Today is a gray day here in LA but I know that summer is coming up. And with summer comes high temperatures and lazy days. And lazy days tend to mean that I don’t want to spend a lot of time preparing food. And that turning on the stove or oven makes my apartment even hotter. And when the temperature outside is getting up to the 90s and 100s, the last thing I want to do is make my apartment even hotter. So I’ve been trying to come up with some cheap, easy, low temperature ways of cooking.
Of course, I can always make a salad. That’s pretty straightforward. I get greens at the farmers market, along with some fresh herbs (normally a dollar per very big bunch). There’s something about having a variety of herbs in a salad that just adds depth to the flavor of it and makes it much more interesting. Also adding some fruit creates an interesting contrast. It’s all about what you like to eat, there’s no right or wrong when it comes to salads. Dressings are a little more complicated. You can go to the store and find salad dressings for relatively low prices. But they’re filled with preservatives and chemicals that you really don’t need. So for the most part, I stick to simple vinaigrette. It may sound boring but by changing the seasoning or even the type of oil and vinegar you can completely change the flavor of the dressing. For instance, traditional balsamic vinaigrette made with olive oil, balsamic vinegar, maybe a little oregano and mustard to bind it all together will taste very Italian. But if you replace the olive oil with sesame oil, the balsamic vinegar with rice wine vinegar, and add a dash of soy sauce and mirin, you have a dressing more associated with Asian foods. For me salad is one of the ultimate summertime foods. Simply because of the many thousands of different ways you can prepare it.
Another way of cooking that is very much associated with summertime is grilling. I live in an apartment and grill out on my porch on one of those little tiny Weber grills that doesn’t even come up to my knees. And it tastes just as good as food cooked on a big grill. Just remember to close your porch door or you might set the smoke alarms in your apartment off. I do it all the time and it drives my neighbors crazy. Now grilling isn’t exactly a low heat method of cooking. Quite the contrary, you want your grill HOT. As hot as you can get it. But being outdoors and taking in the nice weather makes grilling quite suited for summertime cooking. Sometimes when grilling with friends I have to fight to be allowed to grill. A lot of men do take over the grill as their personal shrine to the culinary gods and not let us girls anywhere near it. I make a lot of grilled chicken at home. And even more grilled vegetables. There’s something about an onion, smoky, tender, and fresh off the grill that just cant be beat. Sometimes I’ll buy cheap cuts of beef to grill too. But cheap pieces of meat tend to be tough. So that’s where marinating comes in. if I buy a cheap piece of beef, I’ll take it home from the store and pop it in a marinade right away so that by the time I want to grill it, it will be a little more tender. Using a little bit of pineapple juice in a marinade tends to help break down the meat. And I never put salt in. it draws the moisture out of the beef, when the object is to create a more moist, tender cut of beef. So I’ll season with salt and pepper right before I put the meat on the grill.
Another great method of cooking in the summertime is anything on the stovetop. I prefer using the stovetop to the oven, since it tends to heat the whole apartment less. So steaming vegetables, doing a quick stir fry or sauté, or even pan frying a piece of meat or fish keeps the apartment cooler than turning the oven on, waiting for it to preheat, and preheating the whole house at the same time. Today I’ll leave you with a favorite salad recipe of mine.
Garlic Salad dressing
Makes 1 cup
- ¼ cup sherry wine vinegar (really, use any wine vinegar, just not balsamic)
- pinch of salt and pepper
- 1 or 2 cloves garlic, crushed and finely diced or pressed
- 1/3 cup extra virgin olive oil
- 1 tsp smooth Dijon mustard (no seeds) (optional, used as a binder)
Combine everything but oil till well blended. Gradually add the oil while stirring. Use as needed. Tastes delicious with minced oregano, tarragon, and basil blended in as well. Also try adding a little lemon juice and chopped shallots
Salad (serves 4 or 5 with dinner, 2 or 3 as a meal). And feel free to leave out what you don’t like or add something you do. There’s no right or wrong way to do a salad
- 1 cup lettuce (any kind will do)
- 1 cup mixed greens
- 1 chopped red pepper
- ½ cup almonds
- 1/4 cup cilantro, chopped
- 1 chopped granny smith apple
- 2 ribs celery, chopped
- ½ cup cherry tomatoes
Add all the ingredients, toss. Dress with garlic dressing
I also add whatever leftover chicken or fish I have from dinner the night before. It lends itself well to sliced grilled chicken. And it is also great with salmon.
Bon appetite!
