Sweet, tart and snappy with healthy shots of hot sauce, and grilled to near potato chip crispness, in our book the chicken wing approaches celestial perfection. Neither light meat nor dark, they are a coupling of both, and nothing pulls in flavor and crisps up in cooking quite like wings. It’s that wonderful proportion of luscious skin to meat and bone.
Eggplant, so good on its own, is also a culinary chameleon, absorbing herbs and spices to become any number of different dishes. In Romagna, palm-sized slices are steeped in garlic, basil, parsley and olive oil before grilling over hot coals. Eaten either hot or at room temperature, this is one of those simple, but ultimately satisfying dishes that goes with almost anything and is so good eaten on its own.
When our great-grandparents didn't want to bother with the mess and fuss of doing ice cream in hand-cranked ice cream freezers, they used ice cube trays and did this stirred version. No equipment needed and the ice cream tastes just swell.
Close to a homemade ginger ale but with more of a nip, this is a formula for an icy spiced drink made to order. Simple Syrup is steeped with fresh ginger and fresh lemon juice then mixed with sparkling water for an effervescent kick. To mellow that kick out, turn it into a punch by adding a little light rum, then relax. Drink it over ice with lemon slices and, if you like, halved stalks of lemongrass as stir sticks.
A lovely thing about this dish is that it can be a meal for vegetarians or carnivores alike, and nothing says summer like eating with our fingers. Eating outside means we have permission to pick up all sorts of things — from chicken wings and hot dogs to these lamb–and vegetable–filled rollups. This is the way it works: Set out a pile of lettuce leaves, a pile of fresh herbs, some ground chile, a bowl of store-bought chickpea dip (hummus), and some instant chive-yogurt sauce. Heap the grilled vegetables on one platter, the cooked lamb on another.
This has been a go-to salad for longer than we remember. Chinese in origin, it takes on nearly anything from the grill. Pair it with Smoky Salmon Steaks, Corn on the Cob with Chile-Lime Dip and, of course, Ginger Hoisin Summer Shrimp.
Cool fresh lime juice, sugar, and red wine over ice make one of the best summer coolers we've had in a long time. Our thanks to Nan Bailly and Sam Haislett of Alexis Bailly Vineyard in Minnesota for sharing this recipe, which they found in a newspaper.
This is a lovely dish to serve with grilled pita bread, either alongside a couple of other mezze, while you have a drink before supper, or as an appetizer in its own right, or as a light lunch with a good salad on the side. In the summer, please use fresh peas; at all other times of year the wondrous frozen pea will do. You can make this dish in advance, put it in the fridge, and bring it back to room temperature when you want it.
I adore making rhubarb pies (I prefer mine without strawberries and with a made-from-scratch crust.) But sometimes a girl needs something a little stronger than pie to get through the rest of the day. This is an especially nice way to celebrate a birthday that falls during rhubarb season. Mine is June 3rd, the height of rhubarb season and here is how I make birthday Rhubarbaritas:
Don't buy peas without tasting them. They should be sweet and juicy.