Top 10 Hot Weather Culinary Life Savers

It’s a hot and humid Saturday afternoon in San Diego and I can’t bear the idea of turning on the oven or even the stovetop burners. I don’t even want to grill. I don’t want to be near anything over 78 degrees.

This time of year is pretty much about having things around that satisfy hunger without requiring sweat-provoking activities like sautéing, roasting or boiling. I have some favorite cooling foods—some that I’ve found at the markets and some that are easy to prepare and are mostly about fruits and vegetables readily available at your local farmers market or produce store.

So, if you’re desperate for some ways to eat cool over the next couple of months, here are my top 10 favorites—half from the stores and half are recipes.

At the stores:

• Shangri-La Tropical Passion iced tea from Great News. I’m not a big fan of fruity teas. I like to keep things simple with green teas. But at a class last year at Great News I was ridiculously thirsty and, as always, they had pitchers of tea and water for students to enjoy during class. The water pitcher was empty so I reluctantly went for the tea and found I absolutely loved it. Since then I regularly keep my pantry stocked with it. There are five packets in each little red bag. Fill a large pitcher (with a lid) with water. Empty a packet into a large tea filter and gently lower into the mouth of the pitcher. Let the sun do the rest for a few hours, then remove the filter, put the lid on the pitcher and refrigerate.

• Sharon’s Sorbet from Trader Joe’s. I’ve never been a big ice cream person but this time of year I love a cold dessert after dinner. I found Sharon’s Sorbet and now keep it in the freezer. My favorites are lemon, mango and passion fruit, but other flavors include blueberry, mixed berry, raspberry, strawberry, coconut and dutch chocolate.

• Beet vinaigrette salad from Continent European Deli: I’ve written about this before. The salad is made with beets, potatoes, pickles, carrots and sauerkraut. It’s got a lot of flavors and textures going on at once—sweet, salty, crunchy and chewy. I enjoy this and I don’t even like beets!

• Ceviche from Northgate Gonzalez: I love this market and one of the biggest reasons is their selection of ceviches. I’m particularly fond of the octopus and the shrimp but all are delicious. Enjoy with fresh tortillas or chips from their tortilleria.

• Nopal salad from Foodland Mercado in El Cajon: Other Hispanic markets make this but Foodland’s is a winner because of the addition of red onion and crumbled queso fresco; again, pick up their fresh tortillas or chips (better than Northgate Gonzalez!)

To prepare:

Gazpacho

My mom gave me this gazpacho recipe years ago and now it’s a dinner party staple this time of year. It’s got a lot of ingredients, but once you get the produce chopped, it goes quickly and you get a hearty, cold meal that’s great for entertaining or a relief to have around for a few days during a heat wave.

5 -8 large tomatoes, quartered

1 large cloves of garlic, minced

½ English cucumber, roughly chopped

1 or 2 red peppers, roughly chopped

6 – 8 scallions, roughly chopped

6-8 radishes, roughly chopped

½ medium onion, peeled and quartered

1 jalapeño pepper, seeded and chopped

½ bunch parsley with major stems removed and/or 1 bunch cilantro

1 tbl lemon juice

2-6 tbl red wine vinegar

A few dashes of Worcestershire sauce

A few dashes of your favorite hot sauce

2 tsp olive oil

1 tsp salt

½ tsp sugar

1 regular-sized can beef broth

1 can low-salt V-8 juice

1 cup corn kernels (fresh, frozen or canned – I like the frozen roasted corn kernels from Trader Joe’s)

1 pound pre-cooked bay shrimp, lump crab or cooked chunks of chicken or pork

Pull out the food processor and a very large bowl. Process each of the vegetables and add to the bowl, then add the rest of the ingredients, except for the proteins, which I would have at the table separately for guests to add as they wish. Adjust seasoning to taste. Top when serving with sour cream or Mexican crema.

Serves 8 – 10

Cucumber Yogurt Bisque

Years ago, decades actually, I lived in New York, where summers can be truly miserable. So, when my friend Susan Leon made this for me, I added the recipe to my hot weather arsenal. It’s ridiculously easy to make and you can riff on it by adding other ingredients, like hot sauce or additional chopped veggies. I sometimes will toss some cooked shrimp on top to get some protein.

