it a main dish.

Ouro Preto and Imperial Topaz

Ouro Preto, (Black Gold) founded at the end of the 17th century,  was the epicenter of Brazil's gold rush in the 18th century under Portuguese rule.

The city contains well preserved Portuguese colonial architecture, with few signs of modern urban life. Modern construction must adhere to historical standards maintained by the city, to keep its UNESCO heritage status.
From Belo Horizonte it takes one and a half hour to reach it, through a winding but pleasant road.
Ouro Preto was the capital of Minas Gerais from 1822 until 1897, when the needs of the government outgrew this town in the valley. The state government was moved to the new, planned city of Belo Horizonte.
There are several Imperial Topaz Mines in the area, apart from many nameless small open pits. The most important mines are Mina do Vermelhão, in Saramenha and the Capão Mine. This last one is the largest mine for Imperial Topaz in the world. It is an open cast mine, where weathered topaz-quartz-calcite veins are mined. The gravel is transported by a dredge bucket to the hydraulic washing station. The clay is removed with huge water cannons and the material is transported to a sorting a belt, where the crystals are picked out by workers. They process tons of clay to get a few dozen topaz crystals per day (2 cubic meters of rough for 1ct of gem).    
I am not a miner and I have only been inside a handful of mines in my life. So I can't say how amazing it is to dig your own stone, but I can say how great it is to be able to buy from the source. In Ouro Preto, when you visit a mine like Capão, you go as a tourist, you watch, take pictures, have a lecture and get a peak at beautiful overpriced crystals. It is quite interesting but from a business point of view, it's prohibitive. So we rely on the good old small mines. It is quite gratifying to get lucky and see a nice little crystal being found in front of your eyes and then try to bargain a fair price for it. (The prices are crazy in every little corner of the world.)

This trip, I was really lucky. I was able to get Topaz on matrix, Topaz inside gemmy Quartz , Gem grade Topaz, that is being cut as I type and some beautiful  Purple Topaz!

A Special Alexandrite

Sometimes we get lucky to be at the right place at the right time. This is one of the most beautiful pieces
of Alexandrite I've ever seen. You can see from the video how much it glows when back lit. The color is much better in person. It is a much brighter purple-pink color.
It is one of the mineral highlights of this trip to Brazil. (along with the large Euclase crystal)

Enjoy!!

Quartz, Quartz and more Quartz

Curvelo is a small town two hours drive from Belo Horizonte. If there's no road construction that is. Our way back took 4 hours due to repairs on a bridge. It is a large Quartz producing area and has a few adjacent villages, like Corinto, where Quartz is also mined and polished. This area is one of my favorite places to go. It is where my father finds the treasures inside Quartz (Inclusions). It is not as easy as it sounds though. Sometimes we have to go through thousands of kilos of material to find a few pieces of interesting material. Once we find something interesting, we have it cut or polished to make the inclusions very visible and aesthetic. The cutting process is carefully followed by my father to insure it is cut properly. The picture below shows one of the places where our pieces are polished. Note the last photo where my father stares attentively as the cutter saws one of the pieces. We have just cut really great Quartz pieces with Tourmalines inside and some with Pyrite. I am bringing lots of new inclusions along with some minerals that rank really high on the cuteness scale.

Now if you love spheres, this is your place. The best sphere makers are in Curvelo. When we find large enough pieces of unusual rough material, we have them cut there. We are making some Garnet ones at present that will be ready for Denver.

Here is a picture of some big.. really big spheres we saw for sale:

Can you imagine the shipping cost? I am glad there were no inclusions!

 

Euclase and Monkeys

The trip to Brazil is going well. I have been finding really good specimens and gems. I have a gorgeous Euclase crystal and some faceted stones of great size.  An Alexandrite on matrix that although not complete, is huge and lights up when backlit. I will photograph that very soon. Also some great inclusions in Quartz and some really great Tourmalines from Escondido Mine. I am trying to make a little studio setting but I still need the lighting. This coming week we are going to Bahia. We went to my parents house outside Belo Horizonte and there are so many monkeys around. They usually come in the morning and make a lot of noise. Once you bring a banana out, they crowd the trees around you. They are scared in the begining but end up going for it. The name in english is Black-tufted Marmoset (Callithrix penicillata) Here we call them Mico Estrela. Estrela means star. They have a little white spot in their foreheads that sometimes look like a little star.
So here is a video of them:

