Cook Book Book Club and Creamy Gazpacho Andaluz

I recently joined a new book club.  Yes another.  I’ve told you before that it takes little more than a glass of wine to convince me to join your book club, which at times has proven problematic since I’m not a particularly fast reader.  Luckily, this is a different kind of book club, one that doesn’t add any more pages to my monthly queue.  This lovely group of ladies gets together once a month… to eat.  While we enjoy each other’s cooking, we chat about why we chose the recipe, the work that went into making it, and what we thought of the cook book.  Then we swap cookbooks and choose a theme for the next month!

For our July meeting, the theme was “red,” although the unofficial theme could have been “whipped cream” since I’m pretty sure we went through at least four quarts of it.  Although such a loose theme could have meant a not so balanced meal, quite the opposite turned out to be the case.  We had three main courses and four desserts, incorporating many red foods: tomatoes, red peppers, chorizo, beets, strawberries, raspberries, cherries and apples.  With it, we enjoyed Red Stripe, red wine, and even a divine red cherry martini.

Since I was a first timer to the club, I had free reign to pick a cook book.  I decided that Cooks Illustrated, a Christmas present from my brother-in-law, would be perfect since it has a huge array of recipes of every sort.  What I really love about the book is that for each recipe, they explain how they have experimented and ultimately why you should do certain things.  They also give several variations on most dishes.  It’s a great tool for truly learning, because they tell you when you can make certain substitutions, when it’s okay to take short cuts, and when you really must do things a certain way.

I had to take a moment to really think about all the red foods I could make before browsing the index for recipes.  I narrowed it down to stuffed red peppers, a sour cherry tart and a creamy gazpacho.  I ultimately chose the cream gazpacho Analuz.  Spain, particularly Andalucia, has a special place in my heart, and I have many memories of eating this creamy gazpacho in tiny cafes as well as in my Dad’s home in Arcos de la Frontera.  He and Kippy will be living there for a year, and I have a hunch they will be eating plenty gazpacho.  The recipe is not difficult, but it does involve a lot of chopping.  While “creamy” in the title might lead you to believe otherwise, this recipe is actually vegan; the creamy texture is accomplished with a single slice of bread.  I’ve included the recipe below, as well as the book’s explanation as to why they chose the method they did.

Creamy Gazpacho Andaluz

From Cooks Illustrated

Most Americans know gazpacho as a chunky liquid salsa.  In Spain, the most famous version is a creamy puree.

WHY THIS RECIPE WORKS:

INGREDIENTS

• 3 pounds ripe tomatoes, cored
• 1 small cucumber, halved
• 1 medium green bell pepper, halved and seeded
• 1 small red onion, peeled and halved
• 3 medium garlic cloves, peeled and quartered
• 1 small chili pepper, stemmed and halved lengthwise (remove seeds if you want less spice)
• Kosher salt (I substituted coarse table salt)
• 1 slice high-quality white sandwich bread, torn into 1-inch pieces
• 1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil, plus extra for serving
• 2 tablespoons sherry vinegar, plus extra for serving (I substituted red wine vinegar)
• Ground black pepper

INSTRUCTIONS

1. Roughly chop 2 pounds of tomatoes, half the cucumber, half the bell pepper, and half the onion and place in large bowl.  Add garlic, chili, and 1½ teaspoons salt; toss until well combined. Set aside.
2. Dice remaining tomatoes, cucumber, and pepper into ¼-inch pieces; place vegetables in medium bowl.  Mince remaining onion and add to diced vegetables. Toss with ½ teaspoon salt and transfer to fine-mesh strainer set over medium bowl.  Set aside 1 hour.
3. Transfer drained diced vegetables to medium bowl and set aside. Add bread pieces to exuded liquid (there should be about ¼ cup) and soak for 1 minute. Add soaked bread and any remaining liquid to roughly chopped vegetables and toss thoroughly to combine.
4. Transfer vegetable-bread mixture to blender or food processor and process 30 seconds.  With blender/food processor running, slowly drizzle in ½ cup oil and continue to blend until completely smooth, about 2 minutes.  If you are using a small blender or  food processor, you can do this step in two batches.
5. Stir vinegar and half of diced vegetables into soup and season to taste with salt and black pepper.  Cover and refrigerate overnight or for at least 2 hours to chill completely and develop flavors.
6.  Serve, topped with remaining diced vegetables, olive oil, sherry vinegar, and black pepper.

Serves 4 as a Main Course or 8 as a Side 

Johanna