Hot weather foods

As I write, much of the Eastern United States is smothering beneath what climate experts call a “heat dome.” Rather than go into technicalities, know that heat dome basically means it’s extremely hot, with little relief in sight. Atop this, wildfires are burning in New Mexico and parts of California.

I am not hectoring anybody about global warming. This a blog about cooking and eating.

Heat impacts both cooks and eaters. Nobody wants to cook during a heatwave. As for eating, the late, much-missed Molly O’Neill, writing in A Well-Seasoned Appetite, poetically described the summer appetite as “loath to commit to a full meal, looking to be convinced.”

Today’s post discusses hot weather foods–recipes requiring minimal or no cooking. Most have appeared here before. My goal is to help to people struggling with intense heat while needing to feed themselves and others. As somebody who is profoundly heat intolerant, my heart goes out to fellow sufferers. Unrelenting heat is a specific sort of hell no amount of “hydration” can alleviate.

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A loaf of bread, a stick of butter, and thou…

The variations on this theme are as endless as they are simple. Cold cuts like ham, salami, and many kinds of cured pork leap to mind. Or buy cultured butter, smoked fish, and your favorite olives. Too much work? Serve bread and cheese and call it a day.

Fresh corn has arrived. It is ideal hot weather food. To prepare corn, season as desired (see suggestions, below). Wrap the cobs in tinfoil and roast for 10 minutes at 375F/190C. Corn may also be boiled, broiled, or barbecued.

Corn takes well to a variety of seasonings. Try sprinkling it with chaat masala and dried pomegranate. Fresh lime juice and salt is a classic combination. Sumac, salt, and ground cumin lend corn a gentle lemon flavor with a slightly spicy kick. Finally, buttered, salted corn never goes out of fashion.

Should you prefer corn off the cob, a salad of broiled peppers, crumbled feta or diced mozzarella, sliced tomatoes, and fresh parsley is always welcome. Consider adding canned black beans, drained and well rinsed, or sliced seeded cucumber, peeled or not. Minced basil and cilantro make welcome additions.

Lacking a photo of the above salad, I give you a close relative: the vegetable melange, which includes lightly sauteed corn, fava beans, zucchini, garlic, and pattypan squash, served here with salmon, another excellent hot weather food, as it cooks rapidly and is easily digested.

Corn cobs may be frozen for broth making. Use for chicken, vegetable, and fish broths.

Red and yellow peppers have arrived with the heat. Broil, barbeque, or roast them over a gas flame, ridding them of their indigestible skins. Allow peppers to cool, then peel carefully, ideally over a dish or bowl, catching their juices. Remove and discard seeds as much as possible–a messy, sticky job–and either refrigerate peppers for a few days or prepare one the following dishes:

Piedmontese peppers: This dish does require a hot oven, meaning it is best prepared in the morning. Preheat the oven to 375F/190C. You need as many peppers as there are eaters, and double the number of tomatoes. So if you have 5 eaters, you want 5 peppers and 10 quality tomatoes. (you can fudge this; it’s a flexible recipe) If your tomatoes are gigantic, act accordingly: common sense is helpful here and everywhere else.  You’ll need 2-4 garlic cloves, peeled and either very finely chopped or slivered.

Halve and seed the peppers. Halve the tomatoes. Simon Hopkinson, writing in The Good Cook, peels his tomatoes. Elizabeth David, in Italian Food, does not peel her tomatoes. I follow Mrs. David. Additional work in hot weather is the last thing anyone needs.

Somebody out there will want, or need, to peel tomatoes. For you: place a small pan of water on the stove. Bring to the boil, as the English say, and drop the tomatoes in. Count ten. Remove tomatoes from the water with a slotted spoon. The skins should slide off easily.

Boiling tomatoes to loosen their skins before canning them. Taken two years ago.

Arrange the peppers in a baking dish in a single layer. Smush the tomato halves into the peppers, again in a single layer, arranging leftover halves into open spots around the peppers. Slip the garlic slivers into the vegetables. If you and your eaters are willing, lay 2-6 rinsed, boned anchovies atop tomato/pepper arrangement in a crisscross pattern. Pour about 1/4 cup olive oil over all. Place the pan in the oven. Bake for about 45 minutes, until everthing is browned and appetizing. Piedmontese peppers taste best at room temperature. Serve them with good bread and dry Rose. This salad keeps nicely for a few days in the refrigerator.

Red pepper salad with parsley and feta cheese is another wonderful way to get around cooking in hot weather. You do need to burn the peppers, but once you’ve done that, it’s simply a matter of peeling the pepper skin and a little ingredient arranging. Click on the link for the full recipe, which includes a variation using green beans.

Fish–be it canned, smoked or fresh–is another excellent way to eat during a heatwave. Prep is minimal, and fish is naturally light and digestible (unless you are crazy enough to attempt a wintry bourride or Bouilliabaisse. (But you aren’t, of course.)

Sardines may be eaten on crackers, toast, or flaked and added to a salad.

Tuna may go into a salad, which may or may not be Nicoise, an argument I haven’t the energy to join. The tuna sandwich is another possibility, ranging from a hasty assemblage of indifferently canned stuff plopped on equally indifferent wheat bread all the way to France’s magnificent pan bagnat.

Barring these options, there’s always tuna on crackers.

You hardly need me to tell you we are entering tomato season. Locate your favorite platter. Slice tomatoes–I find a serrated knife performs this task best–and salt generously. Eat. I like Maldon salt on tomato salad, but let taste, and budget, be your guides.

Demonstrating neither slicing nor Maldon.

Great tomatoes need nothing else, but I love fresh mozzarella–the kind sold in tubs of whey. Look for it in better markets and Italian delis. Fresh mozzarella lasts about ten days before souring. I rarely have it in the house that long.

Note the, er, delicacy of those cheese bits.

Fresh mozzarella needs to be drained before use. Wrap it in paper towels or clean, non-linting dish towels for about 15 minutes.

Other nice additions to tomato salads include lettuce, broiled peppers, capers, basil, and parsley. I rarely dress tomato salads, but if you want to, now is the time for your best olive oil.

Fruit–for breakfast, lunch, dinner, dessert. At this time of year, it’s hard not to buy too much.

No further adornment is necessary, but those looking to gild the lily have numerous options including whipped cream, pound cake, vanilla ice cream, a plain cookie, or a complementary fruit liqueur.

I could go on, but this post is getting long, and..it’s hot.