Hot weather cooking

[sparrowgrass]

Snowangel, you are a woman after my own heart.

I have been canning so many tomatoes, picking and washing and chopping and blending and pureeing and boiling and roasting, and my kitchen is so hot, and I am so tired, that dinner for last month or so has been crackers or peanuts, with a side of tomatoes.

A wealth, a glory, of fresh tomatoes, and all I have done with them is dress them in olive oil, vinegar and garlic, or eat them sliced with salt or make an occasional bacon sandwich. Which is heaven in itself, but I feel like I should be "making" something once in a while.

Bruschetta sounds lovely, but it would involve a trip to the next town for good bread, or (no way this is going to happen) baking my own.

[rmillman]

You can do what the TopChef team did on a hot night in Maimi and prepare a cream based risotto with truffles and foie gras followed by braised lambshanks.

[Jamie Lee]

Shoot, this thread has resulted in a totally addicted food binge for me - PANZENELLA!

One of the cool things about cooking for one is that you spice it to your liking, dress it to your liking, and eat "it" (whatever it may be) to your heart's content. I got a "hankering" for panzenella, and can't get over it! Fresh tom, fresh basil, good olive oil, shallots, jalapenos, fresh garlic, good bread - YUM. Coarse sea salt, coarse ground pepper - I'm in heaven.

I'm sure I'll tire of this salad soon, but for right now, I can't get enough! Keep in mind that my health status precludes me from more than a small helping, but every bite is a blessing!

God loves summer-time!

[alamut]

There's a lot of great ideas on this thread that I want to second. Ceviche, sushi, cold soups, salads, fruits (watermelon, feta, & mint!), just think of all the stuff you won't get a chance to eat in January. One thing that I wanted to weigh in was a great grilled pizza I got stole from a bobby flay cookbook that is a popular back yard treat. (1) sautee a big bunch of sliced onions with a sh*tload of butter until they are all nicely carmerlaized. (2) repeat the sautee with mushrooms -- this stovetop can be done in the early AM, and kept in the fridge for several days. (3) take store-bought flatbread, glaze it with evoo, top it with the sauteed mushrooms & onions and a generous crumble of blue cheese, grill it on a sheet of tin foil. Always fun.

[Pierogi]

Drain a can (you want about a 12 oz. can) of *GOOD* tuna packed in water. Flake it. In a non-reactive bowl, put some chopped onion (about 1/2 a medium onion), chopped tomatoes (about 1/2 a large one) and chopped cilantro (meh....maybe 1/2 a cup). Some chopped cuke, radish and/or fresh jalapenos (or any combination thereof...) couldn't hurt. Add some S&P, a couple of good shots of Mexican hot sauce (Tapatio or Cholula are my faves) and the juice of 2 good size limes. Stir and add the tuna. All ingredients/components to taste. Maybe a little canola oil (you want flavorless) if the mix seems dry. Let sit in the fridge for at least 1/2 an hour to blend the flavors.

Stir again, check seasonings (and amount of lime juice) and serve on tostada shells. Sliced/diced avocado and Mexican creama would be dynamite toppers.

[llc45]

Both loosely based on cooking light recipes:

Boil water for bulghur wheat in microwave, add bulghur, add green beans towards end of "sitting" time to steam without having to boil water on the stove. Once this mixture is finished and cooled down a little, add halved cherry tomatoes, green onions or red onions, feta and a vinegrette made with walnut oil, rice wine vinegar honey, dijon mustard, s&P. Yummy

Chop up some chicken from store bought rotisserie chicken, add some diced up sun dried tomatoes packed in oil, chopped fresh tomatoes and red onion, parmesan or asiago cheese, lots of basil, and make vinegrette from sun dried tomatoe oil and balsamic. We eat on mixed lettuce mix or in sandwich.

