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Hot weather cooking


jgm

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Temperatures here in the midwest are currently in the 100+ range, and after a long day at work, standing in our kitchen (on the west side of our house, catching the worst of the afternoon sun), I can't even bring myself to boil eggs for tuna salad.

So what do you have for dinner when you can't bear the thought of turning on the stove or the oven?

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Temperatures here in the midwest are currently in the 100+ range, and after a long day at work, standing in our kitchen (on the west side of our house, catching the worst of the afternoon sun), I can't even bring myself to boil eggs for tuna salad.

So what do you have for dinner when you can't bear the thought of turning on the stove or the oven?

If you had worded this differently and said "what do you MAKE for dinner" the obvious answer would be "reservations." :laugh: I feel the same way and my kitchen doesn't have a west window! Fortunately the heat also takes its toll on my appetite (12 courses Tuesday night notwithstanding) so it works out in the end.

We're pretty much subsisting on tomatoes, watermelon and cucumbers & onions at this point. And treat yourself to the Mexican place in Towanda - spicy food really does cool you down - people on several tropical subcontinents can't be wrong!

Judy Jones aka "moosnsqrl"

Sharing food with another human being is an intimate act that should not be indulged in lightly.

M.F.K. Fisher

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OMG that looks good!

But I'm really trying to find something to come up with in my kitchen. We can't eat out every night, and we've already ordered pizza once.

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Go for Thai style salads.

Quick grill whatever you have, slice it thin, give it a marinade of chilis, nam pla, shallots, lime juice, and sugar, and then toss it all with whatever looks good in the way of fresh greens.

I'm partial to tenderloins, pork or beef. If you use a cheaper cut, marinade it for an hour with some papaya.

The sweat from the chilis will take your mind off of how hot it is outside.

Plus, it's an excuse to drink cold beer.

(it was 64 C down south of me a few weeks ago.....only in the 54 C range here)

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July was hellish around here. We had 23 days over 95, and 7 of those were over 100 (we topped out at 108). Not only that, but we had many days that were smoky, from the wildfires.

Our solution? We barbequed a lot. We had watermelon. I made lots of cool salads. We drank beer.

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Hiyashichuka or somen. All you have to do is cook the noodles and shock them in ice water; suggest buying the toppings to minimize the effort.

Fish tacos (grill outside).

I juiced a watermelon for some soup (posted in the Dinner! thread).

Ceviche.

Hmm....Sheena might have something on Nengmyun (Korean cold noodles) in her stuff. That's a fine idea.....as is ceviche.

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JGM, welcome to Sacramento!

:laugh::laugh::laugh:

Our usual summertime fare involves a lot of barbecued things. Even things I would normally bake get done on the gas grill. (See below for instructions on turning your gas grill into a medium-hot oven.)

Lots of salads but not necessarily ones involving lettuce.

Corn salad is one of my favourites; I make it with raw corn, cut off the cob, diced tomatoes, diced red onion, diced cucumbers, cilantro, jalapenos (if you're so inclined), and lots of lime juice.

Greek salad makes a great meal-sized salad.

As someone mentioned, hot foods do indeed cool you down. Or maybe they just change your perception of the exterior heat. Who cares that it's 115 outside when it's 1115 inside your mouth?

Other tips: use a crock pot outside. Use one of those portable roaster thingies outside. For that matter, any small appliance that does the cooking for you can be used outside. (Note to self: move rice cooker outside.)

You can cook stuff on the stove in the morning for assembly as a cold dinner later. So, if you want a Nicoise-inspired salad, steam the green beans and boil the potatoes and eggs in the morning. Then, all you have to do assemble things in the heat of the day. (Keeping in mind that any meat proteins you include in the salad will be cooked on the grill...outside.)

And, I'm sure you know this already but make sure you keep well-hydrated. Lots of water, lots of iced tea, anything.

Oven Directions:

Crinkle some sheets of tinfoil so that they are kind of lumpy. Remove the grates from your gas grill and turn it on. On our three burner Weber, the front and back are on low and the middle one is off. Once the temperature has stabilised (somewhere around 375-380), put the tinfoil lumpies down and replace the grates. Voila! an oven...

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salads! bread salads, if you want something a bit heartier without cooking even the rice or noodles. think quick and seasonal... asian inspired quick pickles, berries macerated in balsamic vinegar, pineapple, grapes, peaches, etc., avocado, tomatoes... an excellent time to make use of good canned beans or cheeses for protein in your salads.

also, no shame in letting the butcher quick steam the shrimp or other seafood for you if want it cooked and you can't stand even a few minutes of stove heat. and yes, ceviche, or "citrus-cooked" salmon, or other seafood is perfect in a heat wave. let your fridge do your "cooking" for you. spice heat and cool ingredients are a great combo in the heat.

Judith Love

North of the 30th parallel

One woman very courteously approached me in a grocery store, saying, "Excuse me, but I must ask why you've brought your dog into the store." I told her that Grace is a service dog.... "Excuse me, but you told me that your dog is allowed in the store because she's a service dog. Is she Army or Navy?" Terry Thistlewaite

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Go for Thai style salads.

