Well I tried the gazpacho on Sunday and I must admit to being pleasantly surprised. Maybe it needed a little more olive oil to take away the rasp as it went down the throat, but it was still more than acceptable nonetheless. I've had worse (and much better) in restaurants in Andalucia. The croutons weren't a total disaster. I needed a thicker slice of bread and it can't be bread that is the soft pre sliced variety. It needs more body to it. I had the second tranche this evening, and after travelling on a sticky stuffy tube train back home, it was most welcome, followed by some fruit. God(dess) knew what she was doing when he made soft fruits.
This experience has shown that all those years watching cooking programmes from Philip Harben (goodness, was that a collective "Oh!" of recognition at a name from the past? do you also remember Barry Bucknell?) via the Galloping Gourmet (points are awarded for correct spelling and pronunciation and no Google cheating!) to today's bumper crop. I like Rick Stein, Delia, Nigella when she isn't dousing everything in double cream, etc. and Nigel Slater has a couple of good ideas, too. However, there should be a couple of series introducing vegetarian and vegan meals as a change. We need to consider eating less meat as it is takes up too much land to feed us unlike vegetable matter, allegedly.
I did try to introduce vegetarian and vegan dishes into our diet with a small level of success. My greatest success was a raw vegan dish (don't turn your nose up at the concept). It is from a rather gushy lady, Ani Phyo, it has a batch of Love the Chick's Paté (sorry about the dreadful name) on a bed of spinach (I used to cover a large plate in spinach leaves and scoop the paté on top. It was not too bad. It still needs tweaking, I'm not quite satisfied with it. I love spinach, and prefer it uncooked. It has such a gorgeous flavour. It is one of those dishes that's better to share.
If there is one thing in modern cuisine that usually sends me screaming for mercy it is the tons of leaves of cilantro (in the US) or coriander (in the UK). I find replacing this with flat leaf parsley much more pleasant. I have yet to find a recipe with coriander to my taste. Even without eating it, I know there is too much in there. I have tried food with coriander in the Far East and it isn't overwhelmed.
OK, maybe my claims to culinary virginity are exaggerated, but I was always in awe of Laing's ability to create something out of nothing, whereas I need a recipe. I am trying to adapt recipes to my taste, but as much as I adore eating good "fancy" food (I love the Oxo Tower, for instance), I need to make my dishes my own. Come to think of it, I have already with the gazpacho. I used three cloves of garlic instead of two. I love the flavour and warmth of garlic in food. What I must try sometime is "Ajo Blanco", that is a garlic-holic's dream dish. If you don't know it, it's more or less gazpacho with almonds instead of tomatoes and lots of garlic, and served very cold and with grapes. Heaven has to have cuisine like this at its core.
