There is a courgette, coriander and lemon soup on the hob. I’ve turned the heat right off, so by the time you read this, our lunch will be a gentle, lukewarm broth.
We’ll be having it with a slice of crusty bread or two, and the non-vegans might have a piece of creamy goats cheese on the side too…
Today is Tuesday, 3rd July and the heatwave is still going strong.
My paternal grandmother kept a diary for most of her life. Every evening she would take the time to record a few facts about her day. She would always open with the weather.
Most days, I can forget about the weather quite easily. Here, in the UK it only rarely becomes the kind of extreme that prevents you from paying attention to anything else. It is generally mild, on again off again rainy, a little grey with occasional bright breaks in the clouds.
It takes the gentlest kind of effort to really pay attention to the weather, to notice the subtle differences in what nature is trying to tell us. When you do pay attention, when it comes to cooking, the weather can become the most exciting of allies.
At its most simple, you can think of the bright red, juicy berries of summer days, or the warming mish-mash of root veg soups come winter. There’s also another dimension to this, I think. A kind of ‘mindful eating’, I can’t quite think of a better way to describe it…
For your next meal, pay attention to the relationship between your body and the weather. How do the flavours shift when you relate them to what is happening around you?
Whatever you do, do not eat at your desk. There is no weather there.