Come summer and our days seem to slow down to a gentle routine of hot days, swimming, relatives, vacations, and salad meals. The combinations of tastes from around the world in our whole meal salads will waken taste buds during a month when appetite wanes, and all of us want to spend as little time as possible in the kitchen. They also take advantage of the freshest produce that makes its way to the market in July. We have melons that are like eating ambrosia, fresh vegetables warm from the garden, and herbs that we pick each morning to ensure the best taste.
The first meal is a Grilled Tuna Niçoise with Crusty Bread is a variation of the French dish. We show this dish with medium rare tuna. If you have a fish monger who sells such quality tuna this is a delicious option. Tuna takes on a delicate taste when cooked to this degree of doneness. If you are not sure, do grill your tuna until it is completely cooked. The dessert for this meal is honeydew with fresh lime. When the melons are aromatic and sweet the tang of lime sets them off in a memorable way that you and your guests will not soon forget.
(for the recipes, click on The Recipes or click on the individual recipe above)
Our second meal is a Thai Grilled Steak Salad with Rice Noodles. You won’t believe the combination of tastes here, but you will want to make this often when you are allowing yourself some beef. Other times, substitute chicken breasts, swordfish, or scallops and enjoy a meal with a slightly different twist. Fish Sauce is available in some supermarkets and in specialty shops. It is not the same as Oyster Sauce or Soy Sauce, so keep looking until you find it. We found it in our local grocery store.
(for the recipes, click on The Recipes or click on the individual recipe above)
The third meal takes us to India for a delicious variation of chicken curry. Here we team the spicy hot chicken with fresh melon balls to make a whole meal salad that is at once hot, cool, and sweet. What more could you ask for on a summer’s evening? For dessert, we feature blackberries, those wonderful treats that are available for only a few weeks a year at reasonable prices.
(for the recipes, click on The Recipes or click on the individual recipe above)
Frequently some of our best recipes rise out of the necessity to eat a meal and the reality of finding the refrigerator is in need of replenishing. Such is the good fortune of this recipe -- a few cooked shrimp in the freezer, a chunk of jicama in the fridge crisper drawer, a few ears of corn and a bag of fresh peaches bought that morning at a farm stand -- from there sheer improvision that resulted in a true winner. The rest of the ingredients are staples in our kitchen, even when the "cupboard’s bare." Toasting the cumin seeds until they are fragrant deepens the flavor of the light dressing. This salad is especially lovely served on radicchio leaves, but if you used the last the day before, you could substitute Boston, Bibb, or even Romaine or iceberg lettuce. With the salad we’re serving toasted tortilla chips for scooping up the smaller bits of salad. Since the first of the season’s Bing cherries are now appearing at the farm stand, we decided to make a lightened version of Cherry Fool, an English dessert made by swirling pureed fruit through whipped cream or custard. Our rendition is delicious -- just missing a lot of fat grams.
(for the recipes, click on The Recipes or click on the individual recipe above)
