Tag Archives: summer

My iced coffee routine

Posted on by
1

Goodness knows I can’t function without a jolt of caffeine in the morning (My husband and coworkers can all attest to that). But now it’s summertime and despite what the song says, living is certainly not that easy. Living is just as busy as it was in the winter and spring, so caffeine is still required, but now I have to contend with heat, humidity, and a fairly old townhome that doesn’t muster up air conditioning as well as it used to.

Oh, I know what you’re going to say – why don’t I just make do with an ice-cold tea or soda instead?

No, no, no, that will not do. I need coffee, and I need it now, temperatures not withstanding. That means that it’s time for some refreshing iced coffee.

At first glance, it might seem like the only thing you need for making iced coffee is sticking it in the fridge and then plopping some ice cubes in it. But that would be wrong – there’s a technique to making the perfect iced coffee, and it starts the night before you need it.

First, double the amount of coffee grounds you usually use. When you add the ice cubes to the coffee, it will water it down. Therefore, to get the same amount of caffeine as you’re used to, it needs to be twice the strength. Just don’t taste it when it’s hot; it won’t taste good. 

However, there’s another option – make twice the amount of coffee at normal strength. Pour half of it into the pitcher to chill and half into ice cube trays to freeze. Then just use the coffee ice cubes in the cold coffee, and you’ve got coffee at normal strength!

Next, if you’re the type that likes sugar in your coffee, add it right after you brew it. If you try to add sugar to your drink after it’s already cold, the sugar will sink right to the bottom. Alternatively, you could make simple syrup, cool it and store it in the fridge to add to the coffee after chilled. This would be the best option for someone sharing the pitcher of cold java with another person.

Finally, you need some cream or milk. I tend to add a little extra milk to my iced coffee (skim for me, please!) because I think it tastes better slightly creamier. You can add this when you’re getting ready for work in the morning once the coffee has chilled overnight. 

Of course, you could just stop at the local Dunkin’ Donuts or local coffee shop to pick up a glass of iced coffee. Unless you’re a fan of super-creamy, super-sugary iced coffee, I suggest staying away from McDonald’s, which doesn’t offer iced coffee any other way (however, I have to give them props for their regular hot coffee, which is actually pretty tasty and super budget-friendly).

But as long as you can handle starting your coffee routine the night before, I recommend making your own. It’s cheaper and so easy to customize, making your mornings (as unbearably hot as they may be) much better overall.

Summer onion soup

Posted on by
3

Some people might know that French onion soup is one of my favourite things in the world. Sadly though, even I have to concede that the middle of summer really isn’t the time to eat it.

So, I thought I’d have a play and see if I couldn’t come up with a more summery version of the classic recipe.

Less hearty, more citrusy, and generally lighter was the direction that I was aiming for, and I think I’ve achieved it.

Apart from a slight change in ratio between the ingredients, I’ve swapped the beef stock out for chicken, picked a fruitier wine and replaced the cognac with a couple of suprises.

And it tastes…

… shockingly good.

It’s much lighter than a traditional French/Spanish/Italian onion soup, it’s also quite a bit sweeter.

It still manages to retain a rich deep flavour, but now also has a nice hint of citrus which makes it perfect for summer evenings.

Notes on ingredients

As with any onion soup, the quality of the stock is probably the most important thing in terms of ingredients. You can use stock that you’ve made yourself, or buy a decent quality chicken stock. If buying it then get a fresh stock from your local butcher instead of stock cubes. If you are using your own stock, then make sure that you have skimmed and strained it well, because you don’t want bits of meat or fat in the soup.

I like to use a fruity Riesling, but you could substitute it out for another dry fruity white if you have a personal preference. The citrus vodka should be something with a good strong lemon taste, I like Tanqueray Sterling Citrus, because it has a slight herbal tang as well that works really well in this soup.

The trickiest ingredient is cheese to top the croutons. The ideal is a nice zesty goats cheese that melts well. I’m not sure that there is a globally available cheese that fits the bill, but there are plenty of options, just ask your local cheesemonger for a recommendation.

The recipe

Ingredients

  • 500g Onions
  • 2 tablespoons Olive oil
  • 50g Butter
  • 1 teaspoon White sugar
  • 3 cloves Garlic
  • 1.2 litres Chicken stock
  • 375ml Fruity Riesling
  • 1 tablespoon Citrus vodka
  • ½ tablespoon Ricard/Pernod

For croutons

  • ½ Baguette
  • 1 tablespoon Olive oil
  • 1 clove Garlic
  • 150g Cheese (see notes)

Make the croutons

  1. Heat the oven to 180°C.

  2. Crush the garlic.

  3. Drizzle olive oil onto a good (not all bendy) baking tray, throw on the crushed garlic, and rub the oil/garlic mixture all over the tray.

