Bee-you-tiful tomatoes

Photo: Lori Korleski Richardson

This tomato plant came to me as an Indigo Apple. Since it doesn't seem very blue to me, I think it might have been mislabeled. But it produced lovely, rich fruit and a lot of it.

In today's Sacramento Bee, you'll find a lot of good recipes by chef/gardener/writers. Here's mine:

LORI K’S GARDEN GAZPACHO

Prep time: About 15 minutes

Serves 3 or 4

Note: I like seeds and skins. Add more prep time, and some tomato juice, if you want to remove both.

2 pounds ripe tomatoes, roughly chopped

1 medium red bell pepper, roughly chopped

1 large, young lemon cucumber, roughly chopped

½ red onion, roughly chopped

1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil

Two ½-inch slices french bread or 1 slice ciabatta, torn up

A few basil leaves and/or parsley

1 small fresh jalapeño, seeded and roughly chopped

2 garlic cloves, peeled and smashed

Salt and black pepper

1 avocado, quartered and thinly sliced into fans (optional)

1 tablespoon sherry (optional)

Put the tomatoes, bell pepper, cucumber, onion, olive oil, bread, parsley and/or basil, jalapeño and garlic in a blender; season with salt and pepper. Process until smooth, adding up to ½ cup water if necessary.

Taste and adjust the seasoning. Refrigerate for up to a few hours before serving or serve immediately. Float the sherry on top and/or garnish with avocado fans, if desired.

Read the rest at http://www.sacbee.com/food-drink/recipes/article95808407.html Enjoy!

Read more here: http://www.sacbee.com/food-drink/recipes/article95808407.html#storylink=cpy

Squashed tacos that are anything but flat

Remember the time that you "lost" a zucchini while picking the others, and the next time you harvested, it was big as a kiddie baseball bat? And you GREW it, so you wanted to do something with it? I mean, besides throw it in the compost heap? You probably stuffed it with sausage and baked it, right? How did that turn out for you?

Well, I didn't have zucchini that big, but I did have three squash of different persuasions that I needed to fix before going out of town. And I had chorizo. And a red onion. And tortillas.

Tacos!

And they were fantastically delicious. When people talk about using meat as a condiment, I think of sausage in general. It's too greasy to use on its own, yet it's well-spiced and flavorful in many kinds of dishes.

By pairing it with a fairly bland vegetable, such as squash, you get the pow of the sausage and a lot of nutrition as well.

Lori K's Chorizo Tacos
Serves 4

Ingredients
½ pound chorizo (see note below)
3-4 squash (zucchini, patty pan, yellow ... any summer squash)
¼ red onion
Salt to taste
8-12 corn tortillas
Cilantro leaves
Lettuce, sliced
Guacamole (optional)
Tomatoes, diced (optional)

Instructions
Put the chorizo in a cold cast-iron skillet and turn burner to low. As you wait for it to start frying, gather your condiments and cut your squash in a rough dice. Small dice the onion.

Put the tortillas in a towel or warmer and set them in the microwave.

Chop up the sausage as it fries. When you flip it, add the squash. Cook until the squash is tender but not mushy, about 8-10 minutes. Salt if you think it's needed.

Add the onion and heat the tortillas in the microwave for about a minute. One by one, fill the soft tortillas with the drained mixture, add cilantro, lettuce, guacamole and tomatoes, and enjoy.

Note: Be sure to use the raw Mexican sausage in this dish. The one I used for this dish came from The Rock Barn, via Relay Foods. The Spanish version is not spicy enough and more vinegary. For vegetarians, there are very good vegan chorizos available. I often use them because they are much less greasy and still have the punch and flavor of the meaty kind.

Farm-to-fork ideas - and a little plea

Fresh tomatoes are ripe in late summer and early fall. Photographs by Lori Korleski Richardson.

A former Sacramento Bee co-worker, Chris Macias, has a nice long piece in today's Bee discussing ways to improve the Farm-to-Fork Festival that drew more than 25,000 to the event in late September. (For those into planning ahead, a wine component of the event is tentatively set for Sept. 18, and the festival and gala dinner for Sept 27 and 28, respectively.)

Fresh basil is available at the same
time as tomatoes.

