RECIPE Gazpacho

Epicurean Exploits - Food and Recipes
1

It is such hot in Berlin like I would live in Spain. I need some cold soup…

Here comes the all-time classic GAZPACHO

Recipe: http://www.berlinkitchen.com/berlinkitchen/BerlinKitchen/Entries/2007/7/20_Gazpacho.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Slideshow: http://www.berlinkitchen.com/berlinkitchen/Slideshow_Gazpacho.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;


Simple&Subtle that is my motto for recipes

Martin

2

It’s going up into the 90s here in Oregon today and gazpacho sounds wonderful. Thanks for posting!

3

Melissa,

here in Berlin is like Manila…such sticky.

All the best,
Martin

4

Terrific! You didn’t waste any time posting recipes in Epicurean Exploits, Martin. I love Gazpacho and will check out your recipe now. Thanks!!

Oh, and the slideshows are very helpful…

5

To get a little pedantic about it – some people work up the etymology of “gazpacho” as meaning “soaked bread”, from an Arabic term. It seems to be native to Andalusia. If that etymology is true, then it would perhaps be parallel to the italian “Zuppa” which relates etymology to our word “SOP” as in, let’s use some bread to sop up the juices. Martin uses “2 slices of white bread” in his recipe.

Other people, interestingly, relate gazpacho to the Indian term “ganja” which has gone on to have a rather different meaning today.

Worth a look:


http://www.languagehat.com/archives/002837.php

6

Can’t wait for the garden to produce ripe tomatoes.

7

This was Juan’s mother’s recipe for gazpacho (I copied it from my website). She would take the butt end of the cucumber and stick it on her forehead, told me it kept her cool in the hot South of Spain.

VELETA Gazpacho Andaluz
Ingredients

6-8 ripe tomatoes
1/3 - 1/2 onion
1/2 green pepper
1/2 - 3/4 cucumber
1 - 2 cloves of garlic
1 1/2 TBS coarse salt
1 tsp. sugar
1/3 - 1/2 cup VELETA Premium Sherry Vinegar
1/3 - 1/2 cup VELETA Extra Virgin Olive Oil
1 - 2 cups cold water with ice cubes

Garnish side items of finely diced onion, pepper, cucumber, tomato, hard boiled egg, jamon serrano, and croutons.
Preparation

Cut tomato, onion, pepper, cucumber and garlic in pieces place in large bowl together, toss.

Combine oil, vinegar, salt, and sugar in large measuring cup and stir.

Place some of the vegetables in blender and add a small amount of vinegar and oil mixture. Blend well. Pour into bowl

After all of the vegetables are well blended, strain through a food-mill. Rinse the remaining vegetables through the strainer with some of the cold water.

Serve well chilled in bowls.

Offer garnish!

Another variation calls for bread (de-crusted and soaked in cold water), added while pureeing vegetables, but I find this recipe much tastier and less heavy.

Now if you really want a variety of tasty cold Spanish soups, I would also recommend
Salmorejo
Ajo Blanco con Uvas
Gazpacho Blanco

8

Nola, do you have recipes for any of those other three soups you mention? The garnishes sound excellent, especially the jamon. I love having some texture in the gazpacho.

9

Love me some gazpacho.
Loren is right - got to have ripe tomatoes out of the garden.
I have added ground Marcona almonds to gazpacho for some extra richness and depth.
Almonds are used in an ajo blanco gazpacho and I thought it might be interesting to have them cross over into the tomato based version.
If you have never had ajo blanco, I recommend giving it a try.

My recipe for ajo blanco
1 cup Marcona almonds (blanched - no skins);
4 slices bread, crusts cut off, cut in cubes and briefly soaked in water;
4 garlic cloves, heated gently in 2 tablespoons of olive oil (don’t let it brown - you heat it just to cook out the raw element);
1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil;
2 1/2 cups cold water;
2 tablespoons sherry vinegar;
Salt;
white pepper;
seedless green grapes cut in half for garnish.