  4. Cut the baguette into 1cm (⅓”) thick slices. These will be much prettier if you cut them on a diagonal, instead of straight.

  5. Put the bread slices onto the baking sheet, shake them around slightly, and then turn them over so that both sides are lightly coated with the oil/garlic.

  6. Bake the croutons in the oven for about 20 minutes, until they are crunchy and crispy.

Make the soup

  1. Very thinly slice the onions, and crush the garlic.

  2. Melt the oil and butter together in a thick bottomed pan.

  3. When the oil/butter mix is very hot, add the onions, garlic and sugar all together.

  4. Cook for about 6 minutes, turning them over occasionally, until the edges of the onions have turned dark.

  5. Turn the heat down as low as it will go, and then leave the onions to cook slowly for about half an hour. When they are done, the bottom of the pan should be covered in a caramelised film which will be a nutty brown colour.

  6. Pour in the chicken stock, wine, vodka and Pernod, season with salt and black pepper and use a wooden spoon or spatula to scrape the caramelised onion from the bottom of the pan.
    Turn the heat up stir occasionally while you bring the soup up to simmering point.

  7. Turn the heat back down as low as you can get it and leave the soup to cook really gently, uncovered, for about an hour.

Assemble and serve

  1. 10 minutes before the soup has finished cooking, pop the bowls or tureen that you are going to serve it in, into the oven on a very low heat to warm up.

  2. While the bowls are heating, grate the cheese.

  3. Take the bowls out of the oven, and turn the grill onto the highest heat

  4. Check and adjust the seasoning, and transfer the soup to your pre-warmed bowls or tureen.

  5. Float the croutons on top of the soup (as few or as many as you like), and sprinkle the cheese thickly over the croutons.

  6. Put the soup under the grill until the cheese turns golden brown and is bubbling.

I know that people say you shouldn’t have wine with soup, but in my opinion this tastes great served with the half a bottle of wine that you have left over from making it.

Hosting a summer barbecue

Posted on by
Reply

In the summertime when the weather is high … it’s the perfect time to head outside for a barbecue! 

Dining and drink al fresco is one of my absolute favorite things about the summer. I’m really more of a winter person – I love curling up on the couch with a cup of coffee (or a glass of bold red wine), a blanket, and my dog and watching TV for hours on end. But when the weather is gorgeous and it seems a shame to while away the hours indoors, I’d much rather invite my friends and neighbors over for an afternoon grilling and giggling.

To me, of course, the most important aspect of a barbecue is the food. Too many people settle for plain old burgers and hot dogs, maybe throwing in some grilled chicken for good measure. If you’re going to go that route, at least make it interesting.

For example, set out a topping bars for the burgers and hot dogs. This would include standards such as lettuce, tomato, and onions, but also a selection of cheeses (I love a good blue cheese on top of my burger), a variety of veggies such as avocado and spinach, and special condiments such as barbecue sauce and ranch dressing. Here’s an idea I love: Make a big pot of chili in the slow cooker and plug it in outside, so guests can ladle a scoop on their chili burger or chili cheese dog. 


In many cases, though, it’s really the side dishes that make all the difference. If you make the world’s best potato salad, I would never want to deprive you or your family the chance to indulge. However, I get a little tired of the standard potato and macaroni salads served at each and every barbecue I go to (particularly if they’re store-bought!) When I go to a friend’s house for grilling, I like to bring along a Buffalo Chicken Pasta Salad. Everyone loves the flavors of this pasta salad, and it’s very simple to make. Just combine 16 ounces (450g) of cooked chilled pasta with two cups of cooked, diced chicken in a large bowl. In a separate bowl, mix a cup of buffalo wing marinade – the sauce that comes in a salad dressing bottle, not hot sauce such as Frank’s Red Hot – with three-fouths of a cup of ranch dressing. Taste it to determine ratios. If it’s too spicy, add more ranch dressing. Toss it with the pasta and chicken. Finally, sprinkle sliced celery and carrots over the salad. Put it in the fridge to chill overnight, as the flavors are really much better after they’ve had the change to mix and mingle.

Finally, let’s talk beverages. Soda, ice water, and beer are standards, but place them in a metal bucket filled with ice instead of the standard cooler, which can be a bit of hassle to fish a brewskie out of when someone is sitting on it. For those who prefer a cocktail, mix up a big batch of this Raspberry-Beer Cocktail, which is light and refreshing – perfect for outdoor day drinking. 



