Stove's Closed till September! V1

Last week, I committed myself to having a few friends over for dinner, my aversion to serious summer kitchen usage temporarily muffled by the screams of the heinously expensive, small-batch ponzu/soy sauce bottle I'd picked up somewhere near Kyoto. "Use me! Waste me!" - such were the cries.

"Stove's closed till September" is a genius maxim concocted by a friend of mine, who, incidentally, both came over for dinner and also refused to let us use his fancy kitchen for very same said reason. The idea is that here in NYC, where many of us rent indecently priced and indecently serviced apartments, it's way too warm to use appliances which get hot and might further smother us in our poorly-ventilated homes.

I planned my menu accordingly, excluding anything which would require the stove/oven be on for more than 15 minutes; here I must give acknowledge planning assistance from friend JW, a professional chef with a fancy restaurant pedigree. Note that I only had to break the no-stove rule to boil, pan sear, and blister stuff, none of which sent heat beyond the kitchen. Success! Keeping with a tradition of excellence!

Snacks to distract people while I was busy:
Blistered shisito peppers and edamame with Chardonnay oak-smoked sea salt, generous amounts of black pepper

For eating eating:
- Yellowtail hamachi sashimi, served in ponzu/dashi/soy sauce/freshly squeezed lime juice marinade
- Brown beech mushrooms, pan seared then lightly pickled in sake and mirin
- Cucumber pickle salad with jalepeno shavings

For stomach filling:
- somen noodles tossed with sesame oil and garlic chives, served with homemade tsuyu dipping sauce

Herbage:
- Maldon-salted Haas avocado and mache salad, yuzu/sesame oil dressing

Dessert:
- strawberry/watermelon skewers macerated in lime/mint, dusted with smoked paprika

Recipe: Homemade Tsuyu sauce
1 part soy sauce
1 part mirin (Japanese cooking wine)
4 parts dashi
1 teaspoon white sugar

Heat the mirin in a small saucepan; bring to a boil. Add soy sauce, dashi and sugar; bring to a boil, stir, and let cool. Leftover sauce can be frozen in ice cube trays for convenient use later.