Mint

Cherry tomatoes—grilled on the vine and drizzled with fragrant basil-mint oil—burst with flavor alongside salty grilled Halloumi cheese and crisp, cool watermelon.

Briny-sweet crab and piquant chiles shine on subtly flavored white bread.

Serve the lamb with your favorite tzatziki (cucumber and yogurt sauce) and horta (sautéed greens tossed with red wine vinegar and honey).

These zucchini fritters are the perfect way to start the meal. Serve the keftedes, grape leaves , octopus , and feta and olives as mezedes (appetizers).

The addition of goat cheese, apricots, and pesto lends a Mediterranean flavor to chicken. The pesto is made with fresh mint and almonds, rather than the usual basil and pine nuts.

If you want to get that restaurant- quality caramelized crust on a scallop, you need to do three things: "rinse it, pat it dry with a paper towel—and then get your pan really hot. Don't be afraid,"says Vitaly paley, chef at Paley's Place. We've found that one to two minutes per side browns the scallops without overcooking them. And gastrique? that's a sweet-sour sauce made from caramelized sugar and vinegar. To get the full Paley's Place experience, serve with parsnip mash, a subtly sweet side that echoes the sweetness of the scallops.

In this riff on melon and prosciutto, very ripe pears give the juiciest, most delicious result.

Season: June to August. I can’t help feeling that we should all make more use of garden mint. I’m sure that if it didn’t run amok in the garden in a rather annoying way, we would prize it more highly not just as a nice thing to chuck in with the potatoes, but as the wonderful sweet-scented herb that it is. This simple recipe is best made with young, bright green mint leaves picked just before flowering, when the volatile oils are at their strongest. Gather them on a sunny day, when the plant is fully dry and the leaves are warm. Use the leaves immediately after picking to retain every bit of their amazing warming and cooling menthol character. Mix 2 teaspoons of mint syrup into a glass of ice-cold water, lemonade, or tonic for a cooling summer drink. To make delicious hot, sweet mint tea, add 1 tablespoon of the syrup to a pot (silver, of course, if you have one) of steaming green tea.

The herb-and-spice blend would also be terrific with eggplant or lamb.

The product: Rich yogurt with great flavor.
The payoff: No need to drain regular yogurt.

The minty mojito is taken to a sparkling new level with this variation on a tropical themed drink. It is remarkably refreshing—an excellent opening act for an evening of fun and fine dining.

Kohlrabi, a bulbous vegetable with thin stems attached, is a member of the cabbage family. Both green and purple varieties are available. The flavor is a mix of turnip, celery root, and radish. Like other vegetables in the cabbage family, kohlrabi is rich in antioxidants.

The flavors of a classic Mojito (mint and lime) are blended into a slushy, easy-to-drink cocktail. For a large party, triple the recipe and store the drink in a pitcher in the freezer for up to an hour. Stir to blend before serving.