Raspberry Beer Cocktail

  • 2 cans raspberry or pink lemonade concentrate
  • 12 bottles Corona
  • 2 cups vodka
  • 1 package frozen raspberries

  1. Combine all the ingredients in a large beverage dispenser or punch bowl.

  2. Mix well!

  3. Garnish with lemon, lime, and orange slices.

I’ve found this drink is best served in a mason jar with a fun straw.


Eating seasonally in July

Posted on by
4

This should probably be called ‘Eating seasonally in July in England’, but we thought that was a bit long. Fairly obviously though, it’s dependent on where you are, what is in season here in the lovely (very rainy right now) English summer, is going to be very different to what is in season in Peru or Japan.

Eating locally produced fresh properly grown (not in a hydroponic greenhouse in Holland) and in season produce is a joy. It’s not just the intensity of flavours in the way that things taste, but just as much the way that they smell, if you can’t smell a tomato through a plastic packet and if a surge of aroma doesn’t come up and smack you in the nose when you cut into it, then something is wrong.

So, with the all of that preamble out of the way, we can get down to a list of some of the lovely things that are in season right now. It’s not an exhaustive list, it’s just things that come to mind, and I’m sure I’ll come back and add more to it throughout the month.

Strawberries, Blackberries, Raspberries
The best known summer berries, as long as they are ripe there is no way that they can taste bad, and they smell like essence of summer days. If you can’t think of anything exciting to do with them, then don’t – just wash them and enjoy, either on their own, or with cream or thick greek yoghurt.

Loganberries
For anyone who is wondering what a loganberry is, or what the hell to do with them if you have some: It’s a hybrid cross between a raspberry and a blackberry. So, basically you can use it wherever you would normally use either of those types of berry.

Gooseberries
When I was a kid I remember eating a lot of gooseberries,I remember picking them as well, from horrible prickly bushes that want to hurt you. For some reason, gooseberries seem to have become pretty invisible lately. You don’t see many of them on supermarket shelves, but when you do spot some, grab them and make jam, or you can convert any lemon based desert recipe to use gooseberries!

Cherries
In my opinion, cherries are competing in a very close two horse race with raspberries for the crown of best summer fruit in the world. Eat them as they are, bake them in a pie, make jam, dip them in a chocolate fondue, or google for any of about a million recipes.

Aubergine
There is something strangely erotic about a nice glossy aubergine, you (well, I) just want to stroke it and caress it. Apart from all of that though, it’s a great vegetable that has a huge amount of uses, don’t be tempted just to stick it in ratatouille all of the time!
When you are picking an aubergine, always go for heaviest one, and look for a glossy and unblemished skin.

Tomatoes
Tomatoes are just tomatoes, except when they are in season and of a nice variety, when they become so much more. There are so many varieties that I wouldn’t even know where to begin with a recommendation, but those that come still on the vine are usually much more full of flavour than those that don’t. Don’t take them off of the vine stems until the moment you want to use them, or if you are roasting them then leave them on the vine and take them off after cooking.

Watercress
It’s green, peppery, tangy, quintessentially English, and apparently a ‘superfood’. Not everyone eats watercress, and a lot of people don’t have a clue what to do with it. There are plenty of options though, you could simply use it in a salad as you would use something like rocket, or there is the summer classic ‘Watercress soup’.

Sour cherry caipirinha

Posted on by
4

❛Summertime, and the living is easy❜

The moment to enjoy refreshing fruity cocktails, and also the moment when wonderful sour cherries are ripe and juicy.

I am sure that there are lots of different ways to combine these two things, and I am equally sure that many of them are fantastic. What I am not so sure of is that many of them could possibly be better than this one.

Sour cherry caipirinha is definitely one thing that I am going to be drinking plenty of over the next few weeks.

Take a caipirinha

For anyone who doesn’t know, the caipirinha is THE Brazilian cocktail. It’s super simple, lime and sugar muddled together, some cachaça added, and served over lots of ice.

Outside of Brazil, caipirinhas, along with mojitos, are by far the most popular cocktails in Barcelona, you can get them at every little bar, and so I do far too often.

Cocktail purists will of course maintain that anything that varies from the above is not a caipirinha, but hey, this version just adds one little ingredient.

Sour (or tart) cherries…

… are without doubt one of the best fruits anywhere. I defy anyone not to love them!

I’m not talking about bitter unripe cherries, but the varieties that are naturally tart. Some people might know them by the alternative names of ‘tart cherries’, or ‘pie cherries’. Whatever you want to call them, they taste amazing.