Quick grill whatever you have, slice it thin, give it a marinade of chilis, nam pla, shallots, lime juice, and sugar, and then toss it all with whatever looks good in the way of fresh greens. . .

JGM: Do you have a grill? If so, I enthusiastically second Peter Green’s recommendation. Thai-style grilled meat salads are our go-to summer meal.

gallery_42956_2536_13350.jpg

Rick Bayless has lots of main-dish salads in Mexican Everyday (click). What about grilled summer produce – grilled sweet corn, grilled zucchini, grilled tomatoes and garlic for salsa? Grilled pineapple for dessert? Summer tomato and cucumber salad? Raita with shredded cucumbers and mint? Guacamole?

I hope some of these ideas are helpful.

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My house doesn't get hot, but last week I wanted some cooler sides, so I made:

Cucumber salad (soy sauce, chili oil, sesame oil, sesame, rice wine vinegar)

Chickpea salad (borrowed from Cooking Light; basically chickpeas, red wine vinegar, herbs de provence (or whatever I have on hand), red onion, garlic, and some lemon)

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The biggest problem for me isn't so much the heat of cooking, it's the heat in my car when I venture out to buy ingredients. With my schedule, the only easy time to go shopping is in the middle of the day, and without AC in my car, it's very strenuous to go shopping.

Last night was a grilling night. I made pork tenderloins rubbed with lime, cumin, coriander, chile, and garlic; grilled white corn; and a head of roasted garlic.

Edited by Restorer (log)

-- There are infinite variations on food restrictions. --

Crooked Kitchen - my food blog

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Outdoor grill.

Microwave.

Cold salads - Taco salad using shredded chicken from one of those store-bought rotisserie chickens. The store can heat up their ovens while yours remains off.

 

“Peter: Oh my god, Brian, there's a message in my Alphabits. It says, 'Oooooo.'

Brian: Peter, those are Cheerios.”

– From Fox TV’s “Family Guy”

 

Tim Oliver

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Outdoor grill.

Microwave.

Cold salads - Taco salad using shredded chicken from one of those store-bought rotisserie chickens. The store can heat up their ovens while yours remains off.

Exactly. Outdoor grill with beer in hand. All the food on the grill, AC inside.

100 here in Atlanta too.

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Here in the southern part of the US it has been about unbearable lately. My solution...my crock pot! It does not heat the house, I can make enough for two nights. Rotessorie (sp?) chicken from the grocery store, deboned and made into tacos, quesadillas, my rice cooker will not heat up the house, so I can make rice. Between that, cold cereal and eating out, grill out (too hot for even that lately!) sandwhiches, saleds. That is about it in this heat. (the crock pot is only when we get sick of eating out, sandwhiches, saleds, cold cereal. :rolleyes:

edit to add: Also, it is not uncommon to see me up at 5 in the morning cooking dinner to put in the fridge to nuke it later.

Edited by CKatCook (log)

"I eat fat back, because bacon is too lean"

-overheard from a 105 year old man

"The only time to eat diet food is while waiting for the steak to cook" - Julia Child

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Grill way more meat than you could possibly eat, nuke or grill the sweet corn, and make sure and have plenty of tomatoes and good bread. Grilled meat one night with corn and tomatoes, then for the next few nights, chicken salad sandwiches, sliced steak sandwiches.

And, if it's really bloody hot, just stand in front of the fridge door, in one's skivvy's and eat cold leftover meat in one hand, a tomato in the other hand, and feel that cool fridge air.

Susan Fahning aka "snowangel"
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Hi JGM, we are getting the same heat here and I do understand. It is too hot to even consider cranking up the grill much less staying outside in the 100+ temps to cook anything. I mean it was still 91 degrees at 10:30pm. The heat plus the humitidy is making staying outside almost unbearable. I went to the PGA on Sunday and it was a miracle I made it the whole day. Thank god we had clubhouse tickets to get out of the heat.

I have been making chilled soups, with the last of the tomatoes, a nice gazpacho or possibly a cucumber soup served with a light salad with either smoked trout or shrimp to give it some heft.

This is the first place I have ever lived where people were excited about the possiblity of a tropical storm coming. But we are hoping it will break the heat for us plus give us some much needed rain.

Oh, and a nice bowl of ice cream after dinner just hits the spot. I still prefer vanilla.

It is good to be a BBQ Judge.  And now it is even gooder to be a Steak Cookoff Association Judge.  Life just got even better.  Woo Hoo!!!

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Last night, I made tomato bruschetta for the first time. OMG, I never had anything so good, so fresh and so flavorful. The only thing that involved heat was toasting my garlic baguette. The tomatoes I chopped, tossed with minced garlic and herbs and then drizzled with EVOO. Topped on my toasted baguette slics, it was a nice refreshing and light dinner. I finished half a baguette and hubby was all :blink:

Doddie aka Domestic Goddess

"Nobody loves pork more than a Filipino"

eGFoodblog: Adobo and Fried Chicken in Korea

The dark side... my own blog: A Box of Jalapenos

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