Summertime Easy Eating

Without air conditioning, who wants to spend time in a hot kitchen in hot weather? With California's Indian Summers, the heat can continue into October! The high temperatures are not all bad. Summer is a good time for loosing excessive body weight. (The real problem is trying to manage one's weight throughout the long winter months.) Salads, vegetable stir-fry medleys with a spicy, subcontinent simmering sauce, the on-going series of seasonal fruits, cold soups, salsa with quality corn chips, guacamole, cold green tea noodles etc. Attention is directed at quality ingredients simply prepared --with little applied heat.

Italian pasta salads are obvious summer selections, using both dye-cut and noodle varieties. Of shaped pastas one of my favorites is Orzo, named for its resemblance to rice. As simply designed as it is, Orzo requires special attention when olive oil and sauce are added separately after draining the cooking water. Immediately add the olive oil and stir occasionally over about a five minute marinating period. Then, add the pasta sauce and stir to mix and marinate for about twenty minutes, stirring every few minutes. As the Orzo marinates it absorbs liquids and becomes more plump and favorable. For salads omit the sauce and add diced vegetables, such as Japanese cucumbers, sun-dried tomatoes, celery, Japanese daikon and any of many condiments: olives, artichoke hearts capers etc. To tell the truth, I am content to eat sauced Orzo at room temperature, as a leftover!

Orzo probably should be enjoyed for itself alone. By that I mean if a sauce is added it should be similar as those used with noodles, a thin and uniform substance. Strained tomatoes or tomato paste for base would provide an even consistency. pressed garlic, sauteed minced yellow onions or shallots and minced jalapena peppers, and herbs and spices as the cook wishes. I like a spicy sauce of aji limo red peppers or chipotle powder. The Roman-style Arrabiatta pasta sauce is what I aim for. My variation has the additions of toasted sesame oil, balsamic vinegar and freshly milled black pepper. The featured ingredient is the Orzo itself, at center stage. The sauce is nearly invisible, merely a backdrop if noticed at all. Importantly, Orzo needs only nine minutes to cook. Orzo certainly qualifies as "comfort food".

Early breakfast in the summer months is the time for a hot meal. As breakfast chef in my home, I have to produce a four or five course meal in a rather narrow time frame. The need to think quickly in an impromptu situation, to rely on inspiration, makes my morning ventures exciting and if all goes well, very satisfying.

Eggs are center stage for the short-order cook. The issue is in what format will they take shape? Any of many styles will do; but, I favor stuffed omelettes, sauteed shallot-scrambled eggs, poached and sunny side-up fried eggs served on or with sweet buttered, sour French bread, toasted. Fry pan eggs spend as much or more time off flame as over it--to obtain solidification without overcooking.

The stuffing ingredients, sauteed in a separate fry pan, are variable depending on what is available; and impulse determines how they are selected and prepared. I choose from yellow onions or shallots, shitaki or crimini mushrooms, cucumber, Kombu or wakame seaweed, finely chopped dried chipotle or aji limo rojo chili peppers, green olives; and I flavor with nama shoyu , olive oil and Madeira or Marsala wine. There is no limit to possibilities! Sliced or chopped, peeled roma tomatoes and jullienne cucumber make a very fresh-tasting omelette! Everything is undertaken as an improvisation. Three beaten eggs fill a 10-inch fry pan nicely. Poured into the hot, oiled pan, the eggs are allowed to stand untouched. When the surface has solidified, I add the sauteed mixture to half of the omelette and then fold the other half over the mixture. Various items can accompany the omelette: sour French toast, sliced fruit and whole-leaf tea of strong character.

For afternoon light meals: cold bean thread salad with julliene cucumber and plucked dill weed and a pressed garlic, nama shoyu and/or toasted sesame oil vinaigrette; also, peeled tomato and cucumber chunks with dill weed and a sesame seed, olive oil and vinegar dressing. If the urge for a sandwich is strong, a large, fresh, wine-sauteed shitaki mushroom serves well as a meaty, vegetarian open-faced option. (On toasted, sour French, of course!) Simple wok soups served cold are always ad hoc creations.

A caveat is in order. Too much attention is now placed on nutrient values as first order of selection. Eat broccoli not because you like it, but because it is good for reasons of health. To some extent discretion is a double-edge sword; I have to be mindful of what constitutes a balanced and healthy meal. However, I find satisfaction in surrendering to whim, at least on occasions. I might concentrate on a risotto to the exclusion of everything else; but, every meal does not have to be "balanced"! Also, I can probably gage when I need a particular substance by simply staying in touch with body workings. But, as a child I was so conditioned to eat nutritious that I am susceptible to heath food advertisements and the new common wisdom--that food is for nutrition and not necessarily for pleasure and taste satisfactions.

I probably would never eat oatmeal, given the horrors of a child's breakfast, if it were not for its importance in keeping arteries clean. I eat blueberries in the quantities I do, throughout the year, because they establish intestinal flora that keep me regular. I eat large quantities of cooked tomatoes for phytochemicals as much as I do because I can not cook without them; fortunately, I love tomatoes. In part, I cook with olive oil for health reasons as well as for favor and calories. The same is true of garlic and various other members of the onion family.

While still in grammar school, I grew tomatoes for the kitchen table. One of my fondest summer vacation memories was to pick my real vine-ripened Beef stake tomatoes, slice and serve them with mayonnaise and ground-pepper on a hot afternoon. Today, I would peel them, hold the mayonnaise and serve with an olive oil and balsamic vinegar dressing--with freshly milled pepper!

Summer is the time for fruits as well as vegetables: seedless watermelon tops the list, followed closely by figs, apricots and peaches. And when I have the courage to turn on the oven, I like then in country tarts. But, I have to start before sunrise to prevent heat-exhaustion. Smoothies get me through the hot afternoons.