Provoleta, or grilled provolone, is a popular appetizer in Argentina, typically eaten before a meal of grilled meats. Provoleta is also the name of the cheese used for the dish—it’s a low-moisture variety that is designed to be grilled. That being said, provoleta isn’t easy to find in the United States, so grab some run-of-the-mill provolone and cook it in a cast-iron skillet, either on a grill or on the stovetop.
Heck, you can even toss it in a hot oven to heat it up and make it a tad gooey.
I love chimichurri, an herby, vinegary sauce that pairs nicely with the saltiness of provolone, which is usually finished aging right in time for summer. I like to add Castelvetrano olives to my chimichurri for a bit of texture and because, well, I love olives. Feel free to skip them if you don’t feel the same way.
You can adapt this cake recipe by using some of your favourite fruit flavours.
From raspberry, passion fruit and pear to apple and red berry fruits, the choice is yours. Have fun with the icings for decorating your cake, such as dark chocolate and almond icing for a pear cake, milk chocolate for one made with passion fruit, or even a blonde chocolate and almond icing for a raspberry-flavoured cake.
There are endless tasty ways to tackle cooking ribs, but as an indoor enthusiast, I appreciate the ease, predictability, and seasonless nature of this trusty low-and-slow oven to broiler method. The entire process is mostly hands-off and delivers flavor-blasted, fall-off-the-bone ribs every time. Please note that this foolproof barbecue sauce is made with mostly pantry staples and begs to be used on everything from these ribs to grilled chicken, meatloaf, and wings. To round out your rib party, I recommend serving them with Cauliflower-Potato Mash (page 220) or Caramelized Onion Potato Salad (page 230) and a big salad during the cooler months, or with Zucchini Cornbread Muffins (page 207) and “Summer Mess” (page 210) or Heirloom Tomato and Watermelon Salad (page 212) when summer strikes.
The most vital ingredient of this classic Mallorcan salad is the time you leave it to sit. We have a love in Cyprus for zoumi, which are the juices at the bottom of a salad bowl. Growing up, it took me years to realize that those were the best part of the salad that was on the table at every meal, even on Christmas Day (the acid in a salad helps to cut through richer dishes).
Once we both understood the secret of zoumi, my sister and I would fight over who got them. Absolutely cherish those juices at the bottom of the salad bowl. Go to war for them. Whatever you do, don’t throw them away!
There is nothing more comforting than a light and fluffy sponge, overflowing raspberry jam, and too much vanilla bean whipped cream. To achieve the cake’s perfect spongy texture, be careful to not overmix the batter once the flour is added. When making the whipped cream, don’t substitute vanilla extract for the vanilla bean paste—you won’t get the same warm vanilla notes that this cake needs!
Not sure what to feed your F•R•I•E•N•D•S at your next social gathering? Make sure the menu includes this relatable, reliable, really delicious mix of crunchy veggies, toasted almonds and crushed ramen noodles with an addictively sweet, sesame-ginger dressing.
Popular for decades, yet not exactly gourmet fare, people always go nuts for this retro recipe.
These beautiful pastries can be found in many Chinese bakeries, particularly throughout Hong Kong. We’ll use the same fluffy dough as that of the sausage-filled Czech klobásník (page 112), but instead of leaving it whole like a pig in a blanket, the hot dog–filled pastry is sliced and twisted to form the shape of a flower before being topped with sesame seeds and scallions. Once baked, the flowers are glazed with sugar syrup to give them a nice sheen.
One of the things I struggled with in writing this book was coming up with reasonable recipe yields for most home cooks. You see, growing up in a household of twelve with a mother who loved to cook, our yields were always enormous. Take this chicken shawarma, for example: When my mom originally developed the recipe, it called for 10 pounds of chicken! She would keep the cooked shawarma in the fridge, and whenever one of us would tug at her clothes and say we were hungry, she could say, “There’s shawarma in the fridge; go make yourself a sandwich.”
I scaled this recipe back to use 5 pounds of chicken, which may still seem like a lot . . . but the Arab in me cannot tell you to make less. The warmly spiced, vinegary chicken is great in a sandwich, on a salad, or on its own—perfect for meal prep.
Eat this flavorful dip on toasted bread, in a sandwich, or as part of a veggie platter.
I don’t think many people know about choriqueso, but this cheesy dip with hidden specks of smoky Mexican chorizo is so velvety and melty that they won’t forget it once they try it! I love to serve it in a mini cast- iron pan for a bit of a restaurant feel, but it’s just as good in a large pan. This molten golden gooey deliciousness is guaranteed to draw a crowd. Use fresh Mexican chorizo sausage if you can find it. This is not a dried Spanish chorizo situation. Feel free to swap in shredded mozzarella if you can’t find Oaxaca cheese.