I love using filo pastry in my cooking – it’s so satisfyingly crunchy, which means
it acts as a brilliant base for tarts like this one. Pastry is yet another one of those things that people swear off because it’s ‘bad’ for them. But in the context of a healthy diet, I’m a firm believer that there’s room for all the foods you love – and
I love this filo tart. Loaded with vegetables and topped with eggs, feta and pesto, this is just one combination that works. Feel free to get creative and try it with other ingredients, like tomatoes and mozzarella, or butternut squash and goats’ cheese. The filo world is your oyster.
The dish known as gígantes pláki epitomizes traditional Greek food and occupies a place in the hearts of most Greek households. The name comes from the ‘giant’ beans – often butter beans or a variety of extra-large white runner beans called fasólia gígantes – that are baked in a gorgeous chunky tomato stew. For ease, I’m using canned butter beans here, so that all that needs to be made is the hearty sauce to accompany them. I love to top my gígantes pláki with crumbled feta and bake until the cheese is beautifully golden and crispy.
Want to “wake up” your white fish with full flavor? Look no further than George McCalman’s recipe for fried jacks. Jacks is a local tropical fish indigenous to the Caribbean, but you can substitute with any mellow white fish. With a dish so simple and quick, we recommend seeking out a Grenadian curry, which differs from its Indian counterpart, with roots going back to the slave and spice trade. We promise this dish is bound to take your tastebuds to the Caribbean.
A long with muscadine grapes, butter beans are among the farmer's market treasures of late summer in Charleston—reason to wake up with gusto to another day of stultifying heat and oxford-soaking humidity. We do all kinds of things with butter beans: we make a hummus-like spread for the cocktail hour, we simmer them with seasoning meats of all sorts, and we compose marinated salads aplenty. But this may be our most simple treatment yet, and one of the most satisfying.
Make this hash for a weekend brunch or as an easy weeknight supper. I like to serve it with a tossed green salad or a steamed vegetable and a crusty loaf of bread. Pass Tabasco or other hot sauce at the table; the vinegary, smoky flavor of hot sauce complements the rutabagas, bacon, and chiles. Poach eggs to place on top of this hearty hash. The runny soft-cooked eggs are a perfect accompaniment.