Garlic Soup (the Hispania Restaurant Recipe)

Madrid Fusión finished just a few days ago; on 17 February the Girona Gastronomic Forum begins (it used to be held in Vic and was called the Vic Gastronomic Forum), followed by Barcelona Degusta, which will take place from 2 to 5 March 2007 at the Montjuïc trade fair grounds in Barcelona.

My only experience of this kind of event was at the Hostelco fair 3 or 4 years ago, which included some sessions with chefs giving demonstrations.

The day I visited the fair, I was able to attend one featuring the Reixach sisters (Lolita and Paquita) of the Hispania restaurant together with Ramón Freixa. The Reixach sisters made a dish in the traditional way, and then Freixa made his modern version. Among the dishes they made, I remember garlic soup and a crema catalana.

When I saw the cooking each side did, I realised that the space I liked was halfway between the two. The cooking Freixa showed was all special effects: combinations of products that added nothing to each other and didn't even mix, because their textures were so different there was no way of combining them. The simplicity of the sisters' cooking bored me.

I've found some notes from that event, and what amused me most is that I took notes on the garlic soup — as the saying goes, "garlic soup has already been invented" — but in case anyone doesn't know how to make it, here's the Hispania restaurant's recipe.

Garlic soup (Hispania)

Brown the garlic cloves in a pan with plenty of oil, after removing the germ; they need to cook without burning. When they're nicely golden, take them out of the oil and put them in a mortar. Fry the bread in the same oil and brown it a little so it takes on the garlic flavour. Then add hot water to the pan, but don't let it boil. Add the garlic (well pounded in the mortar) to the soup and work the mixture (bread, garlic and water) well with a whisk. Cook the soup for about 10 minutes, whisking all the time. If it's too thick, add more hot water. Off the heat, add some unbeaten eggs (more or less 1 per person) and work the mixture a little with the whisk.

I don't have the quantities they used, but I remember they put in a considerable amount of garlic.

Another day I'll share my own garlic soup recipe, which for a while I liked so much that I'd make it as an afternoon snack during exam time.

🌐 Llegeix aquesta recepta en català