Combine almonds, garlic and bread in food processor. With motor on, slowly add olive oil until it forms a paste. Add cold water until it gets to a good soupy consistency. Add vinegar.
Salt and ground white pepper to taste.
Garnish with seedless grapes cut in half.
You may also add some pimenton (sweet) (Spanish paprika) for color and some spice.

10

Nola - you beat me to it.
Ajo Blanco is great.
Looking for a perfect wine match. I think it calls for an Albarino.
What say you?

11

Salmorrejo Cordobes (aka Salmorejo)

Ingredients:

Ripe tomatoes 4-5 (depending on size)
1 bar of day (or 2) old bread
garlic cloves
1 cup of Extra Virgin Olive Oil
1 ½ Tbsp course salt
1 tsp sugar
½ cup of Sherry Vinegar

Preparation

Soak the bread whole or halved in water for about 30 minutes (depending on how old the bread is). DO NOT use fresh bread – it is too soft. When bread has absorbed all the water it can, squeeze out excess water and break into smaller pieces. Cut tomatoes into chunks and add to the same bowl as the bread. Dice garlic. Combine EVOO, Vinegar salt sugar and garlic to a large measuring cup. In blender combine tomato and bread and pour over the liquid mixture (not all). Do this in “batches” tomato/bread some of the liquid). Hint: I use a large measuring cup with a spoon and stir as I am pouring our the tomato mixture so the garlic, salt /sugar and EVOO & Vinegar all get blended in well. Blend well, remove to food-mill (with fine screen) pass through food-mill to a bowl. Continue blending and passing to food mill until all mixed. The consistency of Salmorrejo is thicker than Gazpacho, it should not be heavy because the EVOO and bread blended makes it almost fluffy.

Serve well chilled. Garnish with diced hard boiled eggs and Jamon Serrano.

One of the best Salmorrejo’s I had was last summer when Juan made it and added dill. Exquisite!

I do not remove the seeds or peel the tomatoes; the food-mill takes care of all that work.

12

Your recipe for Ajo Blanco is very similar to mine except

  • I’ve never cooked the garlic first, part of the beauty of this dish is the raw garlic.
  • Almonds - we have marconas on the farm so they are readily available. Here in the US raw marconas are harder to come by so any large flat blanched (just enough to get the peel skin skin) cali almonds will also work.
  • I have never seen a “food processor” in Spain - at least in the South where we are located. We would put the garlic and the almond in a mortar and grind them up with the salt, then I add them to the blender with the oil, vinegar and water.
    and lastly, the food-mill. That is an essential tool in an Andalucian kitchen, you can remove any unblended bits and end up with a smooth uniform soup.

As far as wine; yes, definitely an Albarino or a dry Granada based Vijiriega with good acidity also pairs well.

13

Gazpacho Blanco de Pepino

Ingredients
2 Cucumbers (small without big seeds - peeled)
4-5 cups Cold Water
3-4 Tbsp Extra Virgin Olive Oil
2-3 Tbsp Sherry Vinegar
1- 1 ½ tsp Course Salt

Cut cucumbers into tiny pieces. Sprinkle salt over the cucumber, toss. Then sprinkle the vinegar, toss. Then the EVOO, toss. Cover and place in frig for about an hour. Add the cold water, stir so all is well blended and serve. You can add more vinegar / salt to taste.

You can add diced onions as another ingredient or I have heard about diced apples as well. Serve garnished with croutons (or not).

This is a typical Alpujarreño villager dish, don’t think you’ll find it on the internet published anywhere.

When it is as hot as it gets in the South of Spain (and most village houses do not have AC, no one feels like cooking or eating heavy, this is a great alternative.

14

Ah yes, the mortar and pestle. Better than any food processor.
That is the essence of cooking - the labour of love.
I will say that the food processor, if not carefully watched, can turn the almonds into mush. The soup really needs the texture.
I only heat the garlic to remove the raw element that seems to get stronger over time - almost as if it were fermetning. Still lots of good garlic flavour.