Gaz-patchy: My Lost-in-Translation Gazpacho Recipe

I do not speak Spanish and, as I discovered to my disadvantage many years ago, it is a useful skill to possess in Spain.

Whilst I was in my late teens we went to stay in the Catalonian, seaside fishing town of L’Escala. We arrived late at night and I sought directions from a local bar to the ‘sea’ to take a refreshing, moonlit dip. We were surprised to see that rather than the sandy beaches we were expecting, the rocky outcrop on which the old town sat was instead surrounded by a series of craggy coves. We found the least stony bay and that became our destination for the next 5 days. We were often surprised by the reaction we got from locals when we climbed up the jagged cliff after an uncomfortable day’s sunbathing. On our last night we decided to check out a particular restaurant. Needless to say I misinterpreted the directions and we wandered way off track. Ironically just far enough to discover that around the corner from the headland was a glorious stretch of golden sand. Many lessons were learned that holiday; sadly none of them were Spanish.

My friends took it in good humour and we sat down at a bar to soak in the sensational sea and sunset, which had eluded us all week. Without ordering we were each presented with a bowl of delicious gazpacho. It was so gorgeous I asked how it was made. I am not sure if this is what the patron told me, but it is what I wrote down in the back of my phrase book and I have been making it ever since. Due to the sketchy nature of the recipe I christened it Gaz-patchy.

Peel two cucumbers and blitz; you don't have to worry about de-seeding them. Soak 1.5 kilos of ripe vine tomatoes in a bowl of just-off-the boil water, leave for a few minutes and rub to remove the skins. Slice the tomatoes through the horizontal middle of the fruit, this will give your greater access to the seed chambers, and scoop out the seeds. Rinse under the tap to remove any rogue seeds and start blitzing with the liquidised cucumber. As the blender jug becomes full, empty half into a bowl and continue blitzing. The key is not to add any water.

Once you have blended all the cucumber and tomato, return some of the liquid to the liquidiser jug and blitz a slice of bread, a head of celery, a bunch of spring onions, a few cloves of garlic and half a small red chilli pepper. I like to leave some consistency to the soup so I do not over do it with the blending. Add a good slug of very good olive oil, a tablespoon of balsamic vinegar, salt and pepper to taste, finally a decent squeeze of lemon juice, which will really open up the tomato flavour.

I have looked at many recipes and the inclusion here of celery is unusual as is the exclusion of red and green peppers. You can add these if you like but my lost in translation recipe loses nothing in flavour

Place in the fridge to cool. During this process, if you have left it lumpy, the bits will rise to the top so make sure you mix it again before serving into bowls.

Gazpacho freezes really well; so get it out at breakfast and it will be ready at lunchtime.

Note to self ‘sea’ and ‘beach’ are two different things.

(This article first appeared in the August issues of the SE Group of Magazines www.semagazine.co.uk)