Gazpacho Andaluz

Ingredients

• 2 thick slices of day-old bread, preferably French of some sort, crusts removed and cubed
  
• 1.5-2 lbs tomatoes (you can do all fresh or all canned -- it doesn't really matter)
• 2 tbsp sherry vinegar (we used red wine vinegar because that's all we had)
• 1/2 cup olive oil
• 2 garlic cloves, minced
• 1 tsp ground cumin
• 1 tsp cayenne pepper
• 1 tsp ancho chili powder
• sea salt
• 1 medium-sized cucumber, peeled, seeded, and diced
• 1 small red bell pepper, seeded and diced
• 1 small green bell pepper, seeded and diced
• 1/2 small red onion, peeled and chopped

Put the bread in a bowl and drizzle some olive oil over it. If you're using fresh tomatoes, squeeze some tomato juice over the bread. If you're using the canned stuff, just pour some of the juice over it. Add 1 tsp of whatever vinegar you're using and set aside for 10 minutes.
Transfer the bread to a food processor and add garlic, cumin, cayenne, ancho powder, and salt. Process until smooth.
Put all the raw vegetables, the olive oil, and the salt in a large bowl. Process them (with the bread mixture) in batches until smooth.
Add any extra vinegar or water or salt to taste.
Chill for at least 3 hours before serving.

Thoughts: Sort of a complicated recipe, and that first step is just stupid. We would skip it in the future. Also it just didn't taste right. I mean, maybe I'm not the one who should be writing this post, since I don't like any type of gazpacho. Dan says "enh" about it. I don't know what makes this gazpacho "Andaluz" but so be it. It wasn't that bad, but we probably wouldn't bother to make it again. It was good as gazpacho goes, maybe, but we would try to incorporate more textural elements. Maybe we would blend the whole thing until really smooth, and then garnish with fresh tomato? I think this was a little one-note. Maybe also garnish with the cilantro oil we blogged.

Disaster Index: 5/10

Sopa de Ajo

Garlic soup. Who knew?



Ingredients

• Olive oil
  
• 1/4 lb stale bread, cut into 1/2" cubes (we used 1/2 loaf of "french bread" that really didn't have a very thick crust at all)
  
• 4 cloves garlic, minced
  
• 1/2tsp Spanish smoked paprika (available through Penzy's)
  
• 4-6c chicken stock (or veg)
  
• poached eggs for each serving
  

In a pot, toss in the bread and drizzle with olive oil. Cook lightly until the bread is lightly brown or you think you're going to damage the pot, whichever comes first. Yeah. Then throw in the garlic, paprika, and maybe a pinch of salt. Toss that around thoroughly, then add the stock. Add enough stock that you don't just have a pile of soggy bread, but there's actually soup. I think that it depends on the density of your bread. Anyway, we used about 6c stock. Bring to a boil, then reduce and simmer for 10-15 minutes. Meanwhile, poach an egg for each serving you're planning. When you're ready to serve, ladle the soup into a bowl. Dust with some additional paprika and black pepper, and top with the poached egg.

This has a great flavor. Simple recipe, but this is really delicious. The one weird thing? Texture. Possibly this is the result of our bread selection, but I'm not sure. Anyway, it makes me wonder two things: (1) are we supposed to make like a panade, or are the pieces of bread supposed to stay mostly whole? (2) are we using too much bread and too little soup? That said, I would definitely make this again. The whole thing was just fantastic. You don't even need to serve it with the egg if you don't want.

Disaster Index: 1/10