GaspachoS

Am reading a great book by the Delia Smith/Julia Child of Portugal - Maria de Lourdes Modesto, where she's basically showing Portuguese culture through its gastronomy, Coisas Que Eu Sei (Things That I Know). 

In the chapter on gaspacho (as it's spelt here), she quotes what Cervantes puts in the mouth of Sancho Panza:
"... más quiero hartarme de gazpachos que estar sujeto a la miséria de un médico impertinente que me mate de hambre." 
(I'd rather fill myself with gazpachos than subject myself to the misery of an impertinent doctor killing me with hunger).

And she emphasises the plural, gazpachos, because there are countless ways to make this refreshing and health-giving cold summer soup.

Today I picked a large jug full of tomatoes, some purslane, some sprigs of rosemary, a few tender bay leaves, the flowers off the basil, a chili pepper, a green pepper and a cucumber, and whizzed it with the stick blender. Meanwhile, all our bits of stale bread were soaking in a mixture of vinegar and the water I'd boiled the eggs in (rich in calcium), which I then whizzed with a few cloves of garlic and some olive oil. Then whizzed it all together, poured into bowls and garnished with chopped up hard boiled eggs and local cured ham.

You're supposed to sieve it, but that's a lot of faff, and it was fine without. Delicious, healthy, filling - and no cooking in this almost 40C heat. If you don't like tomatoes or green peppers, try it with ground almonds instead - which is how it was made before America was discovered, which is where those two ingredients originated.

Gratefuls:
- getting my second Astra Zeneca vaccine, at the health post here in Mourão, fine so far except for a sore arm
- transplanting more tomato seedlings (which germinated in one of my geraniums)
- catching up with Ju and Tom after her doing a run of nights (with some very ill with Covid women)