[Jakea222]

you guys are freaks - I cook all day long - took a 15 min break the other day to check in an order for a 10 hr shift. 108 outside - 115 on the line - enough that the maintenance man felt sorry opened the door to the main dining room and turned the supply air off - I usually am too hot to cook, but sandwich and a margarita with some advil and a ceiling fan in my 68 degree AC'd house.

[bergerka]

2 jars garbanzo beans

1 large can peeled tomatoes, whole

1 can olives stuffed with red pepper (or whatever you like)

2 cucumbers

1-2 onions

1 package roasted red peppers

raisins

salt, olive oil, cider vinegar

Put garbanzo beans in large bowl. Roughly chop tomatoes, cucumbers, onions, olives, red peppers and add. Add raisins, as many as you like. Liberally salt (it's very hard to oversalt this dish), add olive oil and a couple of splashes of cider vinegar. Mix with wooden spoon. Put bowl in refrigerator till cold. Eat. Best with cold white wine or a good rosé.

There. No cooking! Yum. Been making this all summer. Didn't get the recipe from anywhere, it was a result of "wonder if all these things I have lying around would taste good together..."

K

[Toliver]

It's too hot to cook.

I made chicken and black bean burritos yesterday. I used my microwave to heat the beans (mashed about more than 1/2 of them for that refried bean texture) and mixed in some diced green chiles from a can. I also added some cumin and ancho chile powder that I had on hand for seasoning. I tossed in some chopped scallions, diced tomatoes and lots of shredded chicken (from a store-bought rotisserie chicken). If I had had some cheese that would have gone in as well. All wrapped up in a whole wheat toritlla. It was satisfying with no stove or oven to add to the heat of the day.

[LindaK]

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.

I'm with snowangel about strategically using leftovers to beat the heat. Cook once, eat twice. Last weekend, leftover poached salmon made an excellent addition to a composed salad, and extra potatoes and green beans made for a quick salad nicoise.

I'm also partial to frittata as the center of a quick summer dinner.

If cooking isn't an option, then just give me good tomatoes, bread, and cheese.

[suzilightning]

I'm with snowangel about strategically using leftovers to beat the heat.  Cook once, eat twice.  Last weekend, leftover poached salmon made an excellent addition to a composed salad, and extra potatoes and green beans made for a quick salad nicoise.

I'm also partial to frittata as the center of a quick summer dinner.

If cooking isn't an option, then just give me good tomatoes, bread, and cheese.

←

This is so true. The steak from Sunday was last night's steak salad. Since I grew up without air conditioning (and still don't have it) I tend to get up and do my cooking very early. Chicken breasts for chicken salad or tacos with a side of coffee cake for John's breakfasts along side.

Cold soups and as someone said - keep that iced tea coming. I brew at least one pot a day in the summer.

Know anyone in the restaurant business? When it got too bad behind the line we would take our 5 minute break and head for the walk-in.

[DanielColeman]

My god it's getting hot, and with heat comes my inability to consume anything bar ice ice cubes, fruit and pimms. Does anyone have any favourites that can keep me inspired in the kitchen this summer?

Also, hiya. First post.

[Doodad]

Take a tip from cultures in hot climates. Tabouleh, hummus and meat on the grill.

[Darienne]

Welcome, Daniel.

Salads, salads, and more salads. And hot stuff cooked in the slow cooker...like pulled meat...or toaster oven...like scones with raspberries and whipped cream...or grilled sandwiches in the sandwich/waffle maker.

Still haven't used the barbecue, but then DH is renovating upstairs and not at all into cooking these days.

[Kim Shook]

Welcome, Daniel! I usually don't have a hard time the first few weeks of summer - the hot weather still new and (somewhat) welcome. I'm ready for all the fresh vegetables and grilling and all. When they are in, I can eat nothing but sliced tomatoes and corn for days. Summertime is a good time to grill fish. It's good hot the day you cook it and is wonderful cold (especially salmon and trout) the next day on top of a big salad. What Doodad said goes for me, too. When it gets to the middle of the summer is when I start to get so tired of summer food that I can't think straight. I feel that if I see another salad I'll go around the bend. I'm ready to donate the grill to the Salvation Army. At that point, when fall stews and braises beckon, but it's still too hot to even think about cooking such things, your pressure cooker is your friend. Crank up the AC, put some short ribs in the PC, pour a nice glass of red wine (no Pimms or G&Ts) and relax.

