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Cold Eats for Hot Days
It’s been a hot July. I can take the cold weather in the winter, but I’m not the best trooper when it comes to bearing up to a summer heat wave. I do my best, but you can only take so many clothes off.
Cold frosty drinks like strawberry daiquiris, frozen margaritas or even lemonade can help, but what about eats? Grilling keeps the heat outside. Watermelon is both refreshing and thirst-quenching. Many of my beloved side salads can be done without heat, especially if you start with canned beans.
My current favorite solution is cold soup. I’ve always been a big fan of gazpacho. Here’s the way I usually make it. I like that it can be made without turning on the stove.
This year, my favorite cold soup seems to be vichyssoise. I start with my usual hot potato-leek soup, add a pint of light cream, and chill it overnight. It’s filling without being heavy, creamy without being too rich. I’ve been making the hot version (without any cream) for decades, but was only inspired to try a cold version this summer. I’m glad I experimented because I’m pleased with the results.
What’s your favorite thing to eat when the weather is steamy?
Vichyssoise
Serves 6-8
2 Tbsp olive oil
4 cups sliced leeks, white and light green parts only (3-4 leeks)
4 cups diced peeled russet potatoes (2-3 potatoes)
1 quart chicken broth
½ tsp nutmeg
2 tsp salt
2 cups light cream
Heat the oil in a large soup pot. Add the leeks, and sauté until softened, about 5 minutes. Add the potatoes and chicken broth. Bring to a boil. Cover, reduce heat, and simmer for 20 minutes, or until potatoes are tender.
In several batches, puree the soup in the blender. Add the cream and combine well. Add nutmeg and salt. Taste and adjust seasoning as necessary.
Chill overnight.
French Fridays with Dorie: Cold Honeydew-Blueberry Soup
As I mentioned last week, I wasn’t sure what I’d think of this week’s recipe for French Fridays with Dorie. Usually, when I read a recipe, I have some sense of what it will taste like. Cold Melon-Berry Soup combined ingredients I like into an end result I had trouble imagining.
Where I live, this week was unbearably hot. I live in an un-air-conditioned house, so going to work was a pleasure. We have lots of fans, but after a while, blowing warm air around seems counter-productive. Cooking, or even working in the kitchen, was not.
Though the weather was perfect for cold soup, it took me all week to work up the energy to try it out. Also, the instructions to chill the soup for 2 to 6 hours didn’t mesh with my schedule. I wasn’t sure whether it would suffer by not chilling long enough or chilling too long. If I made it before I left for work, it would chill all day, at least 10 hours. Or if I made it right before dinner, it wouldn’t be that cold. I probably worry too much about nothing.
Dorie’s recipe calls for cantaloupe and strawberries, but I let the fruit at the store speak to me. The honeydew and blueberries looked much more appealing. Half the melon is pureed into soup, and the other half is scooped into balls. Lime juice, fresh ginger, and a pinch of salt enhance the puree.
This definitely wasn’t my favorite recipe from the book, but it was better than I expected. It was like fruit salad soup. I found the flavors interesting, and I loved the colors, the contrast of the pale green melon and the bright blueberries.
I’m looking forward to reading what my fellow FFwD bloggers thought about this week’s recipe and how they tweaked it. Check out their links at French Fridays with Dorie. We don’t post the recipes, but consider getting your own copy of the book, Dorie Greenspan’s Around My French Table. Maybe you’ll even want to cook along with us on Fridays.
A Plateful of Happiness 