I had to crop part of it to be able to upload to flickr

Colorful Minerals

I remember being a little girl and seeing my father's collection of cut stones inside little plexiglass boxes, all carefully arranged in black boxes with lids, stacked inside the safe. It was kind of magical, like a treasure hidden in the safe. I would see a row of colorful stones and ask: What's this one? He would reply: Tourmaline. And this? Tourmaline. This? Tourmaline. It would go on for rows and rows. It was my favorite. How can they come in so many different colors?
There are many factors that influence color in minerals. My favorite "factor" is impurity.
Impurities are elements (e.g., Ti, V, Cr, Mn, Fe, Co, Ni, Cu...) that are not present in the pure compound. They occur in low concentration in the stone.
Take Amethyst, Citrine, Rose Quartz, Smoky Quartz. They all have the same SiO2  Quartz formula. What causes the different colors is the presence of chemical impurities.
Beryl is another example. With different impurities, we get different colors:
Morganite and Red Beryl contain Manganese. Aquamarine and Heliodor are colored by Iron. Emerald is colored by Cromium. The hues depend on the amounts of each element.
One famous example of color by impurity is Paraiba Tourmaline. The bright neon color is cause by Copper.
Another interesting fact is that Chromium makes Emerald green, but it also makes Ruby red.

Here are some examples of color by impurity:

Top row: Spodumenes: Hiddenite, Kunzite and Colorless
Middle row: Tourmalines: Rubellite, Yellow and Green
Bottom row: Beryls: Aquamarine, Morganite and Heliodor

I still marvel when I see a Tourmaline in a color that I haven't seen before!

The 3 hour Gnocchi

Gnocchi is one of my favorite dishes. I test restaurants by ordering gnocchi. If they have a good one, the rest is probably very good too. Most places use too much flour so it gets harder then it should (in my opinion). I like it soft, creamy, with a lot of potato taste.
After getting disappointed with my last gnocchi order, I decided I could do better. I even had the sauce in mind. I just had to do the dumplings.. "Just".. as if it was that simple.
I got beautiful yukon gold potatoes. Big, with not a lot of bumps and smooth skin. I usually bake them in the oven or the microwave. I Find that if you boil them, the water makes it too soggy for gnocchi, calling for more flour.  Since the potatoes I got were huge, it took half an hour for them to bake.  So, let's start with the recipe:
3 pounds of yukon gold (russet works too)
1 and a half cup of flour
1 large egg
1 teaspoon of kosher salt
1/2 cup of olive oil or any mild vegetable oil.
A big pot with boiling water with 1 tbs of salt.

After the potatoes are baked, press them through a potato ricer. (Yes, it is one more gadget to buy but, you can use them for fantastic mashed potatoes too)
Make a little potato "volcano" on the clean surface of your counter.
Sprinkle the whole volcano with the flour and the salt and break the egg in the center. 
Start mixing everything with a fork, and then begin kneading with your hands until it come together.  If it is still sticky, add more flour and keep kneading until it's dry to the touch. Divide the dough into 6 balls. Roll the balls into ropes of  3/4 inch diameter, and cut them in little pillows of 1 inch.

Some people like to roll them with a fork to create the typical ridges. I think they look good as little pillows, besides, I didn't want this to become the 4 hour gnocchi.

Drop the gnocchi in batches in the boiling water. At first, they will sink and when they are ready, they will float. Transfer the cooked gnocchi to a large pyrex and as you go, drizzle a little olive oil, so they don't stick. Toss them a little to make sure they are all coated. You can keep them covered in the fridge for 2 days. I made two pyrex, one I kept in the fridge, the other I used right away with the following sauce:

Tomatos, olives and smoked mozzarella sauce:

1 pound of ripe plum tomatoes chopped in little cubes

6 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil.

2 cloves of garlic, sliced very thinly.

1/2 cup of sliced green olives

3 ounces of smoked Mozzarella in small cubes

1 cup of fresh basil, coarsely chopped.

sal and pepper to taste.

Saute the garlic in the olive oil until light golden. Add the tomatoes and cook for 2 to 3 minutes. Add the olives, stir well, seanson with salt and pepper and turn the heat off. Add the cooked gnocchi to the pan, the mozzarella and the basil leaves.

Stir gently and serve immediately.

Note 1:

It is very easy to make this recipe. The only problem is that it's time consuming and can be messy. So messy that afterwards I thought it would take forever for me to want to venture in gnocchi-land again. I must confess, it was so good, I am already flirting with the idea of doing it again soon. Who knows? maybe with the experience I got, it will only take me 2 hours.

Note 2:

The unused gnocchi that was kept in the fridge can be revived by a quick boil again, or pan sauted with olive oil and then served with he same sauce or a different one. hmm I am having new ideas...

I love Inclusions

Of course I had to talk about my favorite topic in the mineral world: Inclusions.
What was once considered a flaw, nowadays has a totally different meaning. Flaws not only can be beautiful but add a unique characteristic to a stone. A long time ago, nobody cared for gems that were not flawless. An Aquamarine had to be clean, free of "impurities" to be considered good. The same for Diamonds, Amethysts and all the Quartz varieties. The only gem to have its value enhanced by inclusions was Amber. As time passes and the world evolves, some people started to realize that inclusions are a whole world inside a gem. They can tell stories that trace to millions of years ago. How the stone was formed, what happened along the way, even how the weather was like back then.
The piece below is a Quartz with water inside. Isn't  it amazing to think that the water has probably been there for millions of years?

