Ajo Blanco

One of the best parts of summer is making a light dinner and avoiding the stove at all costs. Walking outside to grill or eat al fresco is rare in Manhattan, so anything we city dwellers can do to keep cool indoors is a welcome feat. The all-time easiest "no-cook" summer dish is gazpacho, the classic cold soup of southern Spain that requires nothing more than a blender and 10 minutes of free time. My mother is a big fan, ordering it every chance she gets when we're down by the Mediterranean. I'll be making it soon once my tomatoes come in, but in the meantime, I've made another great cold soup. Ajo blanco is a simple but delicious cold soup of garlic, almonds and bread. Much like gazpacho, all you need is a blender and a few minutes to whip everything up. If you're a perfectionist like me, you might strain it (and you really should, for the sake of texture), but otherwise it's not a very fussy dish despite how impressive it is in the end.

The ingredients may seem strange bedfellows, but the truth is that they work quite well together. The soup is interesting and complex, almost plain at first. But with all that raw garlic (for which the dish is named), the flavor slowly builds and intensifies with every spoonful, lending a certain heat as only raw garlic can. The almonds, which are fairly sweet by nature, impart a certain milky flavor that mellows out the garlic's heat ever so gently. A dash of sherry vinegar brings a little acidity to the party, and some olive oil and crustless bread round out the main ingredients and add some silkyness to the texture. Like many cold soups, ajo blanco is a perfect way to use up day-old or even stale bread. Just remember to remove the crusts and you're good to go. Otherwise, the only thing you need is some water, which helps the ingredients to blend and thins out the whole mixture.

I used a recipe that suggested letting the almonds soak overnight in water, which helps to draw out their natural milk. The milky soaking liquid is then used in the soup. Mine didn't soak overnight, but they did get a three hour long bath that definitely helped. I liked that it softened the almonds and made them easier to blend, but this step could certainly be omitted with equally delicious results (I have at previous times and it's been no problem at all). Likewise, you could always reduce the heat of the dish by omitting a few cloves of garlic if you're worried about scaring your date away. That's not to say that the flavor is overwhelming in general. Although it builds, there comes a point where it does plateau so you're not floored by garlic or heat. In the past I've also cut the whole thing with a teaspoon or two of honey, which is not at all traditional, but very tasty and a lovely contrast to the garlic and sherry vinegar. Here's the recipe with a few of my changes:

Ajo Blanco:
adapted from Made in Spain by Jose Andres

1 1/2 lbs blanched almonds (I used peeled, sliced almonds)
6 cups water
2 large or 3 small garlic cloves
1/3 cup sherry vinegar (use the best you can)
2 1/2 cups good extra virgin olive oil
3 slices rustic style bread, crusts removed
1 Tbsp chopped chives
pinch of salt

1. Place almonds in a bowl and cover with the 6 cups of water. Allow to soak overnight, or for as much time as you have.

2. Add garlic, almonds, soaking liquid, sherry vinegar, olive oil and bread to blender and puree until smooth. Run mixture through a fine mesh sieve or cheese cloth to remove any grit from the ground almonds.

3. Place mixture in a pitcher or bowl and refrigerate for 30 minutes. Stir in salt and serve garnished with olive oil, sherry vinegar and chopped chive. Enjoy!

-Laura

The Great (E)Scape

One of the best parts about living the farmers market/CSA life is getting a hold of awesome produce that rarely sees the inside of a grocery store. Whether it's ramps, fiddlehead ferns or crosnes, the only way to get a shot at buying everything that grows on a farm is to follow a farmer. Spring and early summer are especially fruitful times for these types of products, since often the mature versions of vegetables that we're accustomed to eating are nothing like their young counterparts (which are only just sprouting in the spring). Several members of the allium family like garlic, onions, chives and shallots are known to play Jekyll and Hyde where their appearance and flavor are concerned, depending on what point in their life they've been picked.

Garlic in particular makes quite the evolution from seed to bulb, but manages to remain delicious the whole way. We've all come to know garlic in its mature form as a white bulb that breaks into cloves. But on the road to becoming a grown-up bulb, garlic goes through and interesting--and delicious--period as a teenager, when it's known as green garlic. The bulb has just started to grow but remains quite small, about 1/4 the size of your average mature bulb. It's not yet separated into cloves and instead resembles the rings of a spring onion. And much like a spring onion, there are long green stems attached to the bulb. Their flavor is milder than a fully grown bulb and absolutely delicious raw, with none of the overpowering piquancy of raw garlic cloves. I like using it in dishes where fully grown garlic could be deemed too strong, like in eggs, delicate pestos, and especially in pasta. I just cook off some noodles, usually spaghetti, angel hair or linguine, grate the green garlic into the bottom of a bowl with a splosh of olive oil, a little parmesan cheese and pepper. Then I add in the piping hot pasta and toss everything together. The heat from the pasta cooks the garlic ever so slightly and perfumes the dish wonderfully. You can even add a few teaspoons of the pasta water for a more substantial sauce, or some greens that would wilt easily.

And believe it or not, even before garlic goes through its teen phase, it has yet another edible early stage. When garlic is first starting to mature in its earliest stage, it sprouts flowers whose delicate stems curl onto themselves, taking on loopy, cascading shapes. In order for the bulbs to continue growing into the mature and pungent garlic bulbs we know and love, the garlic "scapes," as these flowering stems are called, must be cut off. For years they were discarded as waste (as they continue to be in mass producing farms), when they are in fact one of springs most delicious products. Subtle and very mildly flavored, they can be added to a number of dishes where garlic cloves would be out of the question. From gazpacho to pasta and risotto, you can use it a hundred different ways, including raw in salads and blanched like green beans. I have a few recipes in store for mine, including a white bean and garlic scape dip, not to mention a great risotto primavera that utilizes these little guys to the fullest. I have a double dose sitting in my fridge that I can't wait to tackle, and I highly suggest that everyone get out to their local farmers market and try to find some. You won't regret it!

-Laura