Kingfisher Salmorejo

A few weeks back, my husband Jerry and I had the pleasure of a late lunch at the Kingfisher Bar and Grill in Tucson, a restaurant we have frequented for many years.

I ordered the Salmorejo, which is a Spanish soup whose primary ingredient is bread, although all the other ingredients combine to create a complex, fabulous array of flavors and textures.

This wonderful restaurant has been around since the mid 1960’s. Originally called ‘The Iron Mask’ it was family owned and operated by Douglas and Rita Marvin for nearly 30 years.

The restaurant was then purchased by two chefs, Jeff Azersky and Jim Murphy in 1993 and re-named The Kingfisher Bar and Grill bringing fresh seafood to Tucson. Jerry and I, both being from New England were instantly attracted to Kingfisher, as living in southern Arizona for 25 years we really miss fresh seafood!

They ran the restaurant until 2022. When Kingfisher went up for sale, Chef Jacki Kuder saw the opportunity to pursue her passion of cooking and bought the restaurant herself. In a recent conversation she told me she knew it would be one of life’s great regrets if she did not follow her heart.

Chef Jacki learned everything she knows about cooking from her Dad who taught her to make Biscuits and Gravy at the young age of 8. She’s still making them today. Jacki did not always work in the culinary field, but knew she would not be truly happy unless she did. Prior to purchasing Kingfisher, Jacki worked as a chef at several restaurants in Tucson including “Old Pueblo Grille” and “Janos”.

Chef Jacki is a self-taught chef as are so many incredibly talented cooks around the world. She was a big fan of Anthony Bourdain and adapted this Kingfisher Salmorejo recipe from his recipe for White Gazpacho.

She was gracious enough to share her recipe with me and I made it recently for our good friends, Dorita and Rudy Pina to kick off our 4th of July celebration.

Dorita, an excellent cook herself, and her husband who is not always an adventurous eater, both seemed to love it! This Salmorejo was a tiny bit heavy as a starter and is rich enough to make a meal on its own.

The most fun part of making this recipe for me was smoking the tomatoes and the mild smokey flavor makes this recipe both unique and delicious. I do a fair amount of smoking on my big, bullet smoker, but did not have a cold smoker so bought one to make this recipe.

Jacki’s recipe calls for starting by preparing the garnishes, but I was so excited to try my new cold smoker that I started with the tomatoes.  Remove the seeds and membranes from two tomatoes. Brush the tops of the tomatoes with olive oil and lightly season with salt. Chef Jacki suggests smoking at 250 degrees for 20 minutes. My new little cold smoker does not have a thermometer so I just smoked for 20 minutes.

Since this was my first time using this smoker I didn’t realize that I needed to smoke the tomatoes on a flat surface in order to keep the smoke inside the cloche. As I began smoking my kitchen started filling with smoke. I quickly moved everything to the front porch and finished the process outside to avoid alarms blaring. It really was quite hysterical!

Once the tomatoes are smoked, set them aside to cool.

PREPARE THE GARNISH:

Cut two thin slices from a full-size baguette. Brush lightly with EVOO, salt and pepper. Toast in the oven to make golden brown crostini’s. Let cool.

Fry capers in neutral oil until crispy. I used vegetable oil. Drain and cool. Toast the hazelnuts in the oven at 300 degrees for 7 to 10 minutes until just toasted. Pulse in a food processor until chunky, but not dust.

Cut the baguette into large cubes, dunk in very cold (I used ice water) water in a bowl and soak for 5 minutes. Gently squeeze the water out of the bread cubes and transfer the bread and 1 cup of bread water to the blender. Here was another problem I encountered. I use my Moms’ 1960’s era Osterizer blender, which is small so I had to blend everything in portions and then re-blend until all ingredients were completely smooth. Chef Jacki uses an industrial Vitamix blender. I think that will be my next purchase.

Something else I did wrong, which I asked Chef Jacki about when we spoke. The bread goes into the blender with 1 cup of ice water and gets blended. The almond meal and other ingredients get blended separately and then added into the blended bread to complete the soup.

Almond flour and almond meal are not the same things. Almond flour is made from blanched, peeled almonds, resulting in a finer texture and lighter color. Almond meal is made from ground almonds with skin still on creating a coarser texture and darker color.

Separately blend the blanched almond meal, garlic, sherry vinegar, smoked tomatoes, 1 1/4 tsp. salt and a pinch of cayenne pepper for about 2 minutes until the mixture is thick like batter. Add this to the bread and with the motor running, stream in the olive oil slowly over 30 seconds. Then stream in the remaining bread water and process for 1 minute until perfectly smooth.

Strain the soup through a fine mesh strainer, gently coaxing the liquid out of the solids. Discard the solids. Season to taste.

Chill the soup for at least 3 hours up to 24 hours.

Before serving, garnish with crispy capers, crumbled crostini and toasted hazelnut chunks.

This Salmorejo is so satisfying and although there are a few steps in making this soup it is absolutely worth it! Thanks again, Chef Jacki for sharing your recipe and thanks for making Kingfisher our favorite restaurant in Tucson!