Gazpacho

Gazpacho is an Andalusian raw vegetable soup based on tomatoes and noted for its acidic bite!

Your Gazpacho can include any number of ingredients - avocado, cucumber, watermelon, grapes, even seafood. Modern recipes will often include sugar to counter the vinegar as a gastrique - paleo, we can simply leave that out and enjoy the genuine article.

Let's start out simple ...

First, the tomatoes - simply quarter and place into a bowl and then pound with the end of a rolling pin until a pulp is achieved, stopping short of a puree. You could use a food processor or blender, but mashing is more fun!

Add a good glug of extra virgin olive oil or avocado oil, a splash of cider vinegar and any other ingredients you want to include - diced cucumber, avocado, whatever. I like to use pickled chillis for a lighter vinegar flavour, a good tang and a little bite.

Pure sea salt to taste and a grind of pepper.

Finally, a little chilled water or even crushed ice cubes just to cool the dish.

Fried Whitebait with Aioli

Whitebait are young herring, one to two inches in length. Dusted and fried, they make a seriously tasty dish!

Enough talking ... we've got fish to fry ...

First, rinse the fish and pat them dry, then dust with arrowroot or any kind of paleo-friendly flour - this is easily done by putting all the fish into a bag, sprinkle in the flour, sea salt and freshly milled black pepper. Capture some air in the bag, close off the top and shake to coat the fish.

In a frying pan, get some fat heated up - dripping is perfect; that's tallow, I think in US. You don't need a lot; enough to shallow fry.

When the fat is HOT, drop in the whitebait which should sizzle violently so get a hold of the pan and sauté, flipping the fish in the pan a few times.

Turn out onto kitchen paper to soak off the excess fat and serve as they are with a few lemon wedges or over salad leaves with a sauce like aioli or soured cream.

To make aioli, collect a number of egg yolks into a bowl. Eggs from naturally raised chickens have a fantastic yellow colour and a great flavour.

Whisk the eggs, pouring up a slow stream of extra virgin olive oil until a fine emulsion is formed. As well as producing a fine sauce, this is great exercise - feel free to use a food processor.

Whisk in some crushed and minced garlic cloves. Use as many as you like, but do not overpower the sauce.

Check for flavour, adding lemon juice, maybe a little salt and some finely ground black pepper. You can optionally include some English mustard powder to boost the kick and add some further yellow colour if need be - it's optional. Feel free to pop in some finely chopped herbs - parsley and basil spring to mind.