Cold Soups for Hot Days

 So, today we're going to talk about Ajo blanco, aka white gazpacho.    It's a Spanish recipe that I cadged off the head chef of Iberia Restaurant, back when they were in Menlo Park oh, 25 years ago or so.  If you ever make it to the Bay Area, Iberia is on my list of great restaurants to try. Sadly no longer in Menlo Park (or, before that, Portola Valley). Look them up, and go have a great meal.

I'm a big believer in cold soups when you get into the hot part of summer. Which, in California, is a bit of a "duh", but out here in Tennessee is a much more avant garde concept. Oh, yeah, side note - we're now based out of Chattanooga, TN. Come on by, y'all! It has a great deal to recommend it, and... it's not as brutal as Silicon Valley.  Back to soups. A good cold soup on a hot day will cool you down, will nourish you, will refresh you.  And they're pretty much _all_ veg. So, easy to make. My top 3? 

A cold vichysoisse

A classic gazpacho

and

Ajo blanco

I'm only going to touch on the last of those today.  What is an ajo blanco? It's a cold garlic/almond soup.  It can vary from sweet to blow you out of your seat spicy, depending entirely on how you treat the garlic. Here's the recipe, from my archive about 20 years ago.

White gazpacho, aka ajo blanco

OK, so previously we did a tomato-based gazpacho in the blender. That's the Californio/Mexican version. Turns out there's also a Spanish gazpacho that's white. Instead of all the healthy veggies, this one uses a mix of garlic and almonds. A word of warning - getting this one right is a bit trickier than the red gazpacho. So your first pass might be a bit off. 

Tools: 

Blender, spatula, bread knife and cutting board, measuring cups, and probably something safe to microwave in/with. A microwave oven would be handy. A bowl to put it all in. 

Ingredients:

6 cloves of garlic (whole),
3/4 cup blanched almonds,
some sherry or white balsamic vinegar,
1/2 cup white (aka green) seedless grapes,
1/4 cup olive oil,
3 cups water or chicken broth,
2 slices of bread (sourdough is best, wheat is ok, white is worst).
Salt and pepper to taste.
Small bunch of grapes (red or green) and some croutons for garnish. 

Making it: 

1. Put the garlic (note 3) and almonds (note 2) into the blender, and reduce to a fine paste. You will need to stop and scrape the blender several times - the almond chunks tend to percolate upward, and the garlic/almond paste tends to go to the bottom, below the blender blades.
2. Once the garlic/almonds have been reduced to a paste, add the white grapes and the vinegar. Blend again until smooth. 
3. Now, with the blender running, pour the oil in slowly, then the water (or chicken stock). 
4. Once that's all in, leave the blender running for a bit while you deal with the bread. Take the bread and trim off all the crusts. Next, break up the bread, into a cup or glass, and add water until the bread is completely covered, and let sit for a minute. The objective here is to soak the bread. Once that's done, drain off the water, then squeeze the bread just like a sponge until you've gotten as much water as possible out - you want, basically, a ball of doughy bread. 
5. Drop the bread into the blender, and keep it on until the bread is entirely mixed in. Turn off the blender and decant into a bowl. At this point, you're done cooking. 
6. If you want to eat in a hurry, let the soup sit for about 5 minutes (for the bread to do it's thing and thicken things up). Dumping some ice cubes in the soup to help things along is also recommended. If you aren't in a hurry, put the bowl in your refrigerator until later, when you're ready to eat. That will also cool things off and let the bread do it's magic. 

Ingredient notes: 

Note 1: Bread - you want bread with texture to it, something that's chewy. Sourdough, or an italian batard, will work best - they're white, but still chewy. Wheat bread also works, but carries some color with it. 

Note 2: Almonds - I've found that it's cheaper and easier to buy blanched/slivered almonds, than to buy them raw and blanch them yourself. YMMV, but check around your grocery store, specifically in the bulk produce section. As an illustration, Whole Foods had blanched slivered almonds for $5.50/lb, and raw almonds for $6.50/lb. Go figure. If you really want to blanch the almonds (aka remove their skins), the easiest way I've found is to dump them, raw, into a cup of as-hot-as-you-can-make-it water (tap water works, as does water from a tea pot) for about 5 minutes. Dump the water, then you should be able to rub the skins off with your hands, or a paper towel. Yes, this is time consuming, and just as much fun as peeling raw garlic. Buy blanched, it's simpler. 

Note 3: Garlic - You can adjust the "bite" of the soup by cooking/roasting some or all of the garlic. If you cook all of the garlic, it'll be very mild. If you cook none of the garlic, it'll be VERY garlicy. We go with a 50/50 mix - half cooked, half not. To cook it, I find that it's simplest to just throw the garlic into the microwave oven for 45 seconds.