My TASTEBUDS, that is!!

Recently, a Spanish influence has stepped into my life and introduced me to a whole new world of flavour.

This weekend, Diana gave me the perfect gift of a book to record my favourite (and some more secret) recipes. I immediately knew what the first recipe in this book was going to be.

Salmorejo!

There aren’t the words to express how much I love this dish. Even looking at that picture now makes me go crazy for not having it in front of me. The combination of tomato, garlic, oil and bread may seem simple enough, and frankly I don’t understand all the magic behind the deliciousness. I also know the concept of raw garlic in anything will be enough to make my fellow Brits VERY nervous, but please PLEASE I beg you to put what you think you know to one side and try this dish. When I eat this, I feel absolutely invincible and satisfied beyond belief. I’ve never actually made this myself, but the last time Diana whipped it up, I monitored her activity with a tediously close proximity. Here’s how to do it…

Ingredients

• About this many ripe plum tomatoes:
  
• About this much baguette bread
  
  (and a little bit more later on)
• A good quality extra virgin olive oil
  
• 1 1/2 cloves of garlic
• Salt
• Balsamic Vinegar
• Eggs
• Iberico Ham! (or, worse case scenario… Just use your favourite ham)

Vamos!

1. Take a large four litre jug and half fill it with with broken up bits of the baguette.

2. Shark the nasty cores out of the tomatoes then plonk them into the jug

3. Smash the garlic, and add to the jug

4. Next, add a sploosh of balsamic vinegar (50ml?) and a heart-stoppingly terrifying amount of salt (a tablespoon perhaps? Maybe more?)

5. Blitz the living day lights out of it

6. While it’s blending, gently pour in about 100ml of your extra virgin olive oil

7. Once it’s of a smooth consistency (you may choose to add a little more bread for thickness, or a little more oil/vinegar for flavour), set to one side while you soft boil/soft poach an egg.

8. Pour a hearty serving of the salmorejo in a bowl and gently place the egg and ham on top (or serve with the ham on the side).

9. Disfrutar… Con una caña! (…right?)

When I first had this, my fear was that all I’d be able to taste would be salt and garlic but I was WRONG and STUPID! It’s delicious, I’m desperately trying to find the words to describe the flavour but I might as well try to fly. Just trust me that it’s delicious and one of the few meals for which I have room for seconds and thirds. When I eat it I feel suuuuper satisfied- relaxed, calm and, perhaps an hour later, ready for anything! I plan to have a crack as making it myself soon, as my hope is that a bulk batch would be useful for taking to the office for lunch during the week but… whether or not it will survive my passionate appetite for those 5 days remains to be seen. I’ll report back on how I do and what I learn further on this! But I’d prefer Diana just continued to make it to be honest.