Gazpacho with a twist!
On my trip to Spain back in 2018, my family and I visited Restaurant Castell d'Orpí. A castle that is now running as a restaurant. Castell d'Orpí is famous for their authentic Spanish food that is offered with a twist. One such dish that caught my eye was the Gazpacho which was served with a Watermelon Sorbet! Yes, you read that right! The best Gazpacho and the best watermelon sorbet I’ve had to date. After a long day of traveling and site seeing on a warm sunny day in Barcelona, this chilled and refreshing soup helped us cool down.
Pictured above was our view from Castell d'Orpí
Pictured above is their amazing watermelon sorbet and below is their out of this world Gazpacho poured over the watermelon sorbet.
I decided to give this chilled soup a go as part of my blog assignment. The recipe I followed was of Gordon Ramsey's Gazpacho. This recipe was quite simple and consisted of a lot of ingredients I was able to source locally, except for the Sherry Vinegar which I substituted for White Wine Vinegar.
Ingredients: 1 cucumber, peeled and chopped 1 red pepper, deseeded and chopped 1 green pepper, deseeded and chopped 1kg ripe plum tomatoes, cored and chopped 2 garlic cloves, peeled and crushed 2 spring onions, trimmed and finely chopped 75g stale crusty white bread, chopped 2–2½ tbsp sherry vinegar, or to taste
I started off by washing, peeling and cutting all ingredients into medium sized dices as learned in week 2 of Food Theory. After which the bread was cut into similar medium sized dices. All chopped vegetables were then added into the bread along with the Olive Oil, Vinegar and seasonings. This was then left for 30 minutes (or could be left overnight) in the refrigerator.
Once the bread was done absorbing all liquids, this mixture was pureed in a blender until smooth. After a couple more hours of refrigeration the soup was ready for consumption! I also added a few slices of toast, which was simply drizzled with Olive Oil and toasted to give a bit of crunch.
The Gazpacho made by myself was of course in no par to what was had in Spain, but I was pleasantly surprised by how good and similar in taste it was. I would say that this was definitely a success. Had it not been for this blog I would not have tried making a cold soup, which was a first for me.
When it comes to the reflections, the soup was very much lighter in colour and wasn't as red as I hoped it would be. I also substituted White Wine Vinegar for Sherry Vinegar which was a little more acidic than I opted for.
My mom was the biggest fan of the Gazpacho I made, she loved the balance of flavours, seasoning and rich texture. She became next-level obsessed with it! However, something I would do differently would be to add more riper and red tomato's, and if not for Sherry Vinegar I would definitely use less of any other type of vinegar.
I definitely hope to make the Gazpacho again soon, and would definitely try it with a twist, such as a sorbet or a new ingredient the second time around. I never I thought I would get the chance to replicate an amazingly unique dish I had on a trip 3 years ago but writing this blog gave me that opportunity and I will definitely try my hands on many more dishes I’ve enjoyed on my past trips to foreign destinations!