1 large cucumber

2 cups unflavored yogurt

2 tbl red wine vinegar

½ cup chopped onion

2 cloves garlic, minced

¼ tsp dill

¼ tsp ground pepper

1 large tomatoes, seeded and chopped

¼ cup sliced scallions

Peel the cucumber, slice it lengthwise into halves and scoop out the seeds and discard. Cut the cucumber into chunks and combine in food processor or blender with yogurt, vinegar, onion, garlic, dill and pepper. Process briefly until blended. Stir tomatoes into yogurt mixture. Cover and chill at least 2 hours or overnight. Garnish with sliced scallions. (If you use a very thick yogurt, like Greek yogurt, you can add a little chicken broth to thin the mixture.)

Serves 4

One-Hour Japanese Pickled Cucumbers

This is a wonderfully simple snack I love to munch on while trying to survive a sultry afternoon. In fact, I’ve got a little bowl in the refrigerator now that I’m going to pounce on shortly.

Use a mandoline to thinly slice an English or Persian cucumber. Place slices in a shallow bowl and add rice vinegar to cover. Refrigerate for an hour or so until the cucumbers have absorbed some of the vinegar and have chilled. Sprinkle with sesame seeds and hot pepper flakes. Pull out a set of chopsticks and dig in.

Hearts of Romaine Salad Dressing

My dad swears he doesn’t remember faxing me this recipe, but I have the original. I love this. It’s thick and goopy and the flavors are sharp—just perfect for the romaine it was created for, but also for a tomato salad or just dipping with veggies.

1 cup olive oil

2 tbl feta cheese, crumbled

1 tsp Dijon mustard

2 cloves garlic, minced

4 to 8 anchovy fillets, minced

1 tsp Worcestershire sauce

½ cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese

Fresh lemon or lime juice to taste

Salt and freshly ground pepper to taste

Combine all the ingredients in a food processor fitted with a metal blade or in a blender or process till smooth. Taste and adjust the seasonings.

Use as a salad dressing or dip for Romaine leaves.

Peggy Knickerbocker’s Fennel Salad with Black Olives and Arugula

This is why Bay Area writer and teacher Peggy Knickerbocker is so good. She takes unlikely combinations of foods—fennel and olives in this case—and creates something so splendid. Our La Cocina Que Canta class at Rancho La Puerta got to make this salad and I love it. Fennel is so refreshing a flavor and it benefits from the saltiness of the olives.

For the dressing:

3 tbl sherry vinegar

2 shallots, minced

Salt and freshly ground pepper

1/3 cup extra-virgin olive oil

For the salad:

3 to 4 medium heads of fennel, tough outer leaves discarded

12 black imported olives, pitted and cut into long slivers

½ cup chopped parsley leaves

4 stalks celery, thinly sliced into rounds

A few handfuls of arugula leaves, washed and dried

To make dressing: In a small bowl combine the vinegar with the shallots and salt and pepper to taste. Allow it to macerate for a few minutes, then whisk in the olive oil.

To make the salad: Cut the fennel in half lengthwise, removing the core. Cut the fennel into thin strips and place in a salad bowl. Toss with the olives, parsley and celery.

Make a bed of arugula leaves on a serving platter. Toss the salad with the dressing in a bowl and mound on top of the arugula leaves.

Serves 6

Do you have a favorite neighborhood market or shop that carries unique or unusual foodstuff? What do you do to beat the heat in the kitchen? Let me know or add to the conversation by clicking on comments below:

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El Tigre and Mercado International 2000: Chula Vista’s Culinary Charms

After a childhood of seemingly interminable waiting for my mom in the parking lot of the Encino Gelson’s market, I never thought I’d say this—and she’ll certainly laugh—but some of my most enjoyable days are spent at the grocery store. And if you can find a buddy who enjoys it as much as you, well, how lucky is that? Well, I’m very lucky. Deb Schneider, a wonderful chef and author of Baja! Cooking on the Edge, has become a great pal and we recently spent a fun day roaming from Latin market to Latin market.

Our first stop was Northgate Gonzalez, which Deb hadn’t yet seen. Since I’ve already covered the various gems you can find there, I’ll just move on to our next stop. We headed down to Chula Vista to check out the new El Tigre on Third Ave., which neither of us had been to. Deb is a fan of the older market in Nestor and I’ve been to the one in Escondido, which seemed a bit tired to me. This was before the announcement that Northgate Gonzalez was taking over the El Tigre chain.

This new El Tigre is light and bright with wide aisles, but I actually thought it was so antiseptic it could be any supermarket in San Diego, except that this one happens to sell a lot of Latin American products. And, for some reason they weren’t fully stocked. The produce department, in particular, seemed to be crying out for more, more, more.

