Keeping a Cool Head in the Kitchen When Temperatures Rise

We all know people who just don’t cook in June, July and August. Too hot, they claim. Why heat up the kitchen? But these folks don’t subsist only on ice cream and cold beverages. The food they eat instead generally comes from someone else’s efforts.

If everyone who lived in a sultry climate swore off cooking for the season, summer meals would be dull indeed. The challenge of home cooking when temperatures spike is to keep a cool head and to devise menus that rely less on the oven and stovetop. But you will still need to do a certain amount of simmering, boiling and baking.

A large covered charcoal grill can be used for roasting chickens or large cuts of meat, and for baking potatoes or ears of corn. Add sliced tomatoes and some leafy greens for a salad and dinner is ready. A smaller hibachi-type grill or a stovetop grill pan will get the job done, too, for steaks or chops or kebabs, using less fuel and generating less heat in the process.

I like to devise dishes that incorporate both cooked and uncooked elements, like this combination of grilled sea scallops and lightly dressed vegetables. You make a sort of salad-like relish with red onion, crisp cucumber and golden beet, seasoned with ginger and lime juice.