[DanielColeman]

I'm already way ahead of you Doodad, but i don't want to fire up the coals every time i want to eat. And Kim...aleady talking about fall? How we suffer...

I suppose i'm just after something a little different from the summer staples that end up as a chore rather than a pleasure.

[FoodMuse]

I've been snacking on green beans simmered til just tender tossed with just a little rice wine vinegar and S+P. I don't even bother with any oil. Great cool and room temp.

I keep a big bowl in the fridge.

I also make a quick pickles and snack on those.

[Jaymes]

We have had several "what to cook in summer when it's so hot out" threads, and in one of them there is a recipe for Watermelon Salad that we made at least a dozen times last summer.

Also popular in our family are cold soups.

And in summer, I often rise early while it's still cool in the kitchen and put on a big pot of some sort of pasta. Then I toss up a nice pasta salad that we leave in the fridge, handy for snacking, side dishes, lunch, picnics, whatever.

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Edited June 22, 2010 by Jaymes (log)

[Florida]

I’ve often found my “normal” is everyone else’s “different” and I often wonder what exactly it is that “normal” people eat. But my culinary philosophizing aside, the point I am trying to make is I’m not so sure what “something a little different” means to you.

For me, I live in a 50 year old house. The exterior walls are masonry – two rows of brick and during the summer, the term “brick oven” is unfortunately appropriate. As such, virtually anything that requires being cooked in the oven, goes on the grill. The gas grill is primary, though I do have a charcoal grill and a smoker as well. I have a pizza stone for the gas grill, as well as cedar planks, and a cast iron dutch oven, and at times I will flip the top of the dutch oven and use it as a piastra/griddle/saute pan.

With the loss of my oven, I am missing fresh bread, so I have been using the grill for this as well, with mixed results.

Yakatori can be fun and varied while still being both familiar and different.

Left over BBQ works great in tacos, quesadillas, or burritos.

As for non-grill items, refrigerator pickles are becoming increasingly common in my house. Hummus is probably one of the simplest recipes out there. Plus it is easily modified. Antepasti are great salad variants and they accept the grilled bread and pickles quite well. Or take the meat and the cheese from the antepasto, put it on the bread and put the whole thing on the grill (or in panini press) and you’ve got a panini.

[Jaymes]

It's too hot to cook.

I made chicken and black bean burritos yesterday. I used my microwave to heat the beans (mashed about more than 1/2 of them for that refried bean texture) and mixed in some diced green chiles from a can. I also added some cumin and ancho chile powder that I had on hand for seasoning. I tossed in some chopped scallions, diced tomatoes and lots of shredded chicken (from a store-bought rotisserie chicken). If I had had some cheese that would have gone in as well. All wrapped up in a whole wheat toritlla. It was satisfying with no stove or oven to add to the heat of the day.

I want to enthusiastically second the suggestion here about buying those grocery store rotisserie chickens to keep one out of the kitchen on hot summer days.

Those chickens are wonderful to eat as the main for a dinner, and then the next few days, have for sandwiches, salads, wraps... Everything!

Whomever first came up with the idea to sell them at the supermarkets, to me anyway, had a stroke of pure genius.

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Edited June 22, 2010 by Jaymes (log)

[jdtofbna]

Jaymes's mention of watermelon salad reminded me of one a friend of mine makes with watermelon, feta cheese, arugula, basil and a lemon vinaigrette. I'm off to Publix to get the ingredients right now---it's 95 degrees in Nashville!!

[kayb]

Bacon, lettuce and tomato sandwiches. Cook up a pound of bacon at a time, in the morning when it's cooler, and keep it in the fridge to use when you want it.