The ideas and suggestions are good, but as far as farm-to-fork goes, I'd be happy if every restaurant would take a pledge not to use the same hothouse or picked green for shipping then force "ripened" tomatoes (the only ones available for 9 months out of the year) during the duration of tomato season. Not every restaurant can make it using all local produce, but just using the tomatoes that one's area is known for during the short window they are available would be a start.

And consumers, stop ordering salads that have tomatoes on them in out-of-season months. If there's no demand, you will find out what raw tomatoes really taste like and enjoy them fresh only in season - and restaurants can move on to making salads featuring other tasty, in-season ingredients.

Best summer salad ever - insalata caprese

Photograph © 2013 Lori Korleski Richardson

One salad defines summer, and that's the Italian insalata caprese (salad in the style of Capri).

Simply, it's a ball of buffalo mozzarella, sliced thinly; fresh, very ripe tomatoes, also sliced thinly; fresh basil leaves, cut horizontally into tiny ribbons; salt, pepper, balsamic vinegar and olive oil to taste.

Some notes and variations that I have tried this summer and enjoyed:

• Many cooks don't have the technique needed to thinly slice a whole ripe tomato, especially a large heirloom, and don't even think of slicing a tomato without sharpening your knife first. To make it easier on yourself, core the top stem area, cut the tomato in half, put the cut sides down, then slice. This makes cutting up the mozzarella easier, too.
• Replace the salt with finely ground sel gris or other gray sea salt, or smoked salt crystals.
• Buffalo mozzarella too dear? Skip the commercial varieties (too bland and bad texture) and try some goat cheese, provolone, or even a triple cream that's somewhat on the firm side (Cowgirl Creamery on the West Coast and Caromont on the East have good ones). 
• A mixture of colored tomatoes are great for a party platter.
• Don't like vinegar? Don't want the extra calories of olive oil? Allergic to pepper? Can't tolerate salt? Fine. As long as the tomato is fresh and ripe, it can stand on its own.

As my husband can tell you, I'm rather harsh in my judgment of tomatoes, grilling waitstaff on whether the tomatoes in the salad are ripe (I do this only in season; out of season, I don't bother ordering salads with tomatoes in them) and sending the salad back if they aren't. I know why a restaurant may have food-service tomatoes even in August and September, but I don't have to pay for their lack of awareness or bad business practices.

Parsing parsley into a light lunch

Shopping online with Relay Foods is a mostly good experience, but every now and then, I get something that I didn't expect. This week, for instance, I ordered tabbouleh, which is usually predominately bulgar (cracked) wheat. But Asmar's Tabbouleh is mostly parsley. I like parsley, but as an ingredient, not the main portion of the salad.

So what to do with 8 ounces of mostly parsley? I could see using some of it in a salad dressing or marinade. But when my lunch date canceled out on me and I was out of cold cuts, I decided on a bit of pasta for lunch. And you know what? The parsley came in very handy.

Quick Orzo Lunch
Serves 1

Ingredients
Salt
1/3 cup uncooked orzo or other small pasta
8 cherry tomatoes
2 tablespoons Asmar's Tabbouleh (or chop together 2 tablespoons parsley and 1 green onion with a little lemon juice and olive oil and a couple of mint leaves)
1 ounce goat cheese

Instructions
Fill a deep saucepan half full of water. Add salt. Bring to a boil. Add orzo and cook until it turns white. Drain, reserving a tablespoon of water.
While the orzo is cooking, smash the cherry tomatoes gently in a microwave-safe bowl. Cook for 1-2 minutes until very hot. Put the parsley mixture and goat cheese in a mixing bowl.
Immediately after draining, put the cooked orzo in the bowl with the parsley mixture and goat cheese. Add the tomatoes and toss until well mixed. Eat while hot.

Hot breakfast to go

Sunday mornings are, shall we say, a little rushed in our household. When we just can't face a bowl of cereal, here's one option that's almost as fast.

Egg Tacos
Serves 2
From the files of Lori Korleski Richardson
Ingredients
2 corn tortillas
2 tablespoons crumbled bacon
2 ounces shredded cheese
Spray olive oil
2 eggs
Salt and pepper to taste
Hot sauce (optional)

Instructions
Heat oven to 350 degrees. Put a cast-iron skillet on the stove and heat on medium low.

Put the tortillas on a cookie sheet. Spread a tablespoon of crumbled bacon and an ounce of shredded cheese on each one. Put the cookie sheet in the oven.

