True Summer

We don't get much true summer around here. Our weather is generally very even, winter to summer, and it's rarely warm enough to raise a sweat. We who live here like the cool weather and suffer when it's really hot.

It was hot earlier this week. Really, really hot.

So hot that we broke records. So hot that Cora was lazy all day. So hot that washing the deck with a hose was the only work that made sense - so I could spray myself from time to time.

So hot that shrimp salad seemed like the perfect true summer meal. With some lovely butter lettuce and ripe yellow tomatoes drizzled with balsamic vinaigrette and a handful of summer's best berries alongside the avocado hidden beneath the tumble of shrimp. Everything cool and crisp and tasting richly of the summer season.

I was particularly pleased with the shrimp salad, which had a healthy slug of lemon juice to thin the mayo and a hint of licorice in the finely chopped chervil. The crunchy celery, the unctuous shrimp and the pizzazz of lemon were just the right complement for the delicate, sweet chervil.

Our natural air conditioning, the famous San Francisco fog, has come back to cool us down again. But, I'd make this again in a heartbeat, if and when true summer returns.

Fillip

When you're one of those folks who doesn't really like soapwort (my derogatory name for cilantro, referencing its taste), guacamole can be a challenge. I love the greenness of the cilantro in good quac, it's just the soapy flavor I don't care for. I had a breakthrough when I remembered the little plastic box of chervil I had in the fridge - why not sub out the cilantro for chervil?

I was actually a chervil novice, never before having tasted it - I really just bought it out of curiosity - so I tweaked off a little leaf to taste and enjoyed the green and lightly licorice flavor. It seemed like the perfect substitute to me. I chopped up a small handful and added it to the avocado, lime juice, minced onion, pressed garlic, chopped tomato and dollop of hot sauce. Mashed together, it made a lovely, textured guacamole that My Beloved and I devoured for lunch.