The summer arrives to Vancouver and this is a great spanish traditional recipe for these hot and sunny days. The Gazpacho andaluz.
Gazpacho is a cold Spanish tomato-based raw vegetable soup, originating in the southern region of Andalusia. Gazpacho is widely consumed throughout Spain, neighboring Portugal (where it is known as gaspacho) and parts of Latin America. Gazpacho is mostly consumed during the summer months, due to its cold temperature and acidic bite.It is a refreshing and energy drink/soup for the hot days. Gazpacho recipes can vary greatly in terms of ingredient composition, texture and viscosity. This usually depends on the geographical location as well as family traditions, but this recipe is the most popular one.
THE HISTORY:
Gazpacho has ancient roots. There are a number of theories of its origin, including as an Arab soup of bread, olive oil, water and garlic that arrived in Spain with the Moors, or via the Romans with the addition of vinegar. Once in Spain it became a part of Andalusian cuisine, particularly Córdoba and Seville, using stale bread, garlic, olive oil, salt, and vinegar, similar toajoblanco. Gazpacho remained popular with field hands as a way to cool off during the summer and to use available ingredients such as fresh vegetables and stale bread.
There are many modern variations of gazpacho, often in different colors and omitting the tomatoes and bread in favor ofavocados, cucumbers, parsley, watermelon, grapes, meat stock, seafood, and other ingredients. Gazpacho has become an almost generic term for chilled vegetable soup.
THE RECIPE:
INGREDIENTS: (for 4 glasses)
It is a great drink/soup to keep it always ready in the bridge!
- 1 Kg of red ripe tomatoes
- 1 green pepper (around 60 g)
- 1 cucumber (around 250 g)
- 1 piece of onion (around 100 g)
- 1 clove of garlic
- 3 tablespoons of our Cazorliva extra virgin olive oil.
- 1 teaspoon of our Casanovas Barcelona salt with citrus, sundried tomatoes or olives.(Choose your favourite flavour!)
- Between 3 and 6 tablespoons of white wine vinager. You have to taste and decide the number of spoons of vinegar, it depends if you want the Gazpacho softer or stronger.
- 1 piece of bread from the day before. It has to be hard.
PREPARATION:
1- Soak the bread slices. Place in a bowl with water to cover, adding a little saltand oil. Reserved.
2- Peel and chop tomatoes, pepper, cucumber, onion and garlic. You have to remove the seeds from the pepper. Mix all ingredients.
3- In electric mixer, place the mixture of ingredients, add a little water and mash until you get a cream. Add the bread with water, the Cazorliva oil, the Casanovas Salt and the vinegar ( I recommend to start to 3 spoons of vinegar and continue adding until you get the taste that you like) and beat again until everything is getting minced and emulsified.
4- Add cold water and mix well. Check the salt and vinegar.
5- If you don't want to find little pieces of vegetable skin, you can use a food mill to remove skin from pepper. As we had mashed with skin (it is very difficult to peel them raw, without taking half the pepper), it floats and for some people it is very unpleasant to the palate.
6- Add more water if necessary, must be a liquid cream texture. Place in the refrigerator until you achieve the desired temperature and ready to servesprinkle with a dash of Cazorliva extra virgin olive oil, mixing with a wooden spoon.
7- Serve with a garnish of diced raw cucumber, cubes of bread (plain or toasted),diced pepper and chopped onion. Each item in a separate dish for guests can be served themself, as they like.
It is a great idea for an appetizer!!
ENJOY IT!!
