food for hot weather

Penelope_Penguin

Hi there :j Are there any ideas in this thread - food for hot weather.

Penny. x

Alisonpennypincher

I knew I would get some good ideas! Love the Salsa one, DH would quite happily eat a pot of that! Off to read the other thread now, thanks for the link.

Alison

Toonie

I love homemade meatballs that have gone cold. Added to pasta, some chopped cucumber and a chopped tomato is a lovely meal on a warm day.

phizzimum

use the mince for home made burgers?

thriftmonster

In Jocasta Innes' Paupers Cookbook there is a recipe for a peppered meatloaf that is lovely cold with salad. You have 2lbs mince, garlic, minced bacon(only a little bit), plenty of pepper and a glass of red wine. Marinade for a couple of hours and then cook for about 1.5 hrs in a loaf tin. Leave to cool in the tin and slice thinly.

There might be a cuople of other ingredients in there but that's the basic idea and we love it in the summer - and it serves 8-10 servings at least.

pamaris

I find this slightly amusing. I am from Texas, where we can have over 30 days straight of temperatures of 37C+... and we eat hot cooked meals every day of the year. We don't tend to eat beef stew in the middle of August, but nearly anything goes... interestingly, the hottest places in the world have the hottest food... Mexico, India, Thailand etc. We had chili tonight, beef stroganoff last night. I haven't even broken a sweat this year... in fact cooking warms me up! Maybe it's warmer down south?

Why not just make tuna casserole, serve it cold & call it pasta salad?

Sorry I'm not more helpful as far as suggestions go, but I was just pointing out it's a cultural thing that British people don't want to eat hot food when the weather is warm.

I think that most of the hot climates compensate for the hot food with really cold drinks. In fact I am sure of it. I haven't seen a residential ice cube in 2 years.

pavlovs_dog

interesting points there panmaris. in my experience ive always found UK summers to be a lot more humid than in the states. you always seem to get a 'drier' kind of heat. maybe thats got something to do with the differences?

Sarahsaver

OH just said to me that maybe we in the uk associate hot food with stodge?
Went to India in 2006 and had hot food each meal, breakfast included but none of it was 'heavy'.

There is a moneysaving aspect - lots of cold food doesn't need cooking of course!

Stephen_Leak

After all this Summer food, how about an English Summer dessert?

ETON MESS

Serves 2

INGREDIENTS

450g of fresh strawberries
1 tablespoon of sugar
250g of meringue
250ml of cream

METHOD

Wash the strawberries, remove any stalks and chop them into quarters. Break or chop the meringue into rough 2cm (1 inch) pieces.

Put the strawberries in a bowl. Sprinkle over the sugar. Mix together.

Pour the cream into another bowl. Lightly whip the cream. Don’t over-do it: it should still be pourable.

Add the strawberries to the cream, or vice versa. Add the meringue pieces. Mix together and serve.

ADDITIONS & ALTERNATIVES

Use ready-made meringue nests, especially if they are already broken and reduced in price.

If you make your own meringue, this is the dish to practice with. If they weep, crack or even collapse, you can still use them in this. However, you do have to make it a day in advance.

An authentic Eton mess uses strawberries, but other summer fruits work well.

However, even Heston Blumenthal has had to concede that Eton mess is "quite simply impossible to improve upon".

HISTORICAL NOTES

Eton mess originated at Eton College in the 1930’s, when a mixture of either strawberries or bananas with cream or ice cream, all stirred together (hence the name "mess"), was served in the school’s "sock shop" (tuck shop). One anecdotal story is that the dessert was ‘invented’ by a Labrador dog, when it sat on a picnic basket in the back of a car. With the later addition of the meringue, it has evolved into the unashamedly wicked, yet still utterly English, summer dessert. It is traditionally served at Eton College's annual prize-giving celebration picnic on what is still called the "Fourth of June", despite actually taking place on the last Wednesday in May.

lindadykes

Last weekend we discovered The Purple Sage Cafe in Penrith and OH and I had an excellent hot salad - this consisted or a slice of good rustic bread, topped with mixed salad leaves, hot bacon, chicken and onion, all dressed with a pesto dressing. This was served in a wide shallow bowl.

This reminded me of a warm black pudding and potatoe salad I used to do - again the inspiration came from a pub menu. Again use a wide shallow bowl, put a thin layer of salad dressing at the bottom, I tended to use a commercial thousand island dressing for this one. Top with mixed salad leaves, then fry slices of black pudding and potato. ( The potato should be pre boiled) Scatter over and serve.

Finally last night I was thinking what to for tea. The organic vege bag arrives on a friday and I like to make the most of that, but also I was feeling very hot and not in the mood for anything too stodgy. There were two courgettes left from last week and a small handful of rocket and int he bag were two small lettuce. I also had some tomatoes and cucumber in there but the more I though about it the more I knew I didn't wanr a "traditional" salad. Thinking about the chicken and bacon salad from last weekend, it was a no go as I didn't have chicken, then I remembered two whoopsied duck breasts that were in the freezer. What goes wwith duck? - orange. So warm Duck bacon and Orange Salad was born.

I roasted the duck breasts then sliced them, at the same time I roasted an onion cut into quarters and cooked three rashers of bacon which I then tore into small bits. I also peeled a couple of medium potatos and diced them then deep fried them. I then peeled and segmented three oranges, reserving any juice, I added this to the juice of two more oranges, a teaspoon of wholegrain mustard, 1 tablespoon of vinegar, a peeled clove of garlic, olive oil and salt and pepper and a teaspoon of dried sage - this was blitzed with the handblender to use as a dressing. To assemble I lined the bowls with a mixture of the rocket and lettuce. I then shared the onion, potatoes, orange segments, and fried potatoes between the bowls and drizzled over the dressing. OH said it was the best salad he had ever had! (Served 3)