Recipes and News From The Golden Harvest
Today’s Recipe: Salmorejo
“The olive tree is surely the richest gift of Heaven. I can scarcely expect bread”
One of the best parts of summer is the farmers markets around the world. All those awesome summer vegetables, whether cooked or raw, taste better with good olive oil. That’s just a fact. Especially tomatoes. Even supermarket tomatoes have a little flavor at this time of year with the help of olive oil. But nothing like a farmers market—and we’re happy that two of our favorites, the St. Monica Farmers Market and the West Side Market in Cleveland are still managing to offer up fresh tomatoes during these strange times. But today’s recipe comes from Europe’s Orchard: Spain. It specifically from Granada, the home of Ana Carreño Leyva, one of the earliest advisers on The Golden Harvest and the heart of Fundación El Legado Andalusí in Granada.
Salmorejo is the proud dish of Andalusia, and Ana showed us how simple it is to make something with such complex levels of flavor every day, which we did for about month after leaving Spain. We were that addicted.
Ingredients:
1 kilo of perfectly-ripe tomatoes
200 grams (approximately 4 cups) day-old country-style white bread, cut into cubes, removing crust
¾ cup of extra virgin olive oil
1 garlic clove, peeled and crushed
2 teaspoons sea salt (We do half this amount—two teaspoons is restaurant level saltiness)
Preparation:
After washing the tomatoes, you can peel them but this is only necessary if you want a very smooth texture. It does not change the flavor. Cut up tomatoes into the blender and puree. Then add in the olive oil, bread, garlic and salt. (We also add two teaspoons of apple cider vinegar, but that’s just us). Serve chilled or room temperature. Pour into a bowl and garnish with chopped boiled egg and serrano ham or for vegan option, small cubes of cucumber and green or red peppers.
Updates on The Golden Harvest:
We are delighted to announce the film will be in competition at Food Film Fest in August in beautiful Bergamo, Italy. Stay tuned for specific dates and times.
In the News:
Milling About Wheat Grinding:
Wheat into flour is a tradition almost as old—and emotional-- as olive oil production. Industrialization has nearly wiped out quality. See more in this New York Times article.
The Pine Nut Crisis of Lebanon:
Alia Yunis, the director of The Golden Harvest, grew up partly in Lebanon. As she says in the film, during the civil war, when nothing else worked, the food always did. But today, even that is not true—people are literally starving under an unprecedented economic crisis. Once abundant artisan ingredients are disappearing, like the pine nuts of Lebanon’s mountains. These are often fried in olive oil to garnish numerous dishes. The film can be viewed here. (This is from NOS Dutch TV, but all in English and Arabic)