I have been wanting to make gazpacho, a cold soup filled with tomatoes, green peppers and cucumbers to name a few of the ingredients, since my return from Spain in the summer of ’07. I was even preparing myself for this while I was still there. My host mom spent an afternoon showing me how to make my favorite dishes. Upon my return, I got caught back up in everything that was going on back here in the states. I had found the time to make one of my other favorite dishes, the Spanish tortilla, but never made it past that.
This summer came and I told myself this was the time. I even talked with some of my friends about having them over for a gazpacho night. The summer months came and went. October arrived and I decided to set a date. I called my friends to pick an evening that worked for us all. Finally, a date was set. I was going to make that gazpacho that I had been wanting for 4 years. Over the weekend, I looked through my cookbook to decided on what else I would be serving. My taste buds started to water as I looked upon the food that I once knew. What do I pick? I found recipes for bread, chicken croquettes, a typical Spanish salad, and flan. They all looked like easy recipes as they were all new to me, I did not want to try anything too difficult. Well it turned out that the bread, croquettes and flan were not as easy as I had hoped they would be.
I had to make the bread twice, bake the flan three times, and then improvise on the croquettes as they were too watered down to form into the balls that they needed to become. In the end, the bread was a little harder than I had hoped for, but it tasted good. The flan tasted like it should have but did not look anything like it was suppose to. The croquettes turned out amazing. I was able to pack enough breadcrumbs around them and form them into balls. You would have never known that I had trouble. I do not think that I will try so many new recipes the next time. It sure made for some crazy times in my kitchen for a couple of evenings.
So, why am I not addressing the salad or the gazpacho anymore? The salad of course was easy as I just tossed ingredients together and served it with oil and vinegar. The gazpacho was the easiest thing in the world to make. I just needed to chop up the appropriate ingredients and puree it in a blender. All in all, the food and company turned out great in the end. I finally got my gazpacho I had been wanting for years. Too bad I did not know how easy it was to make. Not too sure if I have convinced Brent how tasty it is. I think I will have to try it again on a nice hot summer day.