This salad says summer and is a foil for the steak. It is a simplified version of one I ate recently in Spain.
Slices of cool fresh peaches are served in wineglasses with a nectar-like wine syrup and surprisingly concentrated flavors. This is one of the more intriguing fruit desserts you’ll taste, and there’s nothing to it merely peaches, sugar, wine and an interesting technique. Some country people still use this old trick for making decent fruit taste better and superb fruit luscious. Macerating sliced peaches with sugar permeates them with sweetness and concentrates their flavors while drawing out their juices and turning them into a nectar-like syrup. Then, marinating the fruit in wine releases still more tastes, because certain flavors are soluble only in alcohol. Farmers may not have known the science of this technique, but they knew a day of steeping in sugar and wine in a cool cellar gave the family splendid fruit for after supper.
Ingredients
This is such a wonderfully fresh salad, full of different tastes and textures: charred, spicy, herbal, naturally acidic, and crisp. I love to serve this as a palate-cleansing salad course.
For these simple yet stunning crostini, roasted cherry tomatoes are paired with fresh, creamy ricotta, which also acts as an anchor for the tomatoes, keeping them from falling off the toast as you eat. Pile the tomatoes as high as you can for a truly spectacular summer snack. Make these crostini in August and September, when the tomatoes are really in season; in other months, tomatoes will not be exceptional.
Throughout Jalisco, this refreshing drink is served in large, wide-mouthed clay bowls, called cazuelas. Citrus wedges are eaten or squeezed into the drink. Partakers pop chunks of watermelon and fresh pineapple into their mouths and sip the tequila-laced libation through a straw.
Nothing puts a smile on people’s faces faster while at the same time setting their tongues ablaze, like these grilled jalapeño poppers. Sans cheese, and debuting with a snazzy new look, these Shiny Happy Poppers are every bit a modern twist on what still remains a classic firebrand when it comes to pregame appetizers. However, a word to the wise: Having an ice-cold beer nearby is highly recommended, should this blaze get out of control.
This slaw takes off on a cabbage-onion-chile salad dressed with Mexican crema and lime that a Mexican neighbor used to make. It is delicious alongside anything grilled or frankly, tucked into a soft corn tortilla all on its own.
Life doesn’t get much sweeter than a grill surrounded by good friends and laughter, and topped with these Italian inspired focaccia burgers. Here, fresh mushrooms, red onion, bell pepper, garlic, basil, oregano, parsley, sundried tomatoes, and other ingredients belt out an opera of flavors we can all sink our teeth into.