Lisbon from Home #12: Gazpacho Time
The sweet taste of Portuguese sun.
Because tomatoes belong to the night shade family, these savory fruits were thought to be poisonous.
According to oral history, when the rejected fruit made its way into Italy by way of the Moors, a courageous person stood in the midst of a crowd in the center of an Italian town and devoured a tomato. Amidst the shock, he proved to all it was not poisonous but delicious. That changed the course of culinary history, influencing not just Italian cuisine but other food ways as well.
If the Spaniards had the ability to see the future and how the tomato would impact so many foods of the world, they might have looked at their farming and culinary habits differently. Eventually, even the Spaniards added the tomato to their Gazpacho.
According to oral history, when the rejected fruit made its way into Italy by way of the Moors, a courageous person stood in the midst of a crowd in the center of an Italian town and devoured a tomato. Amidst the shock, he proved to all it was not poisonous but delicious. That changed the course of culinary history, influencing not just Italian cuisine but other food ways as well.
If the Spaniards had the ability to see the future and how the tomato would impact so many foods of the world, they might have looked at their farming and culinary habits differently. Eventually, even the Spaniards added the tomato to their Gazpacho.
Tings Gazpacho is very popular in Kathmandu. Because of ‘bugs/gems’ during the monsoon we boil the ingredients before cooling the soup. We serve the the Gazpacho with chopped coriander, hard boiled eggs, chopped crunchy vegetables homemade croutons and of course olive oil and vinegar
When we started up in Kathmandu we opened the hotel and the restaurant at the same time. We tried to do the same here in Lisbon without any luck.
Now the hotel is up and running – so our plan is to start up the restaurant in 2021 with a menu based on the same principles as in Kathmandu where we’re still among the best international restaurants: Healthy and affordable non-local dishes based on local ingredients… the ideas behind this based on our more than 25 years of travelling together all over the world.
Eating locally is part of the travel – but at one point you have tried enough to get an idea behind the local cuisine and need variation. After a trek in Nepal people are desperate. The crave fresh salad with the food, pasta al dente, filling salads made from beetroots, carrots, classic juicy burger with Heinz and homemade mayo with the fries (cook 3 times) and healthy food in general.
This is one of the reasons why our Gazpacho has been one of our most popular dishes since we opened.
Gazpacho, cold soup of Spanish cuisine, especially that of Andalusia. It is an ancient dish mentioned in Greek and Roman literature, although two of the main ingredients of the modern version, tomatoes and green peppers, were brought to Spain from the New World only in the 16th century. Spanish cookbooks classify gazpacho as a salad.
The most frequently encountered gazpacho is an uncooked mixture of tomatoes, garlic, olive oil, water, vinegar, onions, cucumbers, and green peppers, thickened with bread crumbs.
The word gazpacho is derived from the Arabic word for soaked bread. Gazpacho may be served with croutons, additional chopped vegetables, and chopped egg that the diners add to taste. The gazpacho of Málaga province in Andalusia is based on almonds and contains grapes.
The most frequently encountered gazpacho is an uncooked mixture of tomatoes, garlic, olive oil, water, vinegar, onions, cucumbers, and green peppers, thickened with bread crumbs.
The word gazpacho is derived from the Arabic word for soaked bread. Gazpacho may be served with croutons, additional chopped vegetables, and chopped egg that the diners add to taste. The gazpacho of Málaga province in Andalusia is based on almonds and contains grapes.
Our recipe is very simple and easy to make.
Tomate Coracao de Boi or The Ox Heart Tomato is the most common and tasty tomato in Portugal.
In Portugal the season starts around mid July and ends in September. The rest of the year we get them from Spain where they grow all year around which means that we have sweet and Sunny tomatos almost all year. So I make around 3 liter gazpacho every week – for our daily lunch, as starters for spontaneous dinners, to ‘pimp up’ tomato sauce, pasta bolognese or a couscous salad (instead of using water for the couscous we use gazpacho) and as a Bloody Mary with vodka and our Salted Lemons.
The Gazpacho never gets better than the quality of the ingredients – and since the main ingredient is Tomato you will never make a gazpacho in April that beats the one you make from mid July till mid September. So with only 3 months to the harvest I am never satisfied with the one I make – but I am also very impatient.
There are many ways to prepare the soup. But I guess that all agree on the ingredients mentioned in Encyclopædia Britannica. Except for the green pepper (I use red) those are the ones I use – see how in the following recipe.
When you have fun while cooking – the food tastes better.
Bon Appetit
Thomas
The recipe
Don't forget the croutons!
Gazpacho is the Arab word for soaked bread.
So while chopped eggs and/or chopped vegetables are optional Croutons are a must.
The Portuguese bread is very bad and useless for croutons. So we use our own home baked bread – at least 2 days old.
And we always make plenty of croutons!
