For those hot, summer nights

I have a post written from about 10 days ago, about my plans for a mysterious 3 kilos that seem to have crept onto the bathroom scales over the past few months. The post is currently unpublished as thankfully summer finally arrived, my appetite has vamoosed and with it, about 1.5 of the mysterious 3 kilos.

Today, it is (checks phone) 34 degrees. 34 degrees! Crikey! That’s hot. The in-laws are due any moment for a bbq, and I spent the critical heat hours (ie: midday to 2pm) in the relative coolness of the kitchen rustling up some focaccia, roasting some courgette, aubergine, red onion and tomatoes for a roast veg and bulgur salad and making a Gordon Ramsay lemon tart. I have photos, but first looks and smells are positive!

Roasted vegetable and bulgur salad

For starters, I have a mozzarella, fig, melon and cured meat platter. Open a packet of prosciutto or mixed cured meat and arrange on your dish and add slices of melon, torn balls of mozz and some figs.

Mixed meat, melon, mozzerella and fig platter

BBQ turkey and bulgar wheat salad

Yesterday saw the opening of BBQ season in our house. YAY! And with this weather who wants to cook for hours? So, while one person bbq-ed the turkey, the other one made the salad.

I’ve never eaten, let alone cooked, bulgur wheat. It looks far too healthy for me. But, we got a gift of some a while back so it was as good a time as any to try it.

For about 3 people you’ll need:

400g turkey filets

75g bulgur wheat

“surprise du frigo” salad – whatever’s in the fridge

The juice of a lemon

100g fromage frais

Harissa paste

Garlic

Chives

BBQ or grill the turkey. This should take about 15 minutes.

While that’s happening, cook the bulgur wheat. Tip it and about a cup of water into a saucepan. Bring it to the boil and once it hits boiling point, turn the heat down low and cover with a lid. Cook it like this for about 15 minutes.

For the salad, check out your fridge for red onions, spring onions, tomatoes, cucumber – anything salady. Chop it into manageable pieces and put in a bowl.

For the dressing, mix the fromage frais, crushed garlic, a little harissa and the chopped chives.

Once the wheat is cooked, add it to the salad. Chop up the cooked turkey and add that too, together with the lemon juice. Season to your tastes.

Serve with the harissa dressing and some chilled wine or beer.

Bulgur wheat and bbq'ed turkey salad