Seasoning is totally your call and it can have as much attitude as you’d like, as in these warm-tasting spices of the West Indies and a garlic-tomato sauté.
This can wait, chilled, for 30 to 40 minutes.
Few salads are as versatile and rich in antioxidants as this colorful slaw. Since it keeps well, you can make it well ahead and savor its sharp-sweet flavor for several days.
The first time that I tasted cider beans was at the local gas station. Here, in the mountains, folks gather at the local gas station to visit, have a meal, and catch up on the local news. Far from serving "fast food," these little places present "home cookin" and it's delicious. This good ol' mountain recipe is very satisfying paired with cornbread or muffins.
In their splendid The Heritage of Spanish Cooking, Alicia Rios and Lourdes March say that in the Valencian mountain interior, rice dishes are based on the broth of a cocido — a dish of boiled meats. The recipe is adapted from one in their book. In Spain today you can buy good cocido broth, but here, use beef or chicken stock.
Although this dish calls for only a few ingredients, it delivers big, robust flavors and can be prepared almost completely in advance. The diced squash can be roasted several hours ahead so that at serving time all that is necessary is to arrange the cubes on a platter and sprinkle them with crumbled goat cheese, chopped walnuts, and minced parsley. My local supermarkets sell butternut squash that is already peeled and halved, and if you can find it in this convenient form, it will shave a good amount of time off the prep.
This is a pretty standard pickle, good for both sea rocket pods and saltwort. If you are inland, you can also use it for purslane, another succulent plant. Keep the proportions of salt, vinegar, and water and you can then vary the flavors to your liking. This recipe can be halved.
Slice each eggplant lengthwise into five or six long steaks. Sprinkle with sea salt and allow to stand for up to an hour or so while you make the creamed feta.
This is a succulent rustic lunch or light supper. The aromatic, bitter flavor of the hyssop combined with the sweetness of the peppers and ripe tomatoes is delightful. Make sure you serve this with some crusty fresh bread so you can mop up the juices.
Asparagus take to the easiest kind of cooking. A few minutes in boiling water turns them tender with a little crispness still intact, then it's a case of how you want to flavor them.