Cava has always been a celebration drink in Spain, but with prices being so affordable these days I thought I could make a sangria with it. The result is so refreshing, fruity and sharp.
This refreshing salad is a wonderful way to spruce up the humble carrot and was inspired by an afternoon I spent with Leila Rohbani, a yoga teacher from Tehran. I had a delightful time with her; drinking green tea from small stoneware cups and talking about our favorite recipes in the bright, airy rooms of her home, which doubles as her yoga studio—an oasis of calm in the hectic city, overlooking a garden filled with fig and Pomegranate trees. This makes a lovely addition to a mezze spread, or you could serve it with feta and bread for a more substantial meal.
The usual go-to cut of pork for backyard barbecue is the pork shoulder, but in certain corners of South Carolina, many pitmasters swear by fresh ham. Fresh ham, cut from the hindquarters of the hog and sold unsmoked and unseasoned, is leaner than traditional barbecue cuts like shoulder. Rubbing salt over the entire surface and letting it sit overnight helped season it throughout and kept the meat moist. A double-pronged cooking approach did the trick: We smoked the meat on a grill for 2 hours before transferring it to a 300-degree oven to cook until it reached an internal temperature of 200 degrees. We then cranked the oven temperature up to 400 degrees and roasted the skin on a baking sheet until it was brown and crispy. This gave us plenty of crispy skin to mix in with the shredded ham. A vinegary mustard sauce, a hallmark of South Carolina barbecue, was just the contrast the sandwich needed. Plan ahead: The ham must be salted at least 18 hours before cooking. You’ll have about 2 1/2 cups of mustard sauce.
Sometimes we feel like a substantial salad that is a meal in itself with all the elements of good food—plenty of greens, crunchy raw pepper, and loads of flavor. This is also a great way to use up leftover chicken or turkey. Serve with a tzatziki dressing and tomato salad. This is our friend Anne Hudson’s method of preparing the wonderful Greek yogurt and cucumber dip, which she learned to make the local way when living in Greece. You can also enjoy the tzatziki with bread or as a dip for vegetables. (Gluten-free if using quinoa or brown rice.)
Potato salad in summer, made with new potatoes, is a favourite among most people in Scandinavia. There is traditional Danish recipe for warm potato salad just with cooked onions and vinegar, which is quite sweet; this is a modern version of it.
A Greek-style burger packed full of flavour. You’ll need to make the minted yoghurt and super-simple cucumber pickle a day ahead, but they’re worth it for this delicious lamb burger.
[Ed. note: You can find the kimchi recipe Robin references below here.]
Ingredients
Ingredients
I love this method of cooking zucchini. It is the one I return to time and again.