The only problem is that they have a really short season, so during the little bit of the year when I can get my hands on them, I throw them in everything I can think of. So far this week there have been caipirinhas and ice cream, and a lemon and cherry posset is coming soon.

Recipe

Apart from the fact that it contains the cherries, the big difference between this and a ‘proper’ caipirinha is the way it is served. Not over ice in a big glass, but shaken and then strained.

The ingredients listed are for one drink, but if you have a shaker of any sensible size then you can easily make two or three at once.

Ingredients

  • ½ Lime
  • 2tsp Caster sugar
  • 50ml Cachaça
  • 4 Sour cherries

  1. Take the pits out of the cherries, cut the lime into a few chunks, and put them together into a shaker.

  2. Give them a good old muddle until everything is well mushed up.

  3. Add a decent amount of ice and the Cachaça, and shake well.

  4. Fine strain into a cocktail glass.

Extra note

This drink tastes especially good if you have a production line of attractive women in your kitchen making them in large numbers.

Velvety vanilla cherry ice cream

Posted on by
2

In Catalunya, summer can be hot, and hot summers call for lots of gin & tonic, lots of cold crisp white wines, and lots of ice cream!

You can make ice cream with just about any flavour you care to think of, and it is really quite difficult to have an epic fail. What is much harder than getting the flavour right, is getting a wonderful smooth texture, and for me, ice cream is just as much about the texture as it is taste.

The simplest way to make ice cream is literally to freeze cream with sugar, and that’s fine, but the way to get really smooth and lovely ice cream is to start with a…

Custard

Now, I have a bit of a thing for proper custard, made with very fat cream, egg yolks and real vanilla. It’s velvety and unctuous, which are just the qualities that I want in my ice cream, so what better place could there be to start the quest for seriously smooth ice cream than with my favourite traditional custard recipe.

The method for making the custard does not change at all, but the proportion of the ingredients does. If we want to turn the custard into ice cream then we need to add a lot more sugar because you taste the sweetness of the sugar less when it is at a lower temperature. There is also less egg than normal so that it doesn’t set too hard, and there is no need for any cornflour which usually works as a thickening agent.

Ripples

As stunning as a custard based vanilla ice cream is, it can be even better with a ripple of red fruit running through it. I’ve made my recipe deliberately quite sweet, so that I can throw in sour cherries, which just taste amazing. Sadly they have a really short season, but you could also use cranberries, or anything else that is a bit tart. If you want to use a sweeter fruit then cut the amount of sugar in the recipe by 10 or 20 grams.

Machine?

The recipe calls for an ice cream maker, partly because I have one, and partly because that is the only way to get a really smooth result.

Freezing things creates ice crystals. The more whatever it is that you are freezing is moving around, the smaller and more spread out those crystals will be. You simply can’t keep the mixture constantly moving and freezing at the same time without some kind of ice cream maker.

That doesn’t mean that there is no point in giving this a go if you don’t have one though, it just means that your results will be good instead of amazing. Start off by chilling your custard mixture over an ice bath to get it as cold as possible, then pour it into something wide and flat (as opposed to a deep bowl) and put it into the freezer. After about 40 minutes take it out and use a handheld mixer, stick blender, whisk, spatula, or whatever you’ve got, and give it a good stir around, making sure you break up the most frozen bits around the edges. Then return it to the freezer and repeat this procedure about every 30 minutes for the next three hours or so, and you will end up with a pretty good result.

If you live anywhere hot though, an ice cream maker is a great investment, they aren’t expensive at all these days, and just make it all so much easier, as well as giving a better end result.

and so to work…

Ingredients

  • 2 Vanilla pods
  • 600ml Double cream
  • 3 Large egg yolks
  • 100g Caster sugar
  • A handful of sour cherries

  1. Cut down the length of the vanilla pod, and scrape out the seeds, put both the seeds and the pod itself into a small saucepan, and add the cream to it.

  2. If you don’t have a vanilla pod, or do but just don’t want to use something so expensive to make custard, then you can use vanilla extract without too huge a difference to the taste.

  3. Put the pan onto the hob at a low heat and bring it up to just below simmering point.

  4. While the cream is heating up, put the egg yolks and sugar together in a heatproof bowl, and whisk them together.

  5. Take the vanilla pod out of the hot cream, and then slowly pour the cream into the bowl with the eggs and sugar. Keep on whisking it all the time that you are pouring in the cream.

  6. Pour the combined mixture back into the saucepan, and put it back on a gentle heat. Keep whisking it as it heats, and as it reaches simmering point it will start to thicken.