Spray the skillet with olive oil. Crack the eggs into the skillet; after about a minute, break the membrane on the white (where it humps up) and the yolk. Season with salt and pepper. (I like sea salt and freshly ground pepper.) When nearly firm, turn and take off the heat.

The cheese should be melted on the tortillas. Remove from oven, place an egg on each one, add hot sauce if desired.

 The eggs are also good on toast; you can toast the bread in a toaster, put it on a paper towel on a plate, sprinkle on the bacon and cheese, and microwave it just until the cheese melts. Put the egg in between.

Variations
Cooked onions and mushrooms
Fried tomatoes or chopped sun-dried tomatoes
Avocado or guacamole
Diced canned Ortega peppers

Thigh high

What are you looking at? My thighs?

Boneless, skinless chicken thighs are among the fastest cooking meats. True, they aren't as pretty as the breast, but they pack a small wallop of flavor that the whiter meat can't beat.

Chicken thighs with penne pasta and stewed tomatoes
Serves 2

Ingredients

1 can (15 ounce) stewed tomatoes

2 boneless skinless chicken thighs

1/4 cup Newman's Own Light Lime dressing
4 ounces dry penne pasta
1 tablespoon olive oil

1/2 chopped onion

Grated Parmesan to taste

Instructions

Put the stewed tomatoes in a small saucepan and heat on low. Pound the thighs until they are an even thickness. Marinate with the lime dressing. Bring a pot of salted water to boil.  Add pasta. Meanwhile,  heat the olive oil in a skillet big enough for the 2 thighs. When medium hot, add the thighs. Cook the chicken about 8 minutes, then turn. Add the onions and cook for about 2 minutes, then add the rest of the marinade and cook for 5 more minutes. After the pasta has cooked for 12 minutes or until al dente, drain and toss with a little olive oil and Parmesan. Drain the excess liquid from the tomatoes and serve the tomatoes, pasta and hot thighs and onions immediately. Grate extra Parmesan on the tomatoes to taste.

An easy bread salad

Also known as panzanella

Although I make this salad by feel, it does require a few things that cannot be substituted: Homegrown tomatoes (or ripe ones from a farmer who's not shipping them somewhere), high-quality extra-virgin olive oil and stale artisan bread. If your tomatoes are really juicy and your bread is sufficiently stale but not hard, you can just cut the bread in cubes and skip the soak.

Lori K's easy bread salad
Serves 6

Ingredients
1 large day-old baguette or equivalent stale artisan bread
2 large ripe tomatoes, cubed (one red, one yellow adds color)
2 tablespoons capers, drained
Sliced kalamata olives to taste
4 tablespoons olive oil
2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
6 basil leaves, ribboned
handful of arugula if you have it
Sea salt and peppercorns, freshly ground

Instructions
Soak the bread in hot water until softened but not soggy. Squeeze out the water. Put in a big bowl. Toss in everything else, adjusting oil, vinegar, salt and pepper to taste. Chill and serve.
Vary the flavor by soaking the bread in broth, adding peperoncini slices for a kick, a little rosemary or replacing the vinegar with lemon juice.

Chili? Or just a tasty vegetable stew?

If you've never been to Terlingua, Texas, on the first weekend of November, you don't really know what chili is. Yes, you can buy (click on the book cover above) a copy of "A Bowl of Red," Frank X. Tolbert's bible on the legendary stew, and follow the directions, but to taste, all in one place, the chilies that have been judged the best of their respective communities, and to immerse yourself in the culture of the pod, is an experience not to be missed.

Started in 1967, the cookoff features a number of different chilies, but to be a Texas chili, the mixture must:

• Not contain beans
• Not contain anything that doesn't turn red or brown after four-plus hours of cooking.

I love a good bowl of red. But I don't eat that much red meat anymore, and when I do indulge in grass-fed beef from a local farmer, I prefer a nice steak.

So my chili these days is one that will have my Texas friends rolling their eyes. Just taste it, though, before passing judgment. It may not be what you call chili, but you'll have to admit it's a tasty vegetable stew (which is what Frank X. Tolbert reportedly called Dave Chassen's famed Beverly Hills chili, which  contained beans).