 

The uniqueness of inclusions is also a very appealing factor to me. You can cut a million Amethysts that look all exactly the same, but an Amethyst with Cristobalite inclusion? each one will be different.  

I also love to see uncut crystals . The one on the top is an Aquamarine with a Quartz crystal inside. The Quartz is very visible through the top and side faces. 
One of the reasons we cut gems with inclusions is to make it visible. Sometimes, the inclusion is in the center of a large crystal that has a crusty face, or is too big, so you can barely see it or it's just inside an ugly piece of rough or a very damaged crystal. Cutting it, not only makes it visible, it also makes it more aesthetic, because you have control of the position of the inclusion in the gem. What side should face up? Should it be in the center or in on one side? How big should the gem be?
It is nice to have a good balance between the overall size of the gem and the size of the inclusion. You don't want a huge gem with a tiny little inclusion in the middle. The inclusion will not look so tiny if it is inside a small gem. The other option to cutting a gem, is to polish the crystal keeping it's natural shape. This is particularly good for phantom-like inclusions.  A phantom, is a layer or more of inclusions, that follow the host crystal growth shape. Sometimes, the individual crystals are visible, sometimes they are so tiny and packed together that you only see a layer of color inside, like a smaller crystal inside a crystal. This is very common with Chlorite, but I have seen a huge variety of minerals presented in a phantom form. Another great point for loving inclusions is that, by being inside a Quartz or any other host, crystals that are too soft or delicate are preserved in a very good state.  An example is the rare oxide Ankangite. It is rarely found as a specimen, yet it was found recently inside Quartz. Thin long needles that would never survive being mined, are frozen, untouched, inside a Quartz "window". Or a Phlogopite inside Topaz preserved undamaged FOR MILLIONS OF YEARS.  We are not talking about the latest iPad model, that will be obsolete in months. It is something that has been on earth way before we were. Really, are you in love yet?
(I really wish I had documented better all the inclusions that I have sold in the past. My most memorable ones were a polished Quartz with bicolored Tourmalines with water bubbles running through them, a Quartz sphere with an Amazonite crystal, surrounded by Schorl needles that looked like lashes on an eye, and a gorgeous large polished Quartz with an Anatase that was so intensely blue, it looked like a Sapphire.)

Spring Nirvana

I am not a deep-fried person at all. I like to cook and eat healthy. BUT, when I saw those zucchini blossoms at the farmers market, evil took over and all I could think was stuffing them, dipping them in beer batter and frying. After making a pact with the high cholesterol gods and promissing them it will be only this one time, I headed home with a bag full of those babies. Let me tell you, these are one of those delicacies that show up in the market for a very short period of time in Spring.

They are very delicate and I recommend cooking the same day you buy them. The recipe is not really difficult but it is a little time consuming and possibly a little messy.  This is a staple in Italian cooking in springtime.

Here it goes:

Stuffed Zucchini Blossoms

8 zucchini blossoms.

oil for frying

For the filling:

1 cup of ricotta cheese

1/2 cup of grated Parmigiano cheese

1 small clove of garlic, pressed

1 tablespoon of chopped Italian parsley

1 egg

4 slices of salami Toscano chopped

pinch of nutmeg

salt to taste

Batter

1/3 cup of flour

1 egg

1 cup of beer

salt and pepper to taste

Wipe the zucchini blossoms, remove the pistils and make sure the cavities are clean. 

Mix all the ingredients of the filling together so you make a paste. check the salt.

Fill each blossom with this mix. Some people use a pastry bag. I just used a smaller spoon.

Twist the end of the blossom to secure the filling.

In another bowl, mix well the batter ingredients. Heat the oil in a deep frying pan. Mine was close to an inch deep. When the oil is hot enough, dip the zucchini in the batter and fry in small batches. Turn them carefully a couple times to make sure they are nice and golden brown. Serve them immediately. As an appetizer 2 per person sprinkled with a little parmesan. As a light meal, 4 per person with a nice arugula salad.

(I must say, I made a mess with the frying part of the process. The oil at the very beginning was "exploding" and I think I should have waited a little longer to start frying.  A lid helped. )

If you don't like salami, you can substitute for chopped anchovies or just skip it. I also deep fried a few without the filling just to try and they were really nice too.

                                                                                                         

                     
BUON APPETITO!!!

Poppies

Ok, this is not food related nor rocks, but I have to share a few photos taken on April 25th.
There is a State Park called Antelope Valley California Poppy Reserve near a city called Lancaster, 90 minutes drive from L.A. Every spring, the mountains turn orange. A very bright fiery orange. California Poppy is the official state flower. Here are my favorite photos: