Almond Gazpacho, Weekend in a French Kitchen

Gazpacho.  One of my favorite summer soups.  That and vichyssoise.  I'm one who could pretty much live on soup.  My mouth is watering as I'm typing this so please pardon me while I run fix myself a bowl of gazpacho for breakfast...   Ahhh, now that was good.  I always make my gazpacho by taking two-thirds of the veggies and pulsing them in the food processor with just a little bit of beef base.  Those get mixed with tomato juice, Clamato or V8 depending on my mood - and my pantry.  Then, I add in a bit of Tabasco and some extra virgin olive oil.  The other third is very finely diced and put into a separate storage container.  When I serve the gazpacho, I ladle some of the soup into a bowl, top it with a big handful of the diced veggies and drizzle some extra virgin olive oil over the top.  One of our guests at a dinner party this past week declared it the best gazpacho he'd ever had.  The original recipe came from a cookbook called Indianapolis Cooks and Collects.

Here's what it looks like: 

Needless to say, I was entranced when I saw almond gazpacho on the Weekend in a French Kitchen recipe schedule.  Really?  Almond?  As I'm typing this, I'm recalling that one of the articles (yet to be fully read) in a New York Times recipe email is about the best gazpacho. 

"It is not the watered-down salsa or grainy sludge often served here under the name of gazpacho, but an emulsion of fat (olive oil) in liquid (vegetable juice and vinegar) that is light and fluffy on the tongue and a fantastic conductor of flavor, just like vinaigrette or hollandaise." 

Obviously, given my comments in the first paragraph I prefer the chunky gazpacho to the smooth.  So, when I read the instructions and found the first step to be soaking crustless white bread in water I cringed a bit.  Once the bread is soaked and drained and squeezed dry, it's put into the food processor with almonds, grapes, cucumber and garlic.  Then, ice water, olive oil, vinegar, salt and pepper are added.  The soup is put through a fine sieve and refrigerated until chilled.  It's topped with reserved almonds and garlic slices that have been crisped in some olive oil.  Then, it gets a drizzle of olive oil and a sprinkle of piment d'Espelette. 

Once I got over the fact that this was not going to be anything at all like the gazpacho I love, I decided this was pretty darned good.  It's not something that I'll make with any regularity but is a lovely recipe for a starter for a dinner party.  Or a luncheon with a bowl of this and some great sandwiches. 



Here's the ingredient list for the gazpacho I make:

Indianapolis Collects and Cooks Gazpacho
6 c tomato juice
2 T olive oil
2-3 T lemon juice
1 c beef broth
1/2 c finely minced onion
3 tomatoes, finely minced
2 c finely minced celery
1/2 green pepper, finely minced
2 cucumbers, seeded and finely minced
1 t salt
1/4 t pepper
dash of tabasco

Salmorejo

Blizzard!  That means we stayed home the day after Christmas.  Fortunately, I packed a big briefcase of work and kept plenty busy.  Late afternoon it finally quit snowing so Connie and the snowblower tackled the driveway.  I kept plugging away at one of my projects.  About 6pm I finally got around to thinking about dinner.  It was supposed to be one of those evenings that I made something complicated.  The plan was to get home from the office at 5:30 and dig in.   So much for that plan. 

On the way back from our Columbus, OH visit, I read a Saveur listing 101 iconic dishes.  It started wtih a Spanish tomato soup called Salmorejo.  I love tomato soup.  Whether it's plain cream of tomato or chunky tomato basil or gazpacho, I love the stuff.  This was a recipe I wanted to try. 

I'm not sure what time the blizzard actually started but it was well under way when I got my lazy self out of bed about 7:30 in the morning.  To make the Salmorejo I needed a baguette.  And, there was leftover corned beef that was begging to be made into corned beef hash.  (You'll have to check back for that recipe.)  But, I had no potatoes.  What I did have was everything to make the pumpkin goat cheese pasta I'd planned for dinner.  To battle the elements or not?  The grocery is half a mile away. 

Tomato soup and corned beef hash won.  Thank goodness because both were fabulous.  This is probably unlike any tomato soup you've ever had.  In some ways it's like gazpacho because of the sherry vinegar and the olive oil.  In other ways it's like a pureed panzanella salad because of the bread.  Then, you put the chopped hard-cooked eggs and pancetta on top and those take it way over the top!

While I was cooking and working Wee Mac was checking out the activity outside then snoozing my the register in the bookcase:

The end result was that this was dinner.  The pasta never got made that evening.  Actually, what happened with the pasta is a great story - for another day...


Salmorejo
Chilled Spanish Tomato Soup

Ingredients:

2 t kosher salt (the recipe called for 3 TABLESPOONS - no way I was putting that much salt in!)
28 oz can diced tomatoes plus the juice (the recipe called for 8 cored, halved and seeded roma tomatoes - which would be great if they weren't selling rock flavored tomatoes at the grocery)
1 clove garlic, crushed
1/2 small yellow onion, finely minced
1/2 baguette (the recipe called for 10 oz, I winged it and used half of a good-sized baguette,) torn into pieces
2 T sherry vinegar
1 c extra virgin olive oil
3 hard boiiled eggs, chopped
8 oz diced pancetta, browned and drained

Directions:

As you can see from the ingredient list, I took a number of liberties with the recipe.  That's nothing new.  I'm not one who believes in making it as is the first time.  For one thing, sometimes I have to substitute ingrediens (the pancetta was supposed to be ham or prosciutto) or I think an ingredient might be a big bully (the salt.)  At any rate, this is so easy to put together. 

You start by putting the salt, tomatoes and juice, garlic, onion and baguette in a heat proof bowl. 

Heat a pot of water to boiling.  Pour a cup of the boiling water over the mixture.  Allow it to stand at room temperature for an hour.  Put everything in the bowl of a food processor.  Add the vinegar.  Puree until it's smooth then gradually pour in the olive oil.  Use extra virgin olive oil as it's an important flavor in the soup.  Don't wimp out and either use too little (the bread flavor will win) or use regular olive oil (blah.)  Chill and serve topped with chopped hard cooked eggs and pancetta and a good drizzle of extra virgin olive oil.

adapted from Saveur