More To Life Than Bacon – Gazpacho Soup

gaz
Gazpacho soup
is like sex – even when it’s not great, it’s still good.

The best gazpacho I ever ate was in a Spanish restaurant on Atlantic Avenue in Brooklyn, La Mancha; which is evidently now closed. 🙁 They also had a marvelous garlic soup and shrimp al ajillo. (Yes, I like garlic.)

  My recipe
1 green bell pepper, seeded.
2 cucumbers, peeled.
1 small white onion
2 cloves chopped garlic
2/3 cup olive oil
1 cup tomato juice
8 roma tomatoes, peeled
  Score the tomatoes on an end, and put them in boiling water for one minute, move to cold water, drain.
  They will peel very easily.
1/2 tblsp kosher salt
pinch of cayenne pepper or 1/2 tsp hot sauce
2 sliced dried bread, broken in small chunks or some croutons

Cut tomatoes, onion, pepper and cucumbers into chunks, put in blender or food processor, add garlic and olive oil.
Blend until barely chunky.
Add tomato juice, salt, cayenne/hotsauce, blend to mix.
Add bread/crotons
Puree
  Some like their soup chunky. I don’t. Suit yourself.
Chill at least 1 hour, more if making larger recipe.

Bacon Butter

Fry two slices of bacon, drain and save the drippings.
Chop bacon.
Blend a stick of butter with bacon drippings and 2 Tblsp of maple syrup.
Stir in the chopped bacon.
  Butter will be softened by mixing, so should be chilled again afterwards.

Goes great on a toasted onion bagel or on baked potatoes.

6 Replies to “More To Life Than Bacon – Gazpacho Soup”

  1. More food news from Science News via an old friend:

    Mystery Solved
    Bakers know that sourdough lasts longer than most other breads. Now, researchers at the University of Alberta Canada report that the bread’s fungus-fighting compounds come from the same bacteria that provide sourdough’s characteristic flavor. The scientists found that Lactobacillus hammisii , one type of acid-producing bacteria that teams up with yeast during sourdough’s fermentations process, converts the linoleic acid in bread flour into a fatty acid that may damage the cell membranes of invading fungi. Sourdough loaves produced with L. hammesii staved off mold two to three days longer than bread leavened with yeast alone, the team reported in January in Applied and Environmental Microbiology.
    – Allison Bohac

  2. Used to eat at La Mesa Buena in Manhattan, but it’s closed now. There was a good one in my area but they finally gave up and went Mexican because the patrons didn’t know the difference between Spanish food and Mexican food. – kept asking for tacos. I have the same problem finding Armenian restaurants (which gives me an idea next week’s post – stay tuned).
    Guess my food tastes put me in the minority. 😀

    There is a huge variety in gazpacho recipes, running from oddly-flavored tomato juice all the way to a tomato stew. Basics are that it’s served cold and contains cucumber & tomato – and pretty much anything else you want to toss into the mix.
    My son makes his chunky, adds basil and cilantro, does not add breadstuff. It’s one of those recipes you can tinker with until you get it the way you like it and it becomes the family tradition.

  3. The best gazpacho I ever had was in Granada, Spain, in a small street side cafe, down the hill from The Alhambra in the old city. It was a very warm day and my wife and I had been touring the gardens of The Alhambra and we were famished. The gazpacho was slightly chilled and it was so incredibly refreshing – like a liquid salad! It was pure heaven. Great recipe ideas, steeleweed!

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