Vegetable Chili
Serves 8

Ingredients
1 medium eggplant
1 tablespoon kosher salt
1/2 cup olive oil
2 onions, chopped
6 cloves minced garlic
1 large red pepper, diced or one large jar diced pimientos
1 28-ounce can crushed tomatoes
1 28-ounce can diced tomatoes, drained, but reserve the liquid
1 15-ounce can garbanzo beans, drained and rinsed
1 15-ounce can pinto beans, drained and rinsed
2 tablespoons chili powder
1 tablespoon cumin
1 tablespoon oregano
1 tablespoon basil
1 teaspoon pepper
Salt to taste
1/2 bunch of chopped parsley
2 tablespoons chopped fresh dill
Juice of 1/2 lemon

Instructions
Cut eggplant into cubes and sprinkle with salt. After an hour, pat dry. Sauté in 1/4 cup of the olive oil until almost tender and set aside. Add remaining oil and sauté onions and garlic until softened. Add to eggplant. Put on low heat and add all but the last four ingredients. If cooking on the stove, leave uncovered and stir frequently for 30 minutes, then add the last four ingredients and cook for another 15 minutes. If using a crockpot, cover and cook for at least an hour; add the last four ingredients 15 minutes before serving.
Serve over brown rice. Offer shredded cheddar cheese, tiny-diced fresh jalapeños or hot sauce and sliced scallions as toppings, and serve with corn chips or cornbread.

Note: If eggplant is out of season, use a large can of black olives, chopped, and obit the kosher salt.

Pizza at the Crossroads

Photo from doctorhos humblepie.com

If you're ever south of Charlottesville on Highway 29, don't pass up that brightly white-lit shopping center at the corner of 29 and Plank Road in North Garden. Off at the end of the 29 North side you'll find Dr. Ho's Humble Pie. It's just about as humble as the rock group of the same name.

It's a pizzeria, yes, but has a full service menu and bar. One inside, you'll forget you are in a shopping center, with its walls of wood covered in posters, photos, Grateful Dead memorabilia, bumper stickers and you-name-it. The waitstaff are all heavily tattooed - at least all the women that were working there last night were. OK, let's not mince words: It looks like a dive.

But the food is definitely upscale. The soup of the day was leek, and the pizza special, which we ordered, came with roasted tomatoes, shaved country ham and fresh mozzarella on a delicious rustic crust, topped with a huge mound of baby arugula and big squares of Parmesan. The large size was more than enough to feed three hungry skiers and a friend, and we were so full that we couldn't possibly squeeze in one of the very enticing desserts listed on the chalkboard. The restaurant says it uses mostly ingredients from local providers and food artisans.

We'll be back!

Want to waste not? Tips to use leftovers

Making a great pot of chili last night, my thoughts wandered to recipe cooking vs. instinctual cooking. Most everyone, who has basic cooking skills and instructions that make sense, can cook from a recipe and have a dish that turns out well. (Of course, everyone who conveys a recipe hopes the instructions make sense, but you'd be surprised at how many don't, even ones that make it into a cookbook.) But the instinctual cook uses his or her senses on how a dish should be and goes on to make it unique. The advantage to this method is that one can use what is at hand, the freshest produce and most inexpensive meats, even bits and pieces of previous dinners, commonly derided as "leftovers."

The dishes that lend themselves most easily to this are melanges, and almost every cuisine has one or two of them. My standbys are chili, jambalaya, gumbo, spaghetti, curry and soups (five options can get most anyone through a week; if you have others, please let me know).

For the chili, I started with a pound of ground turkey and a tablespoon of olive oil. Turkey is bland, but much like tofu, it picks up the flavors around it. I season it as it's cooking with garlic, onions, cumin and oregano. And of course, chili.

I prefer straight chili. Prepared chili powder is OK, but it's a combination of chilies, cumin, oregano, salt and sometimes other spices, and you don't know how old the other spices are that go into it, since the smell of chili overwhelms the others. I use ancho powder if I'm in a hurry; otherwise, I like to use dried whole chilies (a combination depending on how hot I want it) stemmed and seeded, soaked in a little boiled water for 45 minutes, then puréed.

If I'm preparing a bowl of red, I add a can of beer and stop right there. But turkey doesn't hold up nearly as well as beef for that. So my turkey chili is what the sainted Frank X. Tolbert would refer to as "a rather tasty vegetable stew." (Those were the fighting words that led to the first chili cookoff, which gave birth to a cultural phenomenon that will continue this year in Terlingua, TX, Nov. 5-7.)

