Storm

Surrounded by palm and olive trees while feeling a calm Mediterranean breeze on my skin, beachfront dining and relaxing days is my idea of a promising summer of leisure. Nevertheless, I believe that any garden or rooftop in the Netherlands has the potential to become a paradise where we can enjoy delicious food and fruity cocktails in a purely Mediterranean vibe. In case you are lacking of inspiration, here you’ve got two ideas that will bring to you place a refreshing Mediterranean taste of summer!

STRAWBERRIES’ SALAD

Get ready to fill the vegetable bowl, you just need a good dressing to vibrate with this salad. Strawberries combine perfectly with several of their seasonal companions. For example, with spinach sprouts, a little feta cheese, toasted almonds and a vinaigrette with a citrus touch, perfect for the days when the heat starts to show. Another great mix includes arugula, Parmesan and capers in vinegar, as the acidity of this pickle will enhance the natural sweetness of the strawberries.

Strawberries and spinach salad. (Picture by iStock)

WHITE SANGRÍA

‘Sangría’ is a commercial and not homemade variety of wine since 2014. It is included in the European regulations as “an aromatized wine drink made in Spain or Portugal, which is flavoured with natural citrus extracts or essences, with added spices, with added carbon dioxide, with an alcoholic gradation between 4.5% vol. and 12% vol. which may contain solid particles from the pulp or peel of citrus fruits, and its colour is due exclusively to the ingredients that compose it”.

On the other hand, the Spanish ‘clarea’ is made in the same way as sangría, but with exclusively white wine. We would call it ‘white sangría’ to save some energy on learning specific wine-industry terms.

White sangria, picture by Miriam García via @elcomidista

The ingredients for six moderate-drinking people are the following:

• 2 bottles of 750 ml of white wine, better fruity or even semi-dry, of acceptable quality.
• Juice of 3 or 4 lemons (or 2 limes).
• 100 ml of sweet white wine, muscatel, white Oporto, etc.
• Some sugar (the less, the better)
• Assorted seasonal fruit pieces (peach, melon, orange slices, lemon or lime, etc.)
• About 8-10 ice cubes

Preparation

1. Pour the wine into a large bowl. Add the citrus juice, sweet wine and sugar. Mix and taste, then, adjust with more sugar if desired.
2. Peel and cut the fruits and add them to the white sangría. It is necessary to let them macerate for a while.
3. At the moment of serving add ice cubes to taste, wait a little so that it can cool down. If there is room in the refrigerator, cooling down this cocktail will give the white wine and fruits extraordinary settling properties. As a result, the ice cubes can be omitted.

We can prepare white sangría as smooth as we wish. If we use smooth and somewhat sweet wine, hardly any sugar is needed. And, if we use lime juice instead of lemon, the result is deliciously aromatic