However, there were some happy surprises. Their fish department, for example, is filled with lovely fillets of catfish and red snapper, a variety of shrimp and an amazing display of octopus.

They sell campechana del mariscos, a seafood mix of octopus, calamari, fake crab and mussels used for Seven Seas Soup. You can find a good recipe for this in Rick Bayless’s Mexican Kitchen. (It’s too long to print here.)

In that same part of the store is the bakery and you’ll find a beautiful display of pastries and bolillos (large sandwich rolls), very similar to what you’d find at Foodland or Northgate Gonzalez.

Pick up an elephant ear, those flaky sugary cookies made from puff pastry, and go over to the in-house coffee bar, D’Volada, for an espresso or latte—made with their own mix of Mexican and Colombian beans—or a calming cup of tea. Try a fresh brew of gorgeous chamomile buds.

On the opposite side of store, alongside the produce department, is an astounding array of dried chiles, corn, beans, lentils and nuts. There were at least a dozen varieties of dried chiles in huge bins. Unfortunately, no chipotles, which Deb needed for a recipe she was testing. Rounding out the selection of dried items, were rows upon rows of dried, packaged herbs, peppers, teas and the like in a rainbow of colors.

Going up and down the aisles, Deb and I found some interesting South American products. I took home a bag of maiz cuzco gigante—giant corn that’s meant for toasting in oil.

This isn’t exactly popcorn, but it does make for an interesting snack. Just heat up a teaspoon or so of vegetable oil in a skillet and add enough corn to cover the bottom of the skillet. Let ‘er rip over the heat, tossing frequently, until the corn kernels are golden brown. Then drain on a paper towel and top with salt or other seasonings. These are the perfect little nosh, but also are nice on a salad.

The giant corn wasn’t the only unexpected item. While heading toward the produce department, Deb and I found ourselves laughing at the display of statuary hovering over the frozen food aisle. Enough said.

Back on the streets, we headed out for the other El Tigre but somehow we got lost. Lucky us. As we drove down Third we noticed a little white market called Mercado International 2000. Since we weren’t making any progress finding the other El Tigre we returned to Third and satisfied our curiosity.

This was a wonderful find. Maybe I like my markets to feel more like a treasure hunt, but I loved Mercado International 2000. It’s small and kind of dark, but festive and packed with lots of interesting items.

One of the first things we did was scour the refrigerated section at the entrance. Deb pulled out a couple of cans of Pulque, hugely excited to see this in a San Diego store. I was game to try it and bought a can.

Pulque is fermented agave juice, not to be confused with beer and certainly not with tequila, which is distilled. While its origin is unknown, it’s been around Meso America as a traditional beverage at least since pre-Columbian days. In Aztec culture, drinking pulque was part of religious celebrations and limited to specific holidays for the masses. To make pulque, the sap of the agave plant—called aquamiel (honey water)—is extracted and fermented, reaching an alcohol content of between two and eight percent. Today, there are still pulquerias, where pulque is served, but it’s also canned, which is what I bought.

While I love sipping a good tequila añejo (old) or reposado (rested), the pulque didn’t move me. At all. The milky white liquid had a flat taste to me, almost like soapy water. I’m told that the canned pulque isn’t nearly as good as what you would get at a pulqueria, but even so, I don’t think I’d seek it out. What I could have tried, however, was to mix it with mango or pineapple juice to create a curado.

Mercado International 2000, like other Hispanic markets, has a wonderful tortilleria and it has bustling meat department with flags from Latin American countries hanging overhead.

I loved the panaderia, with its vast selection of pastries, including a conical puff pastry filled with cream that I bought and hugely enjoyed.

There were some wonderful items in the frozen food section. I bought empanada dough, which I’ll soon be experimenting with. And, I found a box of frozen arepas de choclo (sweet corn).

I had made these from scratch a few weeks before with my friend Debra so I thought I’d give these a try. Arepas are a flat cornmeal pancake, perfect for grilling, baking or frying, especially when stuffed with cheese. Debra and I fried them and made sandwiches with sliced queso fresco and then fried them again to get the cheese to melt a little. I thought I’d actually try these frozen ones for dessert, since they’re fairly taste neutral, and served them hot with dulce de leche ice cream. Next time I’ll stick with the cheese.

What was successful came from a box of achiote rojo, a sauce long associated with the Yucatan.

