Watermelon-Thai Chili Gazpacho

Every summer I make gazpacho for a friend at work.  The favorite one I have made so far is here.  I've been trying to do different ones each time, so I picked this one for this years go at it.  4 birds eye chilies seemed like it would be HOT, but I followed his recipe.  I actually probably doubled all the ingredients except for the chili peppers.  I could add more if needed but could not take out, so I was leery...I also added a teaspoon of Red Boat fish sauce.  I was trying to get the Thai Balance:  Sweet, Sour, Spicy, Salty and Bitter.


I got my dutch oven out and was going to puree everything with my hand blender.  I started by doing the watermelon first.  It tasted really good and sweet.  I used this piece and another half of a piece that was the same size as the one below.

I started with the rest of the ingredients.

With the English cucumbers, I peeled, halved and then seeded.  I don't know why they say they're seedless because they aren't.  😃  I just use a teaspoon to scoop them out.

Below is what it looked like when everything was in the pot.

I started blending.  This took a bit of time - 10 or 15 minutes?  Slowly but surely...

I stirred in the pepper, salt, sugar and fish sauce.  A quick taste told me it was spicy so I was glad I didn't add more peppers.  Whew - it had a potent bite to it.  I broke out in a sweat...well, it is hot outside too.  😉

This went in the fridge overnight.  I wanted the flavors to meld and taste it the next day.  I would stir-fry the prawns for it then too.  I had some frozen, de-veined, wild Argentinian shrimp.  I thawed them overnight in the fridge.  I fried these with a little olive oil, 2 cloves of minced garlic and S&P.  Below is just when I put everything into the heated pan.

I served with a sprinkling of torn Thai basil leaves, cilantro and a drizzle of extra virgin olive oil.  I laid a few prawns on top.

It was spicy but I thought it all went well together.  I did add half of a red onion, more Thai basil leaves and a handful of cilantro (stems and all) to the soup and blended it up again.  To me, this really picked up the flavor and heightened the sweetness.  It also calmed down the heat which was all I got on the first taste out of the fridge.   Next time I'd use 2 chilies for what I made and half that for his recipe!

That being said, the end result was refreshing on this hot summer day.  My son was the "guinea pig" and he said he loved it.  He did say the heat had a lingering affect and he could still feel it on his lips after he was done. He also said it was balanced nicely and thought the prawns paired excellently.  The garlic hit was nice on them.