Cooking becomes an increasingly arduous task when the heat soars over 100 degrees. I mean, it’s stupid hot. And I’m not really keen on standing over a hot grill, nor am I hip to turning on the oven and heating up the house we are so desperately trying to keep cool without having to take out a second mortgage for electricity bills.

But we love to entertain and we feel like we’re not getting our moneys’ worth out of the pool if someone isn’t in it almost every day, and that means coming up with meals. I can’t order pizza every day, much as I’m tempted right now. My wallet and my waistline both beg me to find a way to make something satisfying that doesn’t come with a delivery boy attached to one end.

We were hosting two couples last week and I talked Mr. Meat and Potatoes into manning the grill (not only am I a notoriously bad griller, but it’s too hot for me to handle) while I prepared a few cooler items inside. Our friends contributed a few things, and we had ourselves a little Asian-themed poolside meal that I’ve still been thinking naughty thoughts about regularly ever since.

I purchase a giant fresh salmon fillet, perfect to cut into six good-sized pieces, and prepared it for grilling. First, I sprayed both sides with cooking spray so as not to let things stick so much to the hot grill. Then I mixed up a simple marinade of 1 C of soy sauce and 2 T wasabi paste. I whisked those together and poured them over the salmon on a tray with a lip, and then liberally sprinkled the tops with brown sugar. That sugar caramelizes on the grill and creates a crust that will make your eyes roll back in your head.

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While those soaked, I started on some lettuce wraps. Lettuce wraps are lovely for hot days and especially for entertaining. I don’t worry about serving the filling hot, so it’s easy to do in advance and is a nice “not hot” dish to serve outdoors.

I had some vegetarian guests and some carnivores, so I made lettuce wraps for both. The recipe is the same for both, I just used ground pork for the meat eaters and I used a bag of frozen vegetarian soy crumbles for the non-meaties.

Summer Lettuce Wraps

1 lb ground pork (or soy crumbles)
1 can sliced water chestnuts
1 can (or one cup fresh) mung bean sprouts
‘
a handful of fresh cilantro leaves
2 carrots (or 2 cups baby carrots)
2 T olive oil
2 tsp minced fresh ginger
2 tsp Thai fish sauce
2 cloves fresh garlic
1 bundle green onions
3 T fresh chopped cilantro
2 T hoisin
3 T soy sauce
2 T chili garlic paste
1 tsp crushed red pepper
healthy dose of sriracha or chiliracha (to your spicy taste)
salt and pepper to taste

Serve in butter lettuce leaves (usually found in the grocery store called “living lettuce”).

Step 1) Cook your pork (or thoroughly heat your soy crumbles) and drain.

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Step 2) While that is cooking, get out the food processor and chop up together the carrots, water chestnuts, green onions (I use all but the last two or three inches of green), garlic, and ginger.

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Step 3) Add the vegetable mixture to the pan, and then add all the sauces and spices, and stir. That’s it!

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I made a batch of Keri’s peanut sauce with curry to drizzle over, and I chopped some roasted peanuts for sprinkling on top, and people, those lettuce wraps were like little bundles of pure joy.

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The best part, or at least, a super-fun bonus, was that I was able to eat leftover lettuce wraps for lunch several times. “Oh, what’s that you’re having? Rubbery chicken from the hot line in the cafeteria? Don’t mind me. I’m just having this little old lettuce wrap. You don’t want it – it’s HEALTHY and VEGETARIAN.”

This is one of the few times where I can honestly say I enjoy the “fake” vegetarian version more than the piggy version. And if you know me, you know how hard it is for me to write that sentence.