By: Nadine Hughes
Last month I gave you a few ideas on how to
keep your summer entertaining easy with quick and tasty
recipes that will have you cooking less and enjoying summer
more. Having spent the last few weeks in cottage country
doing my fair share of entertaining, these lessons bear
repeating! When I invite people up to the cottage, my guests
usually insist on preparing one meal during the weekend.
Fine with me, however I always feel a wee bit concerned
for them that they feel it needs to be a major affair. Don’t
know whether it’s because of what I do for a living
that intimidates them or my friends truly enjoy spending
hours in a hot kitchen preparing a meal for us instead of
hours on a hot dock with a cold drink in their hand! I suspect
it’s more to do with the common mistake that many
inexperienced cooks make when it comes to knowing what to
cook, how much to cook and when to cook it. Here are a few
tips to help guide you through your summer cooking and entertaining:
- Keep it simple. By choosing the best
local and seasonal quality ingredients you can find, the
less you’ll actually need to do to them. Tomatoes
are coming into season so instead of spending time on
an elaborate salad, thickly slice fresh tomatoes, drizzle
with a great olive oil and sprinkle with sea salt. Lay
out a big platter of them with fresh bread and a crisp
white wine and you have the perfect light lunch.
- Make the BBQ your best friend. Everything
you can do on a stove or in the oven, you can do on the
BBQ leaving you less mess to deal with in the kitchen
and more of that great summer grilled flavour. Chances
are there will be someone around that fancies themselves
a BBQ King or Queen so you might not even have to do any
of the cooking!
- A little goes a long way. Too often
we cook far too many dishes for one meal or too much food
thinking there will never be enough. In my experience
people eat lighter and less in the summer so plan your
meal, picture it on the table or plate and chances are
you can remove one or two items from the meal reducing
your workload.
- When it’s the weekend,
spend some time prepping and planning your meals so that
you can cook in advance and enjoy for the whole weekend.
Many foods that we serve hot in the winter can be enjoyed
cold or at room temperature in the summer so it’s
easy to prepare in advance. A grilled potato salad is
a great to cook the night before but serve the next day
cold. Roast a chicken and serve it cold the next day with
a classic mango chutney and ciabatta rolls. Or BBQ salmon
on a cedar plank, serve with a sliced cucumber salad and
serve any remaining salmon the next day for lunch over
room temperature orzo pasta.
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Nadine Hughes is a mother of two and a Home Entertainer
with a vibrant personality and memorable cooking style.
As the owner of The Cook’s Companion, Nadine
offers lifestyle cooking and entertaining classes
for adults, teens and private at home classes. She
is also a food writer, guest speaker and television
presenter. For more information on these services
or The Menu Companion – dinner party menu planners,
visit www.thecookscompanion.ca
and www.themenucompanion.com.
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