From our Food Goddess, TaMara:
With July heat in full swing and the dog days of August coming up, I thought cold recipes would be a good idea for tonight’s recipe exchange. It made working in the kitchen much more appealing this week and I managed to try out a couple of new recipes and do some actual blog posting.
To get things started, Monday was house hunting and one of my new summer favorites, Jicama Slaw, surprisingly sweet and creamy, click here.
Tuesday was notes on the kittehs and Key Lime Bars, which I made to satisfy an intense craving for a cold, tart, citrus dessert, read here.
Wednesday I played with making my first Granita, I chose watermelon, but there are many other flavor combinations for this easy, cold treat. Recipe here.
The dinner menu this week was Grilled Chicken Salad and Green Beans in Vinaigrette. Complete menu, recipes and shopping list are here.
For the pet lovers, there’s a Bixby Diary update.
Well, that was my week, how was yours? When it’s too hot to cook, what’s your go-to for dinner?
For tonight’s featured recipe, I was looking for a fresh salad idea and a friend was travelling through Italy and posted photos of an unusual salad, complete with recipe (in Italian) on Facebook. It looked good, so I decided to try it. Here’s my version.
Watermelon-Cucumber Salad
I chose to use mint because it’s what I had handy, but I’ve seen it with basil or oregano and white wine vinegar instead of limejuice. For a spicier version, try limejuice and Pico de Gallo.
4 cups cubed seedless watermelon
1 large cucumber, peeled and thinly sliced (if using unwaxed, no need to peel)
2 tbsp limejuice
1 tbsp olive oil
mint leaves, torn into small pieces
Pecorino Romano, feta or other similar cheese, cut into small chunks or crumbled
serving bowlAdd watermelon and cucumber to a serving bowl, drizzle with limejuice and oil, add mint leaves, then toss to combine. Refrigerate for 10-15 minutes, sprinkle with cheese just before serving cold.
That’s it for this week, have a great weekend and try and stay cool – TaMara
raven
Raw corn, maters and basil with vinegar.
Pogonip
When it’s too hot to cook, we go out, if there is a “we”; if I’m home by myself, I have sandwich + salad. Traditional summertime stuff.
Hint: if you can find a cookbook published before a/c was common it’ll have a wonderful variety of salad and sandwich ideas. The 1943 Good Housekeeping cookbook talked about a Rosie the Riveter who had refined sandwich making to such an art she could go to work for a month without bringing the same sandwich twice.
Schlemazel
I should go dig out a couple of recipes I love but have not made this summer. Gazpacho is my favorite summer meal but we don’t have tomatoes planted this year & it would suck to use store bought. The other I like is cheery soup & we did get an abundance of sour cherries this year. I make that mostly by feel, its equal parts cherries and water (say 2 cups each) put it in a sauce pan and heat to a boil, stir in sugar (for 2 cups of sour cherries I’d use 1/4 cup, start there and then taste so you can adjust for your desire. let it boil gently for about 5 minutes then take it off the heat. when it has mostly but not completely cooled stir in a cup of good quality sour cream or plain yogurt. refrigerate for a couple hours.
schrodinger's cat
I make a veggie sandwich with green chutney, think of it as a cilantro and green chillies pesto with fresh grated coconut. I use thinly sliced tomatoes, cucumbers, red onion as filling, for protein I will sometimes add chicken or a boiled egg.
raven
@Schlemazel: does it make you happy to make cheery soup?
schrodinger's cat
Another warm weather recipe: yogurt and rice salad.
Mike J
@raven: I add green onions and little balls of mozzarella.
ruemara
Salad Shirazi, adulterated. I add things like chunks of avocado, or fruit and often make it in a huge batch so I can eat it all week..
Update! I think, fingers crossed, one ear is getting back to normal. I can make out some noises!
NotMax
Toss-up as to whether favorite cold soup is vichyssoise or borscht.
Gazpacho I will eat, but not terribly fond of it so almost never prepare it.
Pogonip
@ruemara: Yay! (Did you hear the cheer?)
NotMax
A hot weather favorite is a big bowl of chef salad, chock full of meats, cheeses, types of lettuce, radishes, cukes, scallions, etc., etc.
Always get quizzical looks at the deli counter whenever I ask for various items to be cut in as thick a chunk as they can on their slicer, so I can julienne it at home for the salad.
bmoak
hiya-yakko: pressed tofu cut into cubes dressed with katsuo-bushi (dried bonito) flakes, chopped scallion, and soy sauce.
Pogonip
@Schlemazel: I like cheery soup too. There is nothing worse than slaving over a pot of grouchy soup.
schrodinger's cat
Best summer time dessert: Strawberries and whipped cream, Peaches and cream or mangoes and cream.
