No more swooping and screaming in a gang down our street, such a delight to watch on a summer evening, as we enjoy an aperitif on the roof terrace.
And it’s raining.
The irony is not lost that just as one begins to think about slow-cooked dishes, much summer produce is at its sweetest and ripest at this time of year.
Think of raspberries, strawberries, sweet corn, melons and tomatoes. As a thrifty cook, I shall make the most of late season’s abundant offerings.
Versatile dishes as good served hot as cold are the order of the day. Salads are a little more substantial than a bowlful of soft leaves and herbs.
Desserts will be whatever I can find in the fridge.
Home-grown courgettes and aubergines a-plenty are to be found in the farmers’ markets now, and it is such a pleasure to be able to find small courgettes.
I blame the spiralising ‘spaghetti-courgetti’ fans for the abundance of medium to large courgettes and dearth of small ones.
Ratatouille, caponata and similar dishes recommend themselves, to be cooked in large quantities, because, good as they are straight from the pot, even better just tepid, they are excellent cold the next day.
Smooth vegetable soups combined with a little fruit are perfect for the season. The best thing about them is that they are equally delicious hot or cold.
Although they will need stirring before serving, they do not have a great tendency to separate, especially if there is some added starch from potato.
If you use a non-stick saucepan, there need be no oily surface to the soup.
A vegetable stock or a very light chicken stock can be used. I prefer the former, as it does not mask the fresh flavour of the soup.
Generally on Fridays I roast a whole fish, leaving plenty for an aioli the next day, serving the fish with quartered hard-boiled eggs, waxy potatoes, a few vegetables, sweet tomatoes, what you will.
Sea bass, bream and John Dory are favourites, but if I’m cooking for more than just two, I will prepare individual fish fillets. It takes some time and skill, as well as nerve, to portion a large fish, but fillets are quick to cook à la minute and easy to deal with, either in a grill pan or on a griddle for four to six servings, or baked in hot oven on a tray for more servings.
This is how I cooked salmon fillets many years ago for a dinner for two dozen book trade reps when I had my first book published. The dessert was summer pudding, and I still have the six large white Mason & Cash pudding basins; I have never needed as many since then.
My dessert recipe I commend as infinitely adaptable and immensely useful.
And the sun has come out.
1 medium onion, peeled and sliced
6 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
3 medium to large aubergines, trimmed and diced, not too small
6 garlic cloves, peeled and crushed
750 g fresh tomatoes, peeled, seeded and quartered
Sprigs of thyme
400 g sweet corn kernels
Sea salt
Freshly ground black pepper
Chopped flat-leaved parsley, or coriander
Method:
Fry the onion gently in about half the olive oil, using a flameproof casserole or heavy saucepan. Add the aubergines, and fry all over, then add the garlic, tomatoes and thyme.
Bring to the boil, then turn down the heat, and continue to cook, partly covered, until the vegetables are almost tender. Add the corn and cook for a further 3 minutes. Check the seasoning, scatter on the chopped parsley or coriander and serve. Grilled ciabatta slices rubbed with garlic and olive oil accompany this very well, whether you serve the ragout hot or cold.
Cook’s note: not home-grown, but a delicious addition is a handful or two of small, tender okra pods, included with the tomatoes, to produce an extra layer of texture and flavour.
Aubergines can be peeled or unpeeled, as you prefer. Here I have suggested that the tomatoes are peeled. With quickly cooked tomato dishes, I never peel them, but with longer cooking, as in this ragout, the skin unpeels itself and rolls into tight spindles, adding nothing to the dish.
Courgette, melon and saffron vichysoisse (Serves 4 to 6)
1 medium potato, peeled and chopped
1 onion, peeled and chopped
1 tablespoon sunflower oil
500 g courgettes
1.25 litres vegetable or light chicken stock
Good pinch of saffron threads, infused in some of the stock
200 g ripe melon, diced
Sea salt
Freshly ground black pepper
3 to 4 tablespoons yoghurt or single cream (optional)
Method:
Fry the potato and onion gently in the oil for a few minutes without browning. Add the courgettes and about 150 ml stock, together with the saffron and soaking liquid and cook until the vegetables are soft.
Allow the vegetables to cool slightly before blending, together with the melon, then stir in the rest of the stock. Chill until ready to serve. Just before serving, season to taste, and, if using, stir in the yoghurt or single cream.
Lime and tequila grilled salmon (Serves 6)
6 x 175 to 200 g salmon fillets
Freshly ground black pepper
Sea salt
4 tablespoons olive oil
2 to 3 tablespoons tequila, in a teacup
1 lime, grated zest, and juice separate
For garnish: fresh coriander leaves and lime wedges
For an accompaniment – sweet corn cooked with diced tomatoes and shallots, or the aubergine, corn and tomato ragout.
Method:
Seasoning the fish with pepper and salt, and leaving it for a few hours or overnight in the fridge cures it lightly and firms up the flesh, as well as flavouring the fish.
Before dinner, brush the fish all over, first with olive oil, and then tequila, and let the flavours mingle until you are ready to cook. Then brush with lime juice, sprinkle on the lime zest, and cook under a hot grill, or on a griddle, until cooked to your liking. Serve on top of the corn and tomatoes.
For a more substantial dish, when the weather turns cooler you might think of adding mashed potatoes into which you have mixed a little finely chopped green chili, coriander and chives.
Cook’s note: alternative flavours to the lime and tequila I have used include a little korma paste brushed on to the fish, the serving it on a piquant mango and shredded carrot salad. Ras el hanout or other Moroccan spices work very well too, with salmon, and with that version I serve a couscous salad with toasted flaked almonds and sultanas macerated in orange flower water.
Petit Lu biscuits from Sainsbury
Syrup made with half a dozen passion fruit I came across in a big markdown in M & S
‘Wonky’ strawberries from Aldi
Half a carton of Waitrose’s vanilla custard
Crushed sunflower seeds and pistachios
Plum jelly – this I had made with the excess juice sieved from plums that went into a crumble
Crushed biscuits, not too many, go into the bottom of a glass tumbler. The syrup is trickled on top.
While the syrup and biscuits get to know each other, hull these delicious little berries and heap on top of the syrupy biscuits. Fold a generous blanket of custard over the fruit. I scatter on a few crushed nuts and seeds. I roughly cut up the jelly and spoon on top. Others might prefer the jelly then the nuts.
© Frances Bissell. 2025. All rights reserved.