This is one of those must haves for the pantry. It’s a blend of Mexican spices—annatto seeds, cumin, ground oregano, allspice and ground ancho chile—that come together as a vibrant red-orange paste. Crumble this into a bowl and add some minced garlic, orange juice, a little vinegar, olive oil and salt and pepper to taste to create a thick liquid for a marinade. It’s perfect for chicken, shrimp or a fillet of fish like snapper or cod. My friends Armando and Paula slather it on turkey for both the oven and the grill, and claim it creates the most tender and tasty turkeys. Achiote isn't at all hot, but very fragrant and flavorful and you also wind up with a gorgeous dish.

Of course, you don’t need to buy a box of achiote. You can easily make it from scratch. Here’s a wonderful recipe from whatscooking.us for homemade achiote sauce with chicken legs:

Chicken legs with achiote sauce
Makes 6 servings
Preparation time: 15 minutes
Cooking time: 45-60 minutes
Cooking method: marinate, baking

For this recipe you will need:

1 TBSP annatto seeds

½ tsp cumin

½ tsp ground oregano

1 tsp whole allspice

2 TBSP ground chile ancho

4 cloves garlic, minced

¼ cup vinegar

½ cup fresh orange juice

½ tsp olive oil

6 pieces chicken drumsticks and thighs

salt and pepper to taste

Preparation:

1. Dry-toast annatto seeds along with the rest of the spices in a heavy skillet over medium heat. Stir constantly until fragrant, around 2-3 minutes.
2. Cool slightly and grind in a food grinder (I used my blender on high speed)
3. In a large bowl whisk together spice mixture, garlic, vinegar, orange juice, and oil until well blended.
4. Coat chicken pieces with salt and pepper and arrange in a baking dish.
5. Add the annatto sauce and marinate overnight.
6. Preheat oven to 350° F (175° C)
7. Cover baking dish and bake for about 45-60 minutes. Chicken should be tender and fall right off the bone when tested with a fork.
8. Serve with white rice and enjoy!

At Mercado 2000 International, I also found a marvelous variety of hot sauces, including Salsa Huichol, which certainly burns, but Deb swears is the best. And I got a delicious sweet/hot apricot sauce, called chamoy (in Mexico, typically pickled apricots or plums are the fruit base and are mixed with chile powder), which you can use to dress everything from pork rinds, or chicharrones, to fruit.

Finally, I was captivated by the many varieties of Mexican chocolates for sale. I’ve always bought Ibarra, but here I also found Don Gustavo, Casero and Moctexuma. I was a sucker for the handsome Moctexuma design and bought a box, which has turned out to be very good.

By now, three markets into our shopping spree, Deb and I were famished. It happens that Mercado International 2000 has a little taco shop alongside the parking lot. Serving a variety of tacos, torta, mulitas, tamales and other treats, it tempted us to try lunch. I ordered a lingua de res taco (tongue) and a mulita (kind of a thick corn tortilla sandwich with grilled chicken, cilantro, scallions, avocado and cheese).

They’re served on paper plates with sliced cucumber and radishes. Everything was fresh and popping with different flavors. It’s a tasty, delightful mess, alone worth the visit.

El Tigre is located at 1058 Third Ave. between Emerson and Naples Sts.

Mercado International 2000 is located at 1415 Third. Ave. between Orange Ave. and Quintard St.

Have some thoughts about El Tigre, Mercado International 2000 or other ethnic markets in San Diego? Do you have a favorite neighborhood market or shop that carries unique or unusual foodstuff? Let me know or add to the conversation by clicking on comments below:

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Taking on Thanksgiving

I’m not normally a fan of potlucks, but let’s face it, Thanksgiving is the ultimate potluck dinner and the best. Of course, every family has its ironclad traditions when it comes to food—don’t bother to rhapsodize about your mom’s oyster stuffing or your grandma’s cornbread stuffing; I want my mom’s chestnut stuffing. Period. So, if you’re a guest, it’s going to be a challenge to make everyone happy with a dish that works with the dinner you’re invited to. And, if you’re the host, how do you get your guests to bring a dish that complements what you’re serving?

I think the answer is to keep all the hardcore dishes intact—the turkey, the stuffing, the gravy, the mashed potatoes and the sweet potatoes probably all revolve around recipes handed down through generations. They’re the immovable objects of the meal. So, do the novel flourishes at the periphery—the appetizers, side dishes, salad and dessert.

Certainly, the recipes for Thanksgiving dishes overfloweth. But, if time or talent is in short supply and you need to bring something smashing to the big meal, you’ve got a great selection of high-impact, low-fuss prepared foods from around San Diego County that you can choose from.