  7. Pour the custard into something that can go into the fridge, cover it with cling film (this stops a skin forming) and leave it to cool down for a while before you put it in the fridge for about 3-4 hours until it is completely cold.

    8. and freeze!

  8. Start the ice maker and pour the custard in slowly, then leave it to churn for about 30 minutes (depending on your machine).

  9. While the ice cream is churning, remove the stones from the cherries and roughly chop them. About five minutes before the ice cream has finished throw the cherry pieces into the mixture, so that they get mixed through the ice cream without getting broken up too much.

  10. If you can resist for long enough, put the ice cream in the freezer for about two hours to firm it up a bit before you eat.

Not Moroccan salad

Posted on by
Reply

The other day I found a recipe in a book about Mediterranean cuisine, and they described it as a Moroccan salad. Now, I’ve lived in Morocco, and I had never seen anything like it. So, either I lived in the wrong bit, or the authors have a very free interpretation of Maghreb cuisine.

Anyway, I’ve made quite a lot of changes to the book recipe, and now it has absolutely nothing to do with Morocco at all, apart from the inclusion of dates and orange flower water, which are both hugely popular and cheap there.

Wherever it is from and whatever you want to call it aren’t really important anyway, what is important are what it is, and how it tastes.

It’s a simple salad of lambs lettuce, with carrot, orange, dates and almonds, all enveloped in a lovely citrusy dressing.

It tastes orangey and summery, and datey and yummy. Somehow it tastes even better when eaten al fresco and washed down with a nice cold bottle of rosé.

Notes on ingredients

Choose good juicy oranges, they should be firm to the touch and feel heavy for their size. If you want to sexy it up a bit, then you can always use blood oranges for the visual contrast between the green of the lambs lettuce and the intense red flesh.

If you can’t get hold of orange flower water, then don’t worry about it, just use half the amount of freshly squeezed orange juice in your dressing instead. It’s not the same, but it still tastes fantastic.

The recipe

Salad ingredients

  • 100g Lambs lettuce
  • 20g Blanched almonds
  • 2 Medium size orange
  • 1 Large carrot
  • 115g Fresh dates

Dressing

  • 1½tbsp Lemon juice
  • 1tbsp Orange flower water
  • ½tbsp Olive oil
  • ½tsp Salt
  • 1tsp Caster sugar

  1. Toast the almonds in a thick bottomed pan. Keep them moving around so that they don’t burn, and tip them out when they have turned a nice golden brown colour on all sides. Let them cool slightly, and then slice them.

  2. Wash the lambs lettuce, drain well and put it into a large salad bowl.

  3. Peel and segment the oranges, and set them aside.

  4. Stone the dates, cut each one into 6 pieces, and set aside.

  5. Combine the lemon juice, orange flower water, olive oil, sugar and salt in a cup or small bowl, and mix well.

  6. Toss the lambs lettuce well in half of the dressing and transfer it to a clean bowl.

  7. Grate the carrot over the lettuce.

  8. Arrange the orange segments and dates on top of the salad.

  9. Pour the remaining dressing over the salad.

  10. Sprinkle the toasted almonds over the top.

  11. Chill for about 10 minutes to give all of the flavours time to combine, but not too long or the leaves will go all soggy.

Real(ly simple) Lemonade

Posted on by
5

No, not the fizzy stuff that comes in a bottle and tastes vaguely chemical.

I’m talking about lemonade actually made with (shock horror) lemons.

My daughter won’t drink anything “with bubbles in it”, not because we try to influence her that way for any kind of health reasons, but simply because she doesn’t like it. I’m not a big fan of many things carbonated either, I’ll drink Coke occasionally, and apart from that it’s really only sparkling wines or beer. Carbonated water is one of my pet hates.

So I was thinking about what else to give ‘the child’ for a change instead of water or fruit juice, and here we are with just about the most refreshing thing on the planet (apart from a nice cold beer) to quench your thirst on a hot summers day.

It’s got the added bonus of being as quick and easy as it is tasty and refreshing.

How to make Lemonade

Ingredients

  • Lemons 3
  • Sugar 75g
  • Water 750ml

To Serve

  • Ice cubes
  • Fresh mint leaves

This looks odd, help!

  1. Peel and roughly chop the lemons.

  2. Put the chopped lemons into a food processor together with the sugar, and blitz it until you have a fairly fine pulp.

  3. Put the pulp in a jug and add the water, mix well.

  4. Chill it in the fridge overnight

  5. Serve with ice and a sprig of fresh mint

You can keep the lemonade in the fridge for two or three days with no problem but, unless you make buckets of it, there is no way that it will last that long.