[Sca-cooks] chilled soup

[lilinah at earthlink.net]

Vicente wrote:
>The red gazpacho most people know of is not period.  It uses period
>techniques and applies them to non-period ingredients.  However, there is a
>white gazpacho from Malaga that is basically almond milk, white grapes, a
>little vinegar, bread and garlic.  Refreshing, tart, and unusual.  Also darn
>similar to a recipe in de Nola:
>
>Cañonada Pottage
>
>Take almonds that have been toasted, and grind them well in a mortar, and
>take a large piece of bread that has been toasted; and soaked in white
>vinegar, and squeeze it out well by hand, and grind them with the almonds
>all together, and when they are all ground together thin it with sweet white
>vinegar, and before you stir it put in the mortar two or three bunches of
>white grapes and two of black grapes, and then force it all through a
>strainer, and put it in the pot, and add sugar and ground cinnamon: and this
>sauce should taste somewhat of vinegar, and cook it, and when it is cooked
>prepare the bowls and put sugar in each one.
>
>
>The recipe calls it a sauce and says to cook it, but you could probably get
>away with not cooking it.

Wow! Cool! This is very close to the Ajo Blanco i had in Córdoba, in
Andalucía. Modern versions include garlic, have no cinnamon or sugar,
and are not cooked. Selene/Susan Fox-Davis sent a recipe for it to
the list on 1/17/01. It is an excellent dish for hot weather, since
it shouldn't spoil and is tart and refreshing.

I searched the web after that and found quite a few variations. All
use finely ground peeled raw almonds, garlic, white bread soaked in
water, wine or sherry vinegar, olive oil, and water, beaten to a
smooth consistency and served with white or muscatel grapes, usually
peeled. Some variations include pine nuts along with the almonds,
others substitute sweet green melon for grapes.

Now, i'm just hoping that eventually the origin of Ajo Blanco might
turn up and there's a chance that it's Arabic...

"Tradition" says Ajo Blanco is what the guys out working in the
agricultural fields eat for lunch. Some traditions say the name for
Gazpacho comes from Arabic for "torn bread" or "soaked bread". Dunno
how true any of this is...

Anahita