The Meal That Welcomes Summer

Categories: • Seasonal Food • Spring Season • Gardening • Edible Flowers

What better way to welcome the summer than by hosting a meal that features all the hot weather flavors. That's right! There's nothing like the taste of newly harvested fruits and veggies from summer gardens & there's nothing like summer sunshine put on a plate!

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Seasonal Food for a Summer Menu

Seasonality of food refers to the times of year when

a given type food is at its peak, either in terms of

harvest or its flavour. This is usually the time when

the item is the cheapest and the freshest on the

market. The food's peak time in terms of harvest

usually coincides with when its flavour is at its best.

• See Complete List of Summer Foods

Vegetable Choices

History tells us the Summer diet consisted of

green beans, radish, lettuces, chicories, aubergine,

carrots, cucumber, gherkins, watercress, marrow,

courgettes, and rice.

• Eggplant • Green Bean • Baby Turnip • Cucumber

• Zucchini/Courgette • Pepper • Basil • Okra

• Cannellini bean • Broad Bean • Runner bean

• Swiss Chard • Peas • New potato • Borlotti bean

• Sweetcorn cobs • Chanterelle (mushrooms)

Meat & Seafood Choices

History tells us the meat accompanied these summer

vegetables consisted mainly of poultry, ostrich and

beef products or seafood in season.

• Soft shell crab • Crayfish • Sea Bass • Sea Trout

• Sardines • Clams • Skipjack tuna • Rainbow trout

Dessert Choices

History tells us Fruity deserts included fruits such as

lemon, lime quinces, nectarines, mulberry, cherries,

plums, apricot, grapes, pomegranates, watermelon,

pears, apple, and melon.

• Cherry • Blackberries • Nectarines • Apricot

• Mango • Victoria plums • Watermelon • Fig

• Strawberry • Peach • Rhubarb • Raspberry • Walnut • Cantaloupe Melon • Tomato

Culinary Use / Ideas for a Summer Menu

It's The Season for Summer Salads:

Lets talk about what's in season for making fresh salads. Lettuce, cucumbers, peppers, basil, beans, peas, sweet corn and chanterelle mushrooms. Don't forget the fresh fruit either! A few of the summer fruits are cherries, blackberries, nectarines, apricots, mangos, watermelon, strawberries, peaches and raspberries. Add fruit to the side of green salads as a garnish or top it with lots of fruit for specialty theme salads. Remember that fruit salads are great served on the side of a meal or as a dessert. Now last but not least.... walnuts! Yes walnuts are beautiful on top of a salad and everyone knows all about the ever so popular waldorf salad that features walnuts. You can have some very satisfying salads with these summer ingredients.

Salsa Salsa Salsa!

What's in season for summer salsas? • Cucumber • Pepper • Basil • Sweetcorn cobs

• Tomatoes • Chanterelle (mushrooms) • Mango • Watermelon •

Mango & Cucumber Salsa Recipe: Perfect with halibut or salmon or as the salsa in fish tacos.

• 1 1/2 cups diced mango

• 1/2 medium red onion, finely chopped

• 1 Jalapeño chile, minced (this can be left out all together)

• 1 cup diced cucumber, peeled

• 3 Tbsp fresh cilantro leaves, chopped

• 3 Tbsp fresh lime juice

• Salt and pepper to taste

Mix all together

Beverages:

Lemonade or tea is the perfect mixed drink for a hot summer cookouts.

Lemonade. Take advantage of fresh season fruits like strawberries, watermelon, mango, peaches and raspberries by making a fruit version of lemonade. Puree, strain the seeds out and mix it in. There are countless recipes and most people prepare it to their specific tastes. Sometimes slices of lemon are added, especially if it is being prepared for guests or dinner parties.

Now if pureeing fruit is not your cup of tea then go with a skewer of fruit placed in the drink instead.

Cooked Green Beans:

Green beans are a favorite in America and the ever so popular green bean casserole takes center stage during the holidays but who says you have to wait until Christmas to enjoy it. No way! Green beans are in season during the summer so this is when it's going to taste the best. Many people enjoy adding mushroom in the recipe too, so find yourself some summer Chanterelles and try the recipe.

Green Beans & Tomato Sauce:

What a simple recipe this is! Fresh green beans, fresh summer tomatoes, a bad leaf, couple of spoon fulls of olive oil and a splash of lemon juice and you a have a favorite dish enjoyed in America, Arab countries, Turkey and in Spain. Spaniards call it judías verdes con tomate.

Chanterelle Mushrooms: wiki

There are many ways to cook chanterelles. Most of the flavorful compounds in chanterelles are fat-soluble, making them good mushrooms to sauté in butter, oil or cream. They also contain smaller amounts of water- and alcohol-soluble flavorings, which lend the mushrooms well to recipes involving wine or other cooking alcohols. Many popular methods of cooking chanterelles include them in sautés, soufflés, cream sauces, and soups. They are not typically eaten raw, as their rich and complex flavor is best released when cooked.

New Potatoes:

Add a side of new potatoes covered in butter & parsley. Bake them in the over or bake them in the grill while the meat is cooking and you have a meal fit for summer.

Roasting is high-heat baking with very little moisture. Roasted foods get drier and browned on the outside by initially exposing it to a high temperature. This keeps most of the moisture from being cooked out of the food. Temperature is then lowered to cook through. The flavors of both meats and vegetables are retained and enhanced by roasting. A typical roasting temperature is 425-450 °F, with an initial temperature of over 500 °F for a period of 15 to 20 minutes.

Peas

Fresh peas are often eaten boiled and flavored with butter and/or spearmint as a side dish vegetable. Salt and pepper are also commonly added to peas when served. Fresh peas are also used in pot pies, salads and casseroles. Pod peas (particularly sweet cultivars called mange tout and sugar peas, or the flatter "snow peas," called hé lán dòu, 荷兰豆 in Chinese) are used in stir-fried dishes, particularly those in American Chinese cuisine.

Dried peas are often made into a soup or simply eaten on their own. In Japan, China, Taiwan and some Southeast Asian countries, including Thailand and Malaysia, peas are roasted and salted, and eaten as snacks. In the UK, dried yellow split peas are used to make pease pudding (or "pease porridge"), a traditional dish. In North America, a similarly traditional dish is split pea soup.

Tomato:

The tomato is now grown and eaten around the world. It is used in diverse ways, including raw in salads, and processed into ketchup or tomato soup. Unripe green tomatoes can also be breaded and fried, (fried green tomatoes) used to make salsa, or pickled. Tomato juice is sold as a drink, and is used in cocktails such as the Bloody Mary.

• Mater Casserole • Southern Tomato Gravy •

Fruit Pies:

When you have fruit in season you have to start baking pies!

Fruit pies may be served with a scoop of ice cream, a style known in North America as pie à la mode. Many sweet pies are served this way. Cream, as well as sour cream, is also sometimes considered to be an à la mode serving method as well.

• Strawberry Shortcake • Strawberry Pie Recipes • Strawberry Rhubarb Pie

Herb / Basil:

Basil is a herb, and the species is most commonly the sweet basil Ocimum basilicum (pronounced /ˈbæzɪl/ or, in the US, /ˈbeːzɪl/), of the family Lamiaceae (mints). Depending on the species & cultivar, the leaves may taste somewhat like anise, with a strong, pungent, often sweet smell. Basil is commonly used fresh in cooked recipes. It is generally added at the last moment, as cooking quickly destroys the flavor. Basil is one of the main ingredients in pesto—a green Italian oil-and-herb sauce. wiki