Ajoblanco - (Spanish-Central Andalusian Cold Almond Soup)

Yield > 6
Keys : Soups Stews Nuts Spanish Spain European
Mediterranean
Ingredients :
1/2 lb crusty white bread
crusts cut off
Water to soak the
bread
1/4 lb raw (not toasted)
peeled almonds
2 x garlic cloves
7 cup cold water
1 cup olive oil
Vinegar - (red wine or
sherry vinegar
preferred)
Garnish (see below)
Method :
• Garnish: In Malaga it is customary to
serve Ajoblanco with peeled and seeded
grapes, or apple slices. Melon, small shrimps
or sliced, roasted almonds also go very well
with this soup.
• Soak the bread thoroughly in water. To
peel the almonds, dip them for a few seconds
in openly boiling water then pop the peels off
with a squeeze.
• With a powerful blender, grind the
almonds, together with the garlic and a little
salt, as fine as you can (the finer they are
ground, the creamier the result will be). Then
add the soaked bread and blend until you get
a white homogeneous paste. Still blending,
add the oil in a thread, as you would in a
mayonnaise, and then the vinegar (for the
quantity, follow your taste, but just a spritz is
sufficient - otherwise you will mask the taste)
and the water. Adding the oil and water must
be done slowly; you want a smooth emulsion,
not curd!
• That's it. Serve it very to 6 to 8 people -
and with the garnish of your choice; sliced
and seeded grapes, or apple slices, or melon,
or small shrimps or even sliced, roasted
almonds.
• Comments: Ajoblanco, according to
recipe contributor Jose Luis Vivas, is a Weight
Watcher's worst nightmare. Thanks to the
high energy contents of the almonds and
bread, it is a caloric bomb. In fact, he says,
these soups were usually consumed by
country laborers in Andalusia during the
harvest months as a mid-morning snack. They
would have breakfast very early (5:00 AM)
and about 11:00 they stopped to prepare the
soup (or have someone bring it from the
house), take it and brace themselves for
temperatures above 95 from noon onwards.
Logically, they stopped about 14:00 and had
some light lunch... and a siesta, unless they
were picking cotton and a storm was on the
way.
• The soup is wonderful - refreshing and
very "drinkable" in texture, with unexpected
richness, depth of flavor, and true savoriness.
Hard to believe it's so bad for you.