Gazpacho Soup

I make this once a year, usually around this time when tomatoes are super ripe and cheap, and the weather is nice & warm.  Cold soup is always so good when its hot outside.  A co-worker says this dish is his favourite of all the things I make, so I make it for him - this will be the third or fourth year now.  I started, the first time I made it by following Ina Garten's recipe exactly.  Each year, I change the recipe a little and experiment. Last year was awful - for some reason it came out really BITTER.  This year I used:

• 1 & 1/2 lbs of vine ripened tomatoes, cored and cut in quarters
• 1 lb of Roma tomatoes, cored and cut in half
• 1 large red onion, large dice
• 6 cloves of garlic, minced
• 2 English cucumbers, peeled, seeded ( I use a spoon and scoop lengthwise) and sliced
• 2 red peppers, cored, seeded and sliced
• 2 whole jalapenos with seeds, sliced
• Handful of cilantro with stems
• 1/2 lime, juiced
• 1 jar (720 ml) of organic San Remo strained tomatoes (these are almost sodium free)
• 1/2 cup of white wine vinegar
• 1/4 cup of Kirkland organic extra virgin olive oil
• Freshly cracked pepper, to taste
• Freshly cracked kosher salt, to taste

I chopped everything in small pieces.  I used my garlic press for the garlic in case the blender didn't get it small enough.

Everything went into a pot and I used a hand blender to process until it reached a consistency that I liked.

When I got to that consistency, I added the salt & pepper and gave it a final blend.

The initial taste was very promising (not bitter at all), lots of good flavour already!  Then into the fridge it went so the flavours could develop - the longer it sits, the better it gets...

I like to garnish with a dollop of sour cream and fresh cilantro.  I noticed after it sat, that the garlic was strong and made it touch "bitter" tasting.  It made me wonder if it was the garlic that made it bitter last year???  I could not figure it out at all and is still an unsolved puzzle...  Next time, I will use half the garlic - I always have used 6 cloves since the first time.  Next time, I will follow this rule about raw garlic, which I wish I would have googled a half hour before I made this tonight!  I used some sugar to balance it and hoped it would - I was nervous what it would be like in the morning though...  The jalapenos only played a mild role and gave it a slight kick, but it wasn't spicy at all - at least not to me.

This is the bowl for my co-worker.  I always give him twice the size, as he's the one who usually ends up eating most of it all anyway...except for last year...  :)  Anwyay, about 8am the next morning, I got a message from him at my desk:

So, I guess it was OK and balanced out over night.  I was happy he enjoyed it.