Hi, I’m Anna Jones and this is my weekly newsletter, a celebration of cooking, vegetables and life. It’s great to have you here. If you have found yourself here but are not yet subscribed then you can sort that out below.
When it’s this hot, I don’t cook, I cool. In summer I use my fridge and freezer in the way I use my oven the rest of the year. I plate up salads, dips and dishes, then put them into the fridge (or freezer if they can handle it) to get super cold for maximum freshness.
If it’s really hot, I might even add a couple of ice cubes to my dips (I make them a touch thicker than normal to counter the thinning of the ice melting) or my salads so they are super super cold and refreshing.
Summer eating lends itself well to this. All the things I like to eat in the summer are veg with a high water content that works well cold - cucumbers, melons, tomatoes, peaches, nectarines, courgettes and runner beans. Corn too as the summer rolls on.
Here, I’ve taken it one step further and cooled my dressing as well as the ingredients in the freezer. Inspired by a magically cooling plate of melon and a garlicky ajo blanco dressing at Moro on another of these hot hot summer days. I don’t freeze the dressing until it's frozen hard but just until it’s a little icy and crystal-y and slushy so it holds onto the coolness once it’s on the table.
I’ve made this salad every few days since we first tested it. There’s a plate of the icy, freezer dressing in my freezer right now, ready to pile high with cool crunchy veg - cucumber and grassy galia melon.
This week’s brand-new recipe is for my much cherished paid subscribers. If you need something to eat while it’s too hot, make this.
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