stayin' alive
heat wave cocktails and cold dinners
Hi friends. It occurred to me at some point earlier this week that I should have taken this week off, what with the historic heat wave and the stat holiday and all, but since I didn’t mention it in my previous newsletter, instead here is a shortened version for this short week. I hope all you other west coast and Alberta folks are doing all right, and if any of you have loved ones who have had to evacuate Lytton due to this horrific fire, my thoughts are with you.
I never thought I’d say this, but we appreciated our basement suite privilege the past week. Over our 4-day heat dome nightmare, the thick walls of our hobbit hole protected us from reaching the 35°C+ temperatures some of our apartment-dwelling friends had to endure in their homes. Nevertheless, the stagnant air and 68% humidity inside is still significant, and the thermometer in my kitchen didn’t dip below 28°C until Tuesday night. I spent most of Sunday sitting on the couch watching the Fellowship of the Ring extended edition in front of a fan. Monday I went in to work (as did many of my coworkers, for the a/c) and the heat outside made our air conditioning work so hard that it triggered the breaker multiple times and we spent most of the afternoon working in the dark. On Monday night I sat in the yard knitting until close to 11pm because it was too hot to even fathom going to bed until the breeze picked up.
I don’t know about you, but in such incredible heat, my appetite all but disappears. Instead I just have to force myself to eat at somewhat normal meal times. We prepared for the heat wave by buying two watermelons and an assortment of veggie burger patties, and making a bunch of pesto pasta salad. I’d also had the good luck the previous week of buying two-for-one boxes of Rico ‘N Lalo paletas (watermelon and raspberry)— somehow eating frozen fruit purée on a stick feels ok when eating other things does not.
On Monday evening, the peak of the high temperatures here, Jeff worked 14 hours helping out at the only one of the three restaurants open (the only one with a/c in the kitchen) as they were getting slammed with people wanting someone else to do their cooking. At home, our pre-made rations had run out and I bravely turned on a pot of water to make potato salad with some lovely, buttery Warba potatoes, an heirloom variety I’d never tried before.
When I just want a standard potato salad, I usually turn to the Prospect Park potato salad recipe in the Veganomicon and make a half batch. The base dressing uses whole-grain mustard for depth and turmeric to approximate the colour created in non-vegan potato salads with egg yolks, and it makes for an excellent version of the old-fashioned summer side dish of your memories. I almost always forget to add the carrot that the recipe claims is “essential for sweetness”, but I personally kind of like it a bit more acidic. I also often use chopped pickles instead of letting cucumber sit in the dressing for even more sourness (or if I don’t happen to have cucumber), and sometimes add a bit of celery for extra crunch. It’s potato salad— you can take the base dressing and run with whatever riffs and add-ins you like. Except for raisins.
On Tuesday, it was still hot, but less oppressively so, and I felt a bit more motivated to make something nice instead of just dipping stuff in hummus and cutting another slice off the watermelon. We had a couple of red peppers that were getting too old for anything other than roasting, so Jeff suggested romesco sauce. I recalled a bowl from Smitten Kitchen Every Day which used romesco with chickpeas, wilted greens, charred green onion, yogurt, and soft-boiled eggs— I’d made it once before and wasn’t keen on it texturally but loved the flavours, so I took a slightly different approach. I felt the chickpeas were a bit much as the base for a bowl; it needed a grain. I also wasn’t that into wilted spinach with so many other soft elements, so went for grilled zucchini, which is tender but still retains some crunch. And the yogurt I could take or leave.
Romesco sauce originated in Catalonia, eaten with fish and vegetables. It has multitudes of variations so there’s no truly “correct” way to make it, but the basis of it is generally roasted tomato and/or pepper, some toasted nuts (generally almonds), olive oil, paprika, and wine vinegar. It’s similar to a pesto but usually a little more of a cohesive sauce, although still a rougher texture than most tomato sauces because of the nuts (sometimes bread is also added for body and flavour). I love to use smoked paprika for its intensity, but a sweet or hot Spanish paprika is good too. Before blending the sauce, I saved some of the toasted almonds to use as a garnish for the bowls (always recommended).
This has a lot of elements that are prepared separately, but it was a good pick for a hot day because the chickpeas and quinoa can go in the instant pot (not at the same time, obviously), and roasting the peppers and charring the other vegetables was quick to do on the grill. The only thing that really required the stove was boiling the eggs, which are very nice but also not essential. We ate this outside since it had finally cooled enough to enjoy sitting out there, and it was enjoyable while some elements were still warm, but equally good the next day cold from the fridge.
Excessive heat tends to pull me away from my usual choice of hoppy beer, so I also made a couple of nice drinks (in addition to staying well-hydrated, don’t worry). On the weekend I dumped equal parts of rosé and raspberry lemonade in the ice cream maker for 15 minutes to make an icy and tasty frosé that was particularly delightful with a bit of mint from the garden. I’ve also done this with rosé and watermelon purée in the past. And on Monday I started making a gin & tonic, but when it didn’t fill up the collins glass completely, I began adding other assorted elements: a bit of blueberry-lavender cordial, more of the raspberry lemonade, and some rosemary and black raspberries from the garden. It was herbal, just slightly sweet, and extremely refreshing.
I’ll be back in full form next week. I hope you enjoy your long weekend (if you have one) and please stay cool, safe, and hydrated. And don’t be afraid to challenge your “patriotic” relatives.
Thanks for reading— if you enjoyed this newsletter, please share it with someone new! I like providing this to you for free, but it does still involve time and effort. Once again this week I encourage you if you’re a settler and you can spare it, to please donate to the Indian Residential School Survivors Society or the National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation. And a reminder, don’t let them blame catastrophic climate change on individual choices!