easy gazpacho

Even though the weather has taken a turn for the worst, I am going to write about a dish better suited to the summer. That dish is another one associated with Cordoba: salmorejo. This is like a thicker version of the better-known gazpacho. The good news is, that it is simpler and less time-consuming to prepare - no peeling cucumber or straining liquids. You will need:
6 good sized ripe tomatoes, enough garlic cloves to suit your own taste, a cup of olive oil, three slices of stale bread or toast (provided, of course, that the bread was decent quality in the first place - ciabatta is excellent here), a little white wine vinegar and a few bits and bobs to garnish - finely chopped hard boiled egg, etc. 
This dish could not be simpler and as most of the ingredients are associated with health benefits, it is probably the healthiest dish I commonly make. All you need to do is to blend all the ingredients in a food processor or use a hand held blender and a suitable receptacle. The finished dish should be thick and barely liquid at all. As such, it can be eaten as quite a filling starter, or can be served as an addition - almost a dressing - to other courses of either meat or fish. As there is no cooking involved, you will need to remember that the garlic will be full on, as not only is it raw, but after having been more or less liquidised by the blending process, it will be in the form that gives the strongest garlic flavour. Even one big clove can give quite a hit of garlic flavour. 
This is a classic dish for the trial and error method. Taste as you go, to see if you have got enough olive oil, if you need a little more vinegar or stale bread to give the dish body, or a little salt. Serve in bowls with some decent bread, something to garnish, such as a swirl (sorry!) of olive oil, the aforementioned hard boiled eggs or a few slices of serrano ham. 
Writing about garlic has made me think about another dish/sauce that has a bold approach to garlic: aioli. The authentic version of this requires two or three cloves of garlic to be pounded in a pestle and mortar with some coarse sea salt (to give better grip) and once it has been rendered into a smooth paste, you then need to add olive oil, a few drops at a time. Work each lot of olive oil into the garlic paste, leaving it a little less strong with each addition of oil. We make it so that when we have finished, there are about 5 or 6 good tablespoons of aioli in the pestle (or is it the mortar?). The resultant paste is usually an attractive greenish yellow colour and makes a fantastic sauce for fish, especially the meatier varieties such as tuna or swordfish steaks. More tomorrowThe Adventures of Sherlock Holmes