I added a 28-ounce can of diced tomatoes, then found in the refrigerator the following: 1 eggplant, which I had sliced and salted in preparation to sauté, but had a change of plans; 1 1/2 yellow bell peppers, which had been charred and the skins removed; a lonely carrot; a half cup of refried black beans. I rinsed the eggplant slices, trimmed the skins off them, then chopped them and the peppers coarsely before adding them and the beans to the pot. I peeled the carrot and shredded it into the pot. Then everything cooked for about three hours. The texture, no doubt thanks to the refried beans, was just right; usually if the chili is a little soupy at the end, I add a little masa harina to thicken the stew.

One taste and you, too, would know why it drives me crazy when people say they'd rather eat fast food than leftovers.

Now, no discussion on chili would be complete without a little travelogue on Texas, so here's one on Big Bend National Park, which will give you a little taste of Terlingua country.

Vegetable and fruit tips

• Never put tomatoes in the fridge. It changes their cell structure and causes them to get mealy. (This is one reason that tomatoes picked green and shipped cold don't ever taste as good as garden tomatoes.) And if you are having a hard time slicing them, sharpen your knife. (Tip from the class: Serrated knives work well, too.)
• Many vegetables, including corn on the cob, are best cooked in the microwave. You can put two ears in, unshucked, cook for 3 minutes, shuck and remove silk easily, then finish on the grill. Brush with butter or oil with your favorite seasonings before serving.
• To keep cauliflower white while cooking, add a little milk to the water.
• For truly clean leeks, chop them first, then give them a bath in cold water and drain in a colander.
• If you need only 1/2 an onion, save the root half. It will last longer.
• When tossing a salad with a basic vinaigrette, always make the vinaigrette at least 1/2 hour ahead of time and let the mixture sit to allow the flavors to marry. Pour the vinaigrette on the chopped additions to the greens -- tomatoes, cucumbers, radishes, carrots, sunflower seeds, sprouts, etc. -- not directly on the greens, and toss, for a more evenly dressed salad. If you want to plate a salad ahead of time, don't use a vinaigrette. Sprinkle chilled, crisp greens with sea salt, pepper, herbs and a a little fine extra-virgin olive oil, and toss to coat. The salad won't wilt.
• If you do have to use a plastic bag to store greens, wash and wrap them in dry paper towels. They will keep longer.
• Romaine and leaf lettuces are loaded with vitamins compared to iceberg. They have has three times as much Vitamin C and six times as much Vitamin A.
• When buying cabbage, look for heads that appear heavier than their size with crisp leaves.
• Buy mushrooms before they "open." When stems and caps are attached snugly, mushrooms are truly fresh.
• When picking a melon, smell it for freshness and ripeness. Check to see that the fruit is heavy for its size and that the spot on the end where it has been plucked from the vine is soft.

My love is like a red, red tomato

I love tomatoes. I love tomatoes so much that I try not to eat fresh ones out of season because the ones that are picked green for shipping don't taste much like tomatoes even when they do turn red.

Most years I grow a variety of tomatoes, with varying degrees of success.

I hesitated to plant tomatoes this year for two reasons: deer around our new home, and multiple summer vacations. But next year, I plan to try a tomato or two using the upside down method, maybe even making the hangers myself. I found this "how-to" on the Atlanta Journal-Constitution's site, AJC.com.

Make your own upside-down tomato system

Materials

A bucket with a securely fitting lid and handle, at least 5 gallons;

metal chain, 4 to 5 feet long

2 coffee filters or two 5-inch-square fabric swatches

Metal loop or strong wire

Potting soil

Slow-release fertilizer

Hybrid tomato seedlings, preferably a cherry or other small variety

Method

1. Cut or drill 2-inch holes in the center of the lid and bucket bottom.

2. Cover the hole in the bucket bottom with a coffee filter or fabric swatch.

3. Fill bucket with lightweight potting soil.

4. Lay coffee filter or fabric swatch over the soil, aligning its placement with the hole in the lid.

5. Secure the lid and turn the bucket upside down.

6. Cut a slit through the coffee filter or fabric

7. Remove lower leaves from seedling and plant deeply.

8. Place the bucket in a sunny location, keeping it well watered and fed with slow-release fertilizer.

9. When the plant is 1 foot tall, run a chain through the bucket handle.

10. Hook both ends of the chain to a metal loop or heavy wire.

11. Suspend upside down from a well-anchored plant stand.

Jewels in a jar

Some copy editor has been waiting nearly a year to use the headline on today's Washington Post food section about canning: Yes, We Can.

