We have been baking and roasting in the UK in boiling temperatures so I must admit I have not thought much about cooking in the past week or two. Especially that my birthday has just gone and so I was luxuriating in doing nothing and having the birthday meal cooked for. Poor Weather Man almost passed out having prepared figs with blue cheese and slow roasted beef on one of the record breaking hot days.
I think it is going to be a little cooler from now, so I hope to return to the kitchen. I’d like to do some baking, perhaps cherry cream dacquoise or a variation thereof. A batch of cherry cornmeal muffins could be nice for breakfasts and I could try baking them with fresh cherries. And I have long planned challah buns with raisins and cinnamon on my to-do list: watch the space.
Tomatoes then, as the plants on our patio have been fruitfully grateful for the hot sunny weather. I’ll have to make some tomato butter from the ripest as it’s such great stuff to spread on toast or jacket potatoes. I’ll have to have at least one dinner of tomato crostata and one of tomato Tatin – those two being very different dishes, contrary to what you may think. I’ll bake stuffed tomatoes and on another day I’ll pair some with creamed corn – sweetcorn being in the height of season too now. Prawns with tomato stew might catch your fancy, or you could simply serve pappardelle with fresh tomatoes for another dinner this week.
Don’t forget to go foraging for brambles to make bramble jelly, or maybe redcurrant jelly if you can get hold of redcurrants in bigger quantity than the ridiculously tiny tray supermarkets sell. Both worth spending some time in the kitchen for. Subscribe to my newsletter and to the CuisineFiend YouTube channel if you haven’t already. Stay safe and enjoy the rest of the summer!