Basic Home Cooking
When summer comes around and you want to eat, turning on the oven seems like the last thing you want to do. Especially if you are like me and are not fortunate enough to have an air conditioned home, the very idea of cooking really does not seem worth the effort of the next 2 hours of frantically trying to bring the temperature of the house back down. Of course there are things like fruit, ice-cream and salad. But just because its summer doesn’t mean you have to settle for the basics. So I found myself thinking about what summer means to me, food wise. I want food that doesn’t make me feel overly full (think bikini), I want food that is cold, light and juicy. And of course I want food that doesn’t need a huge amount of heat to produce. So after much thought, I came up with a few recipes to brighten up your summer but cool down your day. I think cooking should always be an enjoyable process, no matter what the weather conditions are like, so have a go!

Crepes with raspberry-peach coolie and orange segments

2 eggs
1 cup milk
90g plain flour (sifted)
pinch of salt
1 ½ teaspoons castor sugar

Raspberry-peach coolie

1 cup frozen raspberries
2 tablespoons castor sugar
1 heaped tablespoon honey
2 tablespoons peach jam (apricot is yummy too!)

Grab a measuring jug and whisk together the eggs and milk til combined.
Take a medium sized bowl and sift in the flour, salt and sugar. Gradually add the liquid mixture to the dry ingredients a little at a time, whisking constantly to avoid ending up with a lumpy mixture.
Pour your batter back into the measuring jug, gladwrap and refrigerate it for 20-30 minutes. It should thicken up slightly over this time, but if you are super hungry, its still okay to use straight away!

To make the coolie, simply put the raspberries and sugar into a small saucepan and melt on a medium heat, stirring til the sugar has dissolved. Crush some of the raspberries, but leave some whole if you want some texture. Take the saucepan off the heat and pour raspberry mixture into a small bowl. Stir in the honey and jam, and leave to cool or until needed. Segment your orange by removing pith and skin, looking out for pips.

Cook your crepes on a low to medium heat, with a little melted butter to prevent the batter from sticking.  Serve with your segmented orange pieces and coolie.

Cool Rhubarb (to have with yoghurt)

4-5 rhubarb sticks
¼ cup water
1 tablespoon honey
2 tablespoon castor sugar
2 teaspoons rosewater (optional)

Put a medium sized heavy based saucepan on low heat. Wash the rhubarb thoroughly and chop and discard the ends. Chop roughly into 2 cm chunks, other thereabouts. It doesn’t really matter what size but so they cook down easily you want them to cook at the same time. Pour the water into the saucepan, followed by the rhubarb, sugar, honey and rosewater. Stir thoroughly and put the lid on. It takes about 10 minutes. You should be left with a dark pink mush mixture. Serve with vanilla yoghurt. It’s also particularly nice if you add a couple of teaspoons of the raspberry coolie (see above) and a teaspoon of honey.

Pink fruit jelly

This recipe really could not be simpler! All you need is a couple of jam jars (lids included), 1 packet of raspberry jelly crystals and a fresh punnet of strawberries.  I liked the idea of using jam jars because the jelly looks so beautiful through the glass. But there are other advantages; for example, it’s easier to see if the jellies have set properly, good for equal portions and also because you don’t need a jelly mould to enjoy this recipe, (because let’s face it, no-one wants to buy a cake tin just for a possible one off recipe).

Chop ¾ of the strawberries into round discs. Put some water on to boil. Check the instructions on your jelly packet to make sure you have the quantities right. Combine the jelly powder with the boiling water, stir til completely dissolved. Place as many strawberry pieces into your jars as you like, then pour over jelly liquid. Make sure you fill the jars leaving at least 1cm at the top the prevent spillage. Put the lids on and place in the fridge. They are supposed to take at least 4 hours to set, but seeing I was bringing them to a friend’s house later on, I decided to pop them in the freezer for about 45 minutes, then back into the fridge, just to cool them off quicker. Do not put them in the freezer any longer than that as glass can crack because the difference in temperature.

Serve with cream or a creamy vanilla yoghurt. Dust with white chocolate shavings if desired.

So with a bit of luck I hope I’ve shed some light on the cooler side of summer cooking. To beat the heat, add thinly sliced cucumber or a lemon wedge to a cool glass of water. If you add these to water your body treats the liquid as a solid and it absorbs the water more efficiently than without.

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