Spectator by Seema Goswami: Cook, but don’t get cooked

Beat the Indian summer heat in the kitchen, by using the oven, batch cooking, and these chill recipes

You must have all heard the saying: “If you can’t take the heat, get out of the kitchen.” Alas, that’s not an option available to those of us who still have to feed a family three times a day, no matter how unbearable the Indian summer gets. But wait, don’t get all hot under the collar; help is at hand. And that’s because this week I come armed with tips about how to maximise your results in the kitchen while making the most minimal of efforts. (This is where lesser mortals would make some lame joke about sweating your onions rather than yourself; but I am, of course, above that sort of puerile thing!)

To avoid sweating, make your oven or air fryer your best friend. (Photos: Shutterstock)

So, how do we crack the whole cooking-while-its-cooking-outside puzzle? Well, here are some pointers, honed after years of hard-won experience.

Minimise the use of your gas range. It’s hot enough outside, so why make things worse by getting three hobs of your cooking range going at once? Instead try and use other methods of cooking that produce less red-hot heat. Cook your rice in a rice-maker instead of boiling it on the stove, for instance. Bung your chicken curry in the Instapot and let it bubble away for hours rather than stirring it for hours on the gas. Make your fried chicken in the air fryer rather than the stove (it’s much healthier that way, too). Use the microwave rather than the range to reheat.

Batch cooking can be your saviour. Eat what you can on that day and freeze the rest for later.

Make the oven your best friend. I don’t mean by baking cakes and cookies. No, I mean by doing most of your cooking in the oven. All you need to do for a delicious tray bake, for instance, is to prep your vegetables (which you can do in air-conditioned comfort on the dining table) and meat. Pre-heat the oven while you’re doing that and then just bung your dish inside, set the timer as recommended, and retire to read a book and savour a drink while your oven does all the hard work. An hour later, when the alarm goes, dinner will be ready.

Batch cooking can be your saviour. I know, I know, everyone keeps extolling the virtues of fresh food. But there are some dishes that freeze extremely well, and taste as good (if not better) when you defrost them after a week (or more). If you are making the effort to make a black dal or mutton korma, for instance, double, or even triple, the quantity you are cooking. Eat what you can on that day and freeze the rest, breaking them out on a day when you don’t feel like cooking.

Increase your repertoire of uncooked or barely-cooked dishes. There is nothing quite as appetizing in the summer heat than a cooling salad of watermelon and feta, burrata or cottage cheese with a nice olive-oil dressing and lashings of tomatoes and olives, or even just day-old cold grilled chicken teamed with an assortment of leaves and a spot of balsamico. Build up a book of recipes just like these for these hot, hot, hot summer days and you will both eat well and stay cool. Well, as cool as it is possible to stay in an Indian summer!

From HT Brunch, May 31, 2025

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