It's a section worth perusing, if not keeping. The three stories about canning come from three perspectives: The man who learned to can jam from his Italian grandmother, the urban couple who take advantage of their CSA's U-Pick days and can massive amounts of tomatoes in their tiny Adams Morgan kitchen, and the thoroughly modern Mormon who cans basic dry foods to keep a supply on hand that can tide one over for months on end during hard times.

The recipes, however, did not make me want to jump up and purchase $60 worth of canning jars and a pressure cooker: beet-rhubarb jam, apricot-rosemary jam, preserved zucchini, tomatillo sauce. Maybe the apricot. Definitely not the zucchini; there's something about the canning process that puts a slime factor on the otherwise tasty squash. And I doubt the tomatillo sauce could outshine the Herdez version, which is already in a can.

Casting aspersions on aspic

In one of my many cookbook reviews, I made a snide reference to the old-fashioness of tomato aspic and who eats it anymore, anyway? I quickly found out, by its many defenders. I did have a bite last night, fed to me by my husband, who almost made me laugh too hard to swallow by his insistence of putting the emphasis on the second syllable. 

Photograph by Lori Korleski Richardson

The Rev. Jim Richardson feeds John Kater's tomato aspic to Meredith Brown.

Tomato aspic

Serves party of 12 (easily)

1¾ cups tomato juice, divided
1 tablespoon minced onion
2 teaspoons celery salt
dash Worcestershire
dash Tabasco (if you like it hot)
1 box lemon Jello
¼ cup vinegar

Directions
Bring 1 cup juice, onion, celery salt, Worcestershire and Tabasco (if using) to boil. Add Jello and stir until dissolved. Add remaining juice and vinegar. Pour into mold and chill.

Souper celebration

St. Paul's Memorial Church's first Guadalupe Day service and dinner to raise money for PACEM was enjoyed by about 50 people on Dec. 12, 2008. Here, as promised to those who asked, is the recipe I used for the tortilla soup. Meredith Frazee (who turns 7 today) made the quesadillas to go with them; and many, many thanks to Pam Dennison who made the delicious flan. Many thanks, too, to the many hands who made the work light, especially Jane Rotch who chopped the onions, and Lisa Inlow and Jim Richardson who diced the jalapeños. And gratitude beyond measure to the cleanup crew, spearheaded by Simeon Fitch.

Tortilla soup
Prep time: 15 minutes / Cook time: 1 hour / Serves: 6

I adapted this recipe from the soup served at The Mansion on Turtle Creek in Dallas. -- Lori Korleski Richardson

Ingredients:
2 tablespoons olive oil
4 garlic cloves, peeled and crushed
2 cups diced onions
1 15-ounce can tomato puree
1 15-ounce can small dice tomatoes
1 large can Ortega diced chilies
1 tablespoon ground cumin
1 tablespoon epazote (optional)
1 teaspoon coriander seeds
1 large bay leaf
1½ quarts chicken stock
½ cup frozen corn
½ cup frozen peas
4 tortillas chips, crunched up
Garnish
Fresh lemon wedges
2 tablespoons chopped cilantro (or 1 tablespoon epazote)
2 fresh jalapeno chilies, chopped
1 cooked, whole skinless, boneless chicken breast, seasoned with cumin and salt, cut into thin strips
1 large ripe avocado, peeled, seeded and cut into small cubes
1½ cups shredded cheddar cheese

Instructions:
Heat the oil in a large saucepan over medium heat. Add the garlic and saute until golden brown, about 5 minutes. Add the onions and cook 5 minutes. Add the tomato puree, tomatoes, chilies, cumin, epazote (if using), coriander, bay leaf and stock. Bring to a boil. Add corn and peas. Lower heat and simmer for 40 minutes. Prepare garnishes while soup is cooking.

Process soup through a food mill if desired. Season soup to taste. Ladle over tortilla chips into warm bowls and garnish as desired, with fresh squeezed lemon and the other garnishes. Serve immediately.