Garlic-Free Ajoblanco with Ginger (Cold Almond Soup)

My wife doesn't like raw garlic — in fact she can detect it at concentrations below one part per million. If garlic were ever smuggled, customs would use her to sniff out the stashes.

A few months ago I made ajoblanco to use up the almonds we had; here is the post. She liked it a lot but told me it had too much garlic, even though I only used one small clove for 4 people, with the central germ removed. If I used any less, we'd be entering the world of culinary homeopathy.

When I wrote that post, I said that one day I'd have to make a SenseAjoBlanco — that is, an ajoblanco (“white garlic”) without garlic. I thought that for the new dish to make any sense, the scent of the garlic should be replaced by that of another ingredient.

I've finally made the SenseAjoBlanco with ginger, which seems to me a natural substitute for garlic, and it was very good — in fact it gained in freshness. As always with adaptations of traditional recipes, it doesn't beat the original ajoblanco, but it's quite successful; let's say it's an interesting twist.

The original ajoblanco is usually served with grapes or melon, and I had neither, so, since I was already changing things, I served it with little cubes of apple, which didn't clash at all — and since I was already changing the recipe... . The recipe is the same as the ajoblanco one, replacing the garlic with ginger; you'll find it on this same blog.

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