Pogonip
@raven: Good typos make life better.
When I was learning to type they’d give us all these fake business letters as practice material. I had a terrible time with “opportunity” for some reason. I typed many a mythical letter offering someone an excellent pooportunity.
Although I occasionally use the word in personal writing, in the real world of work I can’t remember ever needing to type “opportunity.”
In the ahorthand class we took a LOT of dictation about “modern metered mail.”. We all hated the teacher, a ring-tailed bitch, but later in life I thought that if I expected to spend my life talking to high-school girls about Modern Metered Mail, I too might develop a hatred for all mankind. So I forgave her. And since Dictaphones became common in the late ’70’s, whatever she did end up doing, it wouldn’t have been talking about the three m’s.
Pogonip
@bmoak: Hey! Another tofu fan! I like hiya-yakko too!
Tofu’s like cottage cheese. It don’t get no respect.
Stella B
I make watermelon cucumber salad, but use sherry vinegar and fennel seed and browned Halloumi cheese. It’s good.
ThresherK (GPad)
Does anyone here foam cucumbers to remove bitterness?
jl
Thanks. I discovered this style of watermelon a couple of weeks ago at a party. I liked it, even though it violated my sacred code (since childhood) of how to eat watermelon (that is, chill, slice and eat in huge chucks of ice cold chilled watermelon).
But if I am going to sin watermelon sins, might as well sin big, so I’ll save TaMara’s recipe and the suggestions from commenters and try them.
I think I’ll stick with mint though. Not sure I am ready for watermelon and basil or oregano.
But, what about watercress? Huh… watercress as the greens sound good?
Thor Heyerdahl
I’m looking for a good Thai noodle peanut salad recipe…does anyone have one?
I made Hessian Green Sauce a few weeks ago. Legend says it was one of Goethe’s favourite foods.
Essentially take a bunch of different fresh green herbs** and finely chop/pulverize them. Mix them into a yogurt/quark/sour cream/mayonnaise combination with mustard, vinegar, chopped boiled eggs and chopped shallots. Serve over boiled new potatoes and with some smoked pork (pork and potatoes can be hot or cold).
**seven of the following list: Borage, Chervil, Parsley, Dill, Sorrel, Burnett, Watercress, Chives, Tarragon, Lemon Balm, Dill, Arugula
ruemara
@bmoak: oh yes, so good. You know, there’s kits to make it at home. So good fresh. I’ve done it twice and I’ve sadly, eaten it all in two days. gresh grated ginger, braggs amino acids and chopped scallions instead of shaved bonito, but it’s really good.
@Pogonip: yay! yes! go right side. my plan to scare my ears back into working through exercise is working perfectly! *evil laugh*
Yatsuno
@jl: If it helps, basil and mint are in the same family. They taste just about the same on the tongue although basil has a bit more anise flavour to it. They’re both delicious!
I’ll get you an old handdown from my German grandmother BHF: a cucumber, onion, and vinegar salad. It can also be made with sour cream and lots of dill. Both variants are excellent although I need to check with mom on the proportions.
Omnes Omnibus
@Yatsuno:
There is a great Thai version of that as well.
TaMara (BHF)
@Yatsuno: That sounds much like one my mom makes. Look forward to the recipe.
TaMara (BHF)
@Omnes Omnibus: Would love that recipe, too. I always have that salad at a restaurant in LA, but by the time I get back home, I forget about trying to find it.
@efgoldman: Oh, good, somebody got it. :-D
SWMBO
I have not made this with pink lemonade. I made it first with limeade concentrate. It tastes like key lime pie. The next time I made it I used orange juice concentrate. It tastes like dreamsicle pie. Serve frozen with whipped cream. It is excellent!
itisakeeper.com/11713/pink-lemonade-pie/
NotMax
@SWMBO
Surprisingly tasty and refreshing variation (kept in the fridge, not the freezer) does not use condensed milk, food coloring or frozen juices.
Instead use two containers of flavored yogurt (not the kind with the fruit on the bottom). One of those must be lemon flavored. The other can be whatever flavor tickles your fancy. Mix the lemon yogurt into the whipped topping well, then mix in the other yogurt flavor. Fill graham cracker crust and refrigerate, covered lightly, until set (a few hours at minimum).
@jl
A wonderful use for watermelon.
Pogonip
@ThresherK (GPad): No, how do you do it? Does it work?
I am considering forming a new band, The Foaming Cucumbers. We can paint a cucumber on the big drum and, with luck, hipsters will end up paying lots of money to go to a Cukes performance.
shell
Cant go wrong with a good shrimp salad
Never understood the bitter cucumber thing; they always taste fine tome.