august

memoir of august or one lazy summer

What happened with the hottest month of the year, the month when a long waited two week vacation begins? Hemingway said, “I discovered that there is romance in food when romance has disappeared from everywhere else.” Is this what it was? 

Menu for August:

- Sun

Every day we are serving optimal dose of vitamin D 

- Sea boat

Free sail with no restrictions

- Sea fish

In the sea.

- Squid

Frozen, on a plate.

A 6 year old chef, Imma gave us a secret of best fried calamari. While they are still defrosted and all pale ‘in the face’, give them a good massage with all ten fingers. This will make them soft and very tender. After she gave them a very pleasant massage she rolled them in flour and massaged them for just a bit more. If you didn't know squids loooove massage!

Gently fry squids for only few minutes on each side and when they are ready season them with coarse sea salt and put lemon chunks on the side. 

- Sea

Clear and blue. 

- Salt

'No summer would be complete without salt.'

It's August and one should do as little as it can. Find your hiding spot, laze and relax. Float as much as you can and stare at the clouds, you might feel silentness. Some public health officials suggest to soak up the Sun from May till October 20-30 minutes a day in order to store it up for the rest of the year. Following these suggestions and doing some math, within two weeks we have spent around 4,5 hours soaking up the Sun, equally in the morning and before sunset. Also, canned tuna was the only sea catch for this summer season, probably because of all that 'other' romance. 

After we 'grounded' only images have left, except canned tuna and recipe for a perfect spread.

'The pleasures of imagined food are something very different from those of the real thing.’ Therefore this time for the real joy you will have to prepare this spread in order to see it and ‘feel’ it.

CANNED TUNA SPREAD

250g canned tuna

200g mayonnaise

50g grated parmesan

juice of one lemon

half an onion

26 walnut halves

around 10 capers (if they are bigger)  

Mix everything in a blender and after few minutes it's ready to be eaten. You can add a pinch of pepper or even a drop or two of cognac, whatever you feel it's needed in that moment.

Special thanks to nona Vjera (Seka), who unselfishly gave the recipe and a very special thanks to my friend Mira, who kindly shared this recipe with us!