Cold Comfort

 This weeks heat wave may be a sign of summer weather to come.o one feels like cooking or eating thanks to the high temps. The best way to entice a flagging appetite is by introducing cool foods and ingredients onto the menu. They'll pique the palate.

Learn from Middle Eastern cuisine and introduce mint into your dishes. Mint is not only a refreshing flavor but also very cooling.It's easy to grow in the back yard and once grown, it will leaf in abundance.One of the tastiest and easiest dishes to create is tabbouleh, a staple in both Lebanese and Syrian cuisine.It also has vibrantly colored chopped parsley tomatoes and bulgur( these are dried and cracked wheat berries that have been parboiled and dried).It's dressed with olive oil and lemon juice. It's perfect with grilled meats but also refreshing on its' own as a light lunch or supper.Another salad is fattoush slald, with grilled veggies and drizzled with a mint or mint based sumac dressing. Kibbeh, ground beef or lamb patties or balls also have mint for a clean flavor too.You wouldn't think chicken could be cooked with mint but it can. make a mint and lemon marinade for chicken breasts and then grill.Of course you can add freshly picked mint leaves to any home made iced tea. This is refreshing and cooling, even as a late night refresher when you can't sleep.

One hot weather recipe that everyone loves is the chopped salad. This can have refreshing mint or even spearmint in it. it's just chopping vegetables including lettuce up into bite sized pieces and serving  with a tasty dressing.How to make it successful? Chop all the veggies and add ins in uniformly small pieces (think cubing).This applies to larger lettuce leaves too. as for extras, many put into Italian cold cuts such as salami, pepperoni and spiced ham. Cubed peppers and mozzarella give it texture and creaminess. Mix in a good Italian dressing that's a blend of olive oil, red  or white wine vinegar , oregano and thyme. Serve it with refrigerated cold cuts and Italian bread. Keep in mind leftover meats also work perfectly. Yesterday's rotisserie chicken is perfect shredded and cut into a chopped salad. Grilled steak cubed and defatted also is a tasty add in to any chopped salad. also bottled dressing works just as well as homemade. Use Thousand Island or Blue cheese if you;re craving it.

It's hot as anything out. Cooking foods help lower the temps around you. Create  tabbouleh or kibbeh. whip up an icy chopped salad.These are tasty ways to chill down.

Ramadan Recipes To Open The Pantry

Like any other holiday , Ramadan is full of different recipes, from all over the world. The one thing they all have in common is that they're nourishing and tasty after a day of fasting. They're both stomach and soul satisfying.

The famed blogger and chef, Tejal Rao wrote about them today in The New York Times Food section. It's right on time too, with the holiday starting this Friday night and lasting for an entire month. This means a meal at night and then a predawn one before sunrise. The whole act of forgoing food is strenuous , but it's an act of devotion. The holiday is also  about community and charity, along with self-reflection and kindness.It's also about cooks buying in bulk and create a months worth of both easy and elaborate dinners.Freezers are stocked with all sorts of goodies. Pakistani born Malika Ameen stuffs her samosas in it. They're filled with ground beef and bulgar and can easily be popped into hot oil or microwave for easy cooking.There are also big pots of lentil soup ready to be scooped up into bowls. Unfortunately the family recipe, fruit chaat, the tangy fruit salad does take time to create.

Other countries also ave interesting recipes for the holiday. .Bim Adewummi, from Nigeria concentrates on carbohydrates and proteins.She spent one Ramadan making eggplant or courgette fritters, another was devoted to spinach balls, the recipe taken from a halal blog.It was based on another chef's, Antonio Carluccio's green dumplings.or probably gnocchi with pesto. There's also  the famed Lebanese fattoush  that Amanda Saab makes. This is a tasty salad with a lemon sumac dressing served with warm fried ,flatbread.Cinnamon and allspice is also added for subtle sweetness (this is actually a good summer meal dish too for anyone to try). The recipes featured are a watermelon chaat and namoura, the syrup soaked semolina cake. The first is spicy spin on a usually mild flavor, zested and zinged up with paprika and cumin seeds. Again, this would be a neat summer salad at a barbecue. The semolina cake is rich with butter and whole milk yogurt., soaked in a syrup that's' tangy with lemon and fragrant with lavender extract.

Ramadan is the holiday of fasting and feasting.It's the last that makes the days bearable. and the nights enjoyable. It's full of good food. and good memories