Ginnie and I also made chilled Melon Gazpacho soup, using a recipe sent to us by Elliot Koreman, a friend in NY, and it was delicious.
Recip - Ingredients:
1 medium sized melon
1 green bell pepper
3 slices of bread
1 clove of garlic (optional)
white wine vinegar (I used Spanish chardonnay vinegar)
olive oil (didn't add this!)
salt
Preparation:
Slice the melon, remove the seeds, cut out the skin and cut the pulp into coarse chunks. Chop the green bell pepper. Peel the garlic clove. Lightly
soak the bread slices with the vinegar. Put everything in a big recipient, toss gently and let marinate for 2 hours in the fridge, covered. Take out and process with a food processor until homogeneous, adding more salt, olive oil and/or vinegar, to taste (we just added a little salt). Force the resulting liquid through a strainer (not too fine) into a pitcher or another big recipient. Serve cold. (We garnished it with pieces of the best Spanish jamon).
Excellent and easy! Trouble will be trying to find a full-flavoured, very juicy melon outside Spain.
<http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/member/notes/MELON-GAZPACHO-50042908>
Dinner was at Ritzi, an Italian restaurant at Porto Portals and one of the best of the string of waterfront restaurants there. We began with belinis while we devoured little bread rolls with perfect aoli (when we leave this part of the world we will have aoli withdrawal). Greg and I loved our starter of ceviche of lobster and octopus, while Ginnie enjoyed her goats cheese with figs. Main courses were hake for Ginnie, dorado for Greg and breast of guinea fowl for me, all prepared in typical Italian style without being ruined by sauces. The Italian red from Moltalcino was an excellent accompaniment. Greg had his favourite "dessert" of lemon sorbet with vodka and my mille feuille filled with creamy chocolate mousse was light and scrumptious.
As we were leaving the marina complex Greg noticed a large schooner at the end of the dock so of course we had to investigate. She was without doubt the most beautiful yacht we have ever seen, built as a replica of a classic timber schooner that was lost at sea in the early 1900s. She was launched just a couple of weeks ago and is about 56 metres long from the stern overhang to the tip of the bowsprit and about 46 metres long at the waterline. The rigging is set up as per classic yachts where sails are hoisted by hand but there is also the modern addition of winches that allow her to be sailed short-handed. We hope to see her under sail in the Bay of Palma before she heads off to a regatta in St Tropez.
We arrived home to find that our new guests, Chloe and Andrew Wilkinson (from Australia) had arrived by ferry from Ibiza. It's wonderful for friend's children to be able to visit us on the boat. We haven't seen Chloe for about 20 years so it's great to see her again, even if it's only for 2 days.
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