In honor of the first days of summer, here are some of the dishes I look forward to making. And unlike the NY Times with 100* or bon appetit with 89 I’m limiting mine 8. Summer is always too short!
- Tabouli: Made some the other day, tomatoes weren’t great yet and as per usual I forgot parsley, but this has always been one of my favorite summer salads and it paired nicely with…
- Steak Tartare: French butchers are happy to grind up some lovely beef for steak tartare. Here they even have special grinders made for that task. Maybe one of these days I’ll hand cut my own but it’s so easy just to ask them, and isn’t summer all about easy?
- Gazpacho: While it’s certainly been hot enough recently, the tomatoes need a couple more weeks to be peak. I like it when my favorite vendors in Old Town have a panier of ugly tomatoes for €2 and I can make a big batch.
- Vichyssoise: Buying a beautiful bunch of leeks made me think about a batch of Vichyssoise. It’s so good hot or cold and this recent batch was great!
- Salad Niçoise: Ask anyone and they’ll have an answer about what goes into a salad Nicoise, and they’ll never be the same. This is my version.
- Tomato Dumpling salad: True confession– we made this about once a week last summer, it’s so good! We made it for dinner a couple of weeks ago and stocked up on dumplings and chili crisp, just because.
- Cold Sesame Noodles: This is Frank’s summer specialty and he makes it so well! We add bits of rotisserie chicken, but you can easily go vegetarian.
- Great Corn Salad: It’s hard to find corn on the cob in France, and when it’s available, I usually just eat it with butter and Tajin. If I could land 6 ears I’d make this in a heartbeat. Maybe this summer?
The last few are things I want to try but somehow haven’t gotten to so I’m adding them and will report back. Rice vermicelli salad
- Hoisin noodle salad
- Carpaccio (because I can get it thinly sliced from the butchers or even Picard) Maybe a taste test?
- Ceviche
- Yogurt mousse after one I had in Italy recently, topped with fresh peaches. Amazing!
What’s on your list? Newbies? Old favorites? Comment below.
*And if you want more stress in what should be a summer free of stress, they’re challenging readers to cook all the vegetarian recipes by September. Not for me!
