What do you eat when it's hot? I like barbecue and salads. Easy grills with flavours appealing enough to raise an appetite when all you really want to do is sip a cold drink.
Lemon meatballs.
Serve these with yogurt and a simple Greek salad. And cold beer.
Place 750 grams of combined veal and pork mince into a large mixing bowl and add an egg, 100 grams of grated parmesan cheese, three chopped garlic cloves, half a chopped red onion and three tablespoons of chopped parsley.
Combine, with your hands.
Now add the grated zest - ah, my new zester! - and the juice of one large lemon. Add salt and pepper and divide mixture into balls about the size of a rising full moon to the naked eye. Alright, a round egg, then. Flatten them slightly so that they resemble flying saucers.
Grill between two lemon leaves, ten minutes or to your liking. You're not supposed to undercook mince, but I do, for two reasons. One, I trust my butcher; and two, I don't like burnt meat.
We had these for a late dinner when the boys were in bed - asleep! - a few nights ago. We ate on the little balcony with ti-tree towering overhead and birds flitting here and there. The sun was low in the sky but still radiating furiously.
It's been over 35 for several days in a row, and it was 39 both days last weekend. We spent much of the weekend on the beach, early morning and later in the afternoon. William taught himself a new game: running away from his shadow. Right there on the big sand flats that slip down to the roaring waves at the ocean beach, he turned, ran, stopped - all the while looking at his shadow and squealing - turned the other way, ran. Still the shadow followed him. Little pink sandy toes, nimble though they are, couldn't carry him away from his shadow. He stopped after a while and we went into the water.
Lemon meatballs.
Serve these with yogurt and a simple Greek salad. And cold beer.
Place 750 grams of combined veal and pork mince into a large mixing bowl and add an egg, 100 grams of grated parmesan cheese, three chopped garlic cloves, half a chopped red onion and three tablespoons of chopped parsley.
Combine, with your hands.
Now add the grated zest - ah, my new zester! - and the juice of one large lemon. Add salt and pepper and divide mixture into balls about the size of a rising full moon to the naked eye. Alright, a round egg, then. Flatten them slightly so that they resemble flying saucers.
Grill between two lemon leaves, ten minutes or to your liking. You're not supposed to undercook mince, but I do, for two reasons. One, I trust my butcher; and two, I don't like burnt meat.
We had these for a late dinner when the boys were in bed - asleep! - a few nights ago. We ate on the little balcony with ti-tree towering overhead and birds flitting here and there. The sun was low in the sky but still radiating furiously.
It's been over 35 for several days in a row, and it was 39 both days last weekend. We spent much of the weekend on the beach, early morning and later in the afternoon. William taught himself a new game: running away from his shadow. Right there on the big sand flats that slip down to the roaring waves at the ocean beach, he turned, ran, stopped - all the while looking at his shadow and squealing - turned the other way, ran. Still the shadow followed him. Little pink sandy toes, nimble though they are, couldn't carry him away from his shadow. He stopped after a while and we went into the water.
Aaaaaahhh did you get a microplane perhaps? I adore mine.
ReplyDeleteThosse do sound lovely, of course we could never find lemon leaves here in the Norht East, maybe you could in Florida or California perhaps, but not here.
I patiently read every day hoping to see the inevitable cooling in your weather so i can look forward to the evtual warming in mine. I'm not good with Ch conversions from F, but we are currently running at around 10 degrees F. Brrrrrrr
My tip for eating in the heat? Go inside and turn the air-con on really high LOL. It's too hot and humid to even consider eating outside here. We have been having lots of BBQ's and salads.
ReplyDeletefrom Steevil
ReplyDeleteIt's nice and warm here in the greater Baltimore-Washington area too--over 40.
(Fahrenheit)
These sound so good! There's no way I'd ever be able to get my hands on lemon leaves though. It's nowhere near that warm here - we have been between 0 and 5 lately, but Saturday we're taking off for warmer climes!
ReplyDeleteYep, I reckon salads and lemon are the way to go: our meatless equivalent has been chunks of haloumi in a hot pan, then drowned in lemon juice and choked with black pepper. Mountains of greens, cucumber, and the ripest tomatoes I can find.
ReplyDeleteThose Cypriots sure knew what to serve on a summer night.
Yes, Jo, the microplane. Amazingly enough, I still 'think' in Fahrenheit even though we've been Celsius (initially Centigrade) since I was fourteen.
ReplyDeleteRDM, we don't have aircon, which is possibly why I bang on about the weather so much!
You can take the coat and hat off, Steevil.
Sara, I might have to open an online lemon leaf ordering service, the amazon of lemon leaves. Enjoy the warmer climes.
Cindy, the cheese sounds great. We've been cooking a lot with paneer.