Have a Wine Bar Night at Home With These Recipes

Every every now and then, poor time administration leads me in a pleasant route. This occurred on a current trip to San Juan, the place I needed to scramble for a last-minute dinner reservation. I settled on a wine bar, El Vino Crudo in Old San Juan, not even pausing for a beat to pore over the menu first, as I’m wont to do.

Upon my arrival, my eyes darted to the menu’s handful of vegetable dishes, and shortly after, puffy ras el hanout-dusted cauliflower florets drizzled with two sorts of chutneys and a tamarind raita hit the desk, adopted intently by a platter of charred asparagus spears atop a layer of romesco, garnished with crunchy almonds and caper leaves that regarded like eucalyptus.

With every chew, I considered recreating a selection of shareable plates for myself. We have wine bar at house! (Required viewing: the “We have McDonald’s at house!” bit from Eddie Murphy’s 1987 stand-up particular, “Raw,” which I gained’t hyperlink to for language.)

Then, the requisite vibrant greens dishes. Yewande Komolafe’s recipe for roasted greens with cashew romesco is properly throughout the neighborhood of the asparagus dish I fawned over, although I’d like to mix her sauce with Melissa Clark’s recipe for roasted asparagus with crispy leeks and capers to get even nearer to it. And Nargisse Benkabbou’s vibrant roasted cauliflower (above), with its cilantro-packed chermoula and its cooling yogurt base, appears like a scrumptious cousin of that restaurant dish I so loved.

When the wine bar’s at house, there’s no spiel from a server recommending three to 5 plates per individual. You