Hot day musings
- rosemary
- 3 days ago
- 5 min read
"Little is more dispiriting to the serious glutton than being too hot to eat."
Or to cook. And apologies to whoever said the above - I didn't write it down and now can't find it. Maybe Jay Rayner or somebody like that.
'We scream for ice-cream' says Coles in its current magazine as the headline for an advertising section. Cooling - oh yes. Not really food though is it? Or as Zoe Williams of The Guardian says: "don’t reach for a Magnum, they are for children". Moreover not good for you because of all the sugar and fat.
It's a very hot day here today. We are heading for 41 - almost there says my weather widget - although yesterday the news was predicting 44 and very high winds. Thunderstorms too - which is a real worry, particularly when they are not accompanied by rain. Nevertheless not only is it unpleasant from a heat point of view but it's also alarming. Indeed, in spite of the fact that my weather widget has now downgraded to 41 and those winds are not really blowing - well here anyway - just a breeze so far, and those thunderstorms have also disappeared from the widget we are shortly heading off to our younger son's house in a nearby 'proper' suburb well away from the bushy environment of home. They are currently freezing in Europe, but have given the rest of the family access - and besides we have school books to deliver for their return.
With respect to the food dilemma I have opted to make this a day of fasting. All that Christmas/New Year indulgence has resulted in an unsurprising weight gain that needs two days of repentant fasting this week. Zoe Williams does say: "Remember that it is not the end of the world not to eat if you’re not hungry" but just because you're hot doesn't really mean you're not hungry. Nevertheless today is a perfect opportunity and I don't really ever feel too hungry, although curiously on a hot day, because of the heat I suppose, I do feel a bit queasy/hungry. David does not eat much anyway and will probably just have a croissant sandwich of some kind.
Zoe Williams - or her editors at The Guardian opted to head her article How to Eat in a Heatwave with this cooling slice of watermelon. Which although much healthier than ice-cream, and equally cooling is also probably not that energy giving. After all it's 92% water - which of course is good from the hydrating point of view - and there are vitamins and minerals and anti-oxidants, but it's hardly a meal. Nevertheless it has the best of summer written all over it. I remember buying watermelon on the hot beaches of Yugoslavia from young boys enthusiastically peddling their wares, by cutting out a chunk from the centre to tempt you. The problem for me is that fridge problem. They are large and even though you don't have to buy a whole watermelon, even a chunk is large. And there are only two of us. Even a canteloupe or honeydew melon takes up too much space, and for some reason I forget to use them.
Maybe it's because, for one thing, I don't tend to snack much during the day, and for the other I'm really not into salads. Here's an example of the ultimate summer salad -
Thai-style watermelon and cucumber salad - Ed Smith/The Guardian - a variation on the watermelon, mint, cucumber and mint thing.
For me, salads require too much chewing somehow. I feel bad about this, because when I have actually gone to the trouble of making a salad other than our habitual green salad to cleanse the palate after our main dinner dish, I have actually enjoyed them. Mostly I only make them in summer as an accompaniment to the main meat dish when we have friends and family around. Salads are sort of expected these days, and of course, there is an almost infinite variety of interesting and tasty options out there.
The other summer food that the magazines, newsletters and cookbooks go on about is barbecues which is somewhat counterintuitive to me. Theoretically at least you are cooking with flame, and flame generates heat. In fact cooking something on a barbecue is probably the most heat generating way of cooking that I can think of. Lovely in the winter, but not in summer. Besides here in Australia in most places in summer, you are only occasionally allowed to cook over an actual flame. Most barbecues these days are bottle gas - or even electric fired. Fun and holiday minded yes, but not really suitable for a hot day.
Last typical recommendation is soup - cold soup - always something to which your mind has to adjust, and to which I'm not sure I ever have. Gazpacho, of course, is king - for the foodies anyway. Felicity Cloake makes a Perfect gazpacho but Zoe Williams also said of a recipe for Gazpacho - from Elena Meneses de Orozco, wife of the Spanish ambassador that once the recipe had been published in The Guardian:
"nobody with any sense has made it any other way since. It is subtle, delicate, weirdly intense and surprisingly quenching."
Nevertheless she also doesn't sound all that keen especially when it comes to her mother:
"My mother has a vast repertoire of nut soups – almond with harissa, walnut … they are magnificently expensive to make and unbelievably disgusting to eat. Never do this."
A bit like this one perhaps - the almost classic Spanish ajo blanco. And she doesn't think you should put ice in them either:
"If you want the sensation of ice but, like me, despise it, freeze some grapes and drop them in."
The real problem with any of these so-called summer foods is that you have to cook them - even many of the salads involve cooking at some point and cooking generates heat, so you need to find a recipe that doesn't take long over or in heat.
So maybe just a sandwich? Or a piece of cheese or cold meat. Go to the supermarket and buy yourself a roasted chicken and make Caesar salad ...
Or don't eat anything at all.
That high wind has arrived, although our own thermostat tells us it is a mere 37.8 degrees outside but perhaps it's time to go.
THE FRIDGE
Chicken soup last night, and yes, I got rid of some of the chicken, a wilting sprig of broccolini or two and some leftover stock, plus a couple of Parmesan rinds from the freezer, but there is leftover soup! Something radical is needed if I am to advance.
YEARS GONE BY
January 9
2025 - Nothing
2024 - Paella or 'rice and stuff'?
2023 - Nothing
2021 - Missing
2020 - Why Dutch carrots?
2019 - Rolling pins
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