If you can get dandelion leaves when they’re tiny and in their first flush of green, they are wonderfully tart, with just a nip of bitterness. That’s when they’re meant for the salad bowl.
You could finish a supper of beans and burgers on a high note with this dessert, or bring it in to be the finale of a fancy dinner party.
Ingredients
Crisp potatoes and rings of red onions are tossed hot off the grill with tender kernels of corn, cherry tomatoes, and spicy Jalapeño-Lime Vinaigrette. We use Rosefirs and Russian Bananas here—fingerling potatoes grown for us at Green Gulch Farm—but any variety of potato will do. For added smoky flavor, we throw the jalapenos for the vinaigrette right on the grill. If you don't have time to light up an outdoor grill, just roast the potatoes and grill the onions and jalapeños on a stovetop grill instead.
A perfect summer combination making a light salad from fresh melon and tarragon.
This seemingly strange combination is delicious. I learned it from Mariano Sanz Pech, whose excellent olive oil we've been selling at Zingerman's for many years. It's refreshing and ideal for warm summer days. I love the contrast in color, texture, and flavor of the orange slices, olive oil, and mint.
This salad is a luscious and refreshing way to use blood oranges and navel oranges in their prime.
This is one of my favorite veggie burgers. It has everything I want: hearty chickpeas, fortifying spinach, a hint of nutty toasted cumin seeds, and final finish of fresh lemon. It's also very easy! As with most burgers in this book, be sure to reserve a portion of the beans and mash them by hand, rather than blitzing all of them in the food processor, as this gives the burger texture. I like to serve them accompanied by traditional burger fixings: lettuce, tomato, and mustard.
Granita is the crunchy cousin to sorbet, more rustic, and for me, more satisfying.
Satés in Singapore play the same role as hot dogs in New York, a popular, affordable, and democratic street snack enjoyed at all hours of the day and night by rich and poor and everyone in between. So to have your saté named the best in Singapore by The Straits Times (think The New York Times of Southeast Asia) is no small accomplishment, especially if you're an ang moh, foreigner in this case, an American: my stepson, Jake Klein. These satés were first served at the restaurant Wood, which featured Asia's first, and only, exclusively wood-burning kitchen (wood-burning grill, oven, smoker, and rotisserie). But even if you cook on a gas grill, the robust spicing of these satés will blast through loud and clear. For centuries Singapore and the Strait of Malacca were the epicenter of the Asian spice trade; the legacy lives on in these electrifying satés.