Let’s address appetizers. No, we don’t want to fill up on them before the main act, but no one wants a crowd so hungry they feel compelled to pounce on the food as it makes its entrance. So, here are some suggestions for host assignments or guest offerings—and some will work well as side dishes, too:

• Brie en croute or a plate of luscious cheeses from Venissimo (Del Mar and Mission Hills). If you’re confused about what to order, Gina and her staff can help you select just the right cheeses, along with crackers, bread or fruit to accompany it. And, in Mission Hills, head across the street to Sausage King to pick up sliced Hungarian salami to accompany it.
• Homemade vegetable salads from the newly revamped Aaron’s Eatzz on Convoy—the spicy Turkish salad with carrots, tomatoes, onions and spices like cumin; the Matbucha salad (also with a bit of a bite) with tomatoes, eggplant, red and green peppers, onions and garlic; the sweet Spanish sliced eggplant with tomato sauce and the grilled chopped eggplant that’s magnificently rich in flavor. They also have tahini and baba ganoush and chopped liver, and in their refrigerated section, smoked mackerel in oil, herring and vegetarian chopped liver.
• Fresh ceviche (fish, shrimp or octopus) from Northgate Gonzalez Market, along with freshly made tortilla chips.
• Dolmas (stuffed grape leaves) or other stuffed vegetables (cabbage leaves, peppers, zucchini, eggplant and kale), fried eggplant and grilled eggplant are a little exotic and truly delicious. And, is there anything easier than buying cans of these at Balboa International Market, North Park Produce, Aaron’s Eatzz or Parsian? I’ve tasted them all and, yes, they are perfect party pleasers. All you need to do is plate them. Another option is a plate of fresh sliced feta, olives, hummus and freshly baked flat bread.
• The beet salad at Continent European Deli in La Jolla. It converted me to beets, with its sweet accompaniments of walnuts, prunes, garlic and mayonnaise. And, that beet vinaigrette salad with potatoes, pickles, carrots and sauerkraut is delicious with sliced mini rye bread. Like garlic? Try their mushroom salad. Finally, I’d suggest the Israeli salad, with its mild flavors of eggplant, garlic and mayo.

Assigned to make the green salad? Trader Joe’s comes in handy here. All you need to do is buy some bags of pre-washed lettuces—perhaps baby spring mix or the herb salad mix—along with a bag of dried cranberries, a package of candied pecans, a container of pomegranate seeds and their cranberry, walnut and gorgonzola salad dressing (or make a vinaigrette yourself). Add some thinly sliced red onions and slices of peeled orange and you have an amazing salad. Want to really impress? Add crumbled cranberry stilton from Venissimo (yes, I do love the place).

Speaking of Trader Joes… they really are the go-to resource for prepared foods for Thanksgiving. My friend Paula is a sucker for their corn and chile tomato-less relish, as am I. She loves to serve it as an appetizer with tortilla chips on a bed of greens. Pick up a few jars of one of their tapenades—olive or roasted red pepper and artichoke—or bruschetta—plain, mixed olive or mixed grilled vegetable—and loaves of sour dough baguettes to slice. Just stand in front of the refrigerated section of dips, close your eyes and pick. You’ll land on something amazing, like their spinach and artichoke dip, cilantro roasted pecan dip, artichoke jalapeño, or three-layer hummus (traditional, cilantro jalapeño and spicy). Then all you need are some boxes of crackers or, better yet, bags of pita chips with sea salt or “everything” bagel chips.

What about dessert? Again, Trader Joe’s is easy with their fresh pumpkin and pecan pies and a delicious-looking pumpkin cranberry pecan upside down cake. They also have pumpkin and apple pies as well as a lovely French apple tart in the frozen food section.

Of course, Julian pies are always a pleaser. If you can't get up to Julian, lots of shops sell them year round. I can find them locally at my little Tierrasanta Farmers Outlet and their sister store off Friars Road and Mission Gorge.

Want to send the crowd swooning though? Go for the non-traditional but oh so amazing pastries at Sage French Bakery on Convoy, next to Nijiya. Owned by a Korean baker, this Japanese-style French Bakery is one of the best in town and you can focus on chocolate with the Chocolate Mousse cake, Raspberry Ganache or Elby or enjoy the raspberry Mistral. This man is truly gifted.

I’ve only touched the surface. So, I leave it to you, dear readers, to offer some other irresistible ideas. Just click on “Comments” below and add your thoughts.

And, have a wonderful Thanksgiving!

Caron

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