Recipes from The Perils of Paella

Carolyn's Gazpacho
Nancy Fairbanks

Gazpacho is cold soup that is served all over Spain, not to mention in other countries. The author of Bull Cook and Historical Recipes and Practices, an eccentric cookbook given to me by my father, claims that gazpacho was born when an Andalusian peasant in the nineteenth century didn't have any firewood so had to eat his vegetable soup cold. He and his guest liked it.

• Liquefy in a blender or food processor ½ peeled cucumber; one green bell pepper, seeds and all; 3 chopped cloves of garlic; 1 small peeled onion; and 42 oz. canned tomatoes with liquid. Pour into a large bowl or enameled pan and mix together.
  
  
• Mix together in a cup 1 tbs. chili powder, 1 tbs. salt, 2 tbs. olive oil and 2 tbs. vinegar. Stir well into the liquefied vegetables.
  
  
• Mix in ½ cup fine dry breadcrumbs.
  
  
• Mix in 1 qt. cold water.
  
  
• Cover and allow to stand in a cool room five hours or overnight.
  
  
• Strain solids from the soup, add extra chili powder and salt to taste, and chill liquid in the refrigerator.
  
  
• Stir or shake and serve cold with bowls of garlic croutons.
  
  
• Croutons: Set oven at 200° F. Remove crusts from 1 lb sliced, stale white bread and cut slices into 20 to 25 croutons. Melt half-and-half butter and Lawry's garlic spread and dab on croutons spread in baking pan. Bake for 2 hours, allow to cool, and refrigerate until ready to serve. Float on soup.,

Carolyn Blue, "Have Fork, Will Travel." Phoenix Sun

More about The Perils of Paella
Nancy Fairbanks

While her husband gives an academic lecture nearby, Carolyn opts to spend time in Barcelona, soaking up the sights, eating out, and visiting her friend Roberta. Her first feast is for the eyes—a modern art museum where Roberta is a resident Miro scholar. There, Carolyn catches a performance art piece about death, planted a little too firmly in reality. One of the actors is not acting—she’s dead—as well as a dead ringer for Roberta. And now Carolyn is in the middle of a new investigation of a very unsavory crime, assisting the very reluctant Catalan homicide detective Ildefons Pujol i Serra, not to mention searching for Robbie’s runaway stepson Sammie and fending off local criminals.

ECard for Perils of Paella

(Culinary Mystery with Recipes)
Berkley (Prime Crime) , January 2004
Featuring: Carolyn Blue
304 pages ISBN: 042519390X
Paperback
$5.99

Also by Nancy Fairbanks:
Holy Guacamole! , November 2004
Chocolate Quake , April 2003
Death À L’Orange , June 2002
Truffled Feathers , December 2001
Crime Brûlée , April 2001

(Notify me via e-mail when Nancy Fairbanks releases a new book.)