hot weather cooking

Here in Rochester it has been HOT. As in around 94 for the last two days, with the heat index above 100. My husband and I are trying to survive without an air conditioner. Our resolve is weakening, particularly because it's hard to sleep when it's so hot. It's also very hard to convince myself to cook in this weather. Anything that adds heat to the already too hot environment is not appealing.

However, we have managed to have two good meals so far despite the weather. The first one was sort of cheating. We ate at Thali of India last night. We gave up on cooking and went to a lovely air-conditioned environment where we were served delicious Indian food. I had the Vegetarian Thali of India, a combination platter with palak paneer, dal, navrattan korma, basmati rice, naan, raita, salad and rice pudding (all for 11.95). My husband had the non-vegetarian platter (with tandoori chicken and lamb curry). We ordered samosas for an appetizer and a mango lassi to split between us. Our waiters had turbans and were so kind as to refill our water after every other sip or so. All in all, a good meal, but I still think my favorite Rochester Indian restaurant is Raj Mahal.

Tonight I actually made dinner at home and managed to do so without fainting from heat exhaustion. I made angelhair pasta with fresh tomato sauce, a deliciously simple recipe that only requires cooking pasta for 8 minutes or so. While the pasta cooked, I chopped three tomatoes and tossed them in a large bowl with 2 cloves of garlic (minced), a pinch of salt, freshly ground black pepper, a handful of chopped basil and a few tablespoons of olive oil. When the pasta was done, I drained it and added it to the bowl and tossed well. I topped it with freshly grated Parmesan. Yum. (You can find this recipe in the Simply in Season cookbook or on epicurious). We also had green salad (lettuce, cherry tomatoes, green pepper, carrot and goat cheese) and my mom's applesauce, pulled out of the freezer yesterday. Not bad for very little effort. I love the fresh produce of summer!

Other recent cooking adventures: pie season has begun! Well, I guess it began with the strawberry pie I made a month ago, but now it's in full swing. My husband and I made a blueberry and a cherry pie this past Sunday. The cherry is not great--we really should try making it with sour cherries--I hear this makes the best pie. We had sweet cherries, not that flavorful, which gave us an okay pie. The blueberry, though...it is transcendent. It has convinced me that my two favorite pies in the world are apple and blueberry. When combined with the right amount of flour, sugar, lemon juice and cinnamon, the blueberries' natural tart/sweet combination shines. I had a piece for an after-work snack today and will definitely have another before going to bed. My next goal: a peach pie. And maybe raspberry, if I go raspberry picking somewhere.

Last but probably most importantly: I have been hydrating myself with homemade mint tea (called meadow tea in some circles) for the last few days. It's probably the reason I'm still alive. While we were visiting my parents this past weekend, I picked a bagful of mint from their ample supply (most of it grows wild down by the creek). On Sunday I steeped it all in a big kettle of water and made a lot of mint tea concentrate. We have been going through a pitcher of it per day or so. I was excited to make so much concentrate at once and found myself dreaming of cool fall or winter days where I would pull the concentrate out of the freezer and enjoy the fresh taste of summer. Alas, I think we are going to drink it all this week! Which just means we'll have to get more on our next trip. Plus plant some mint here in our backyard, although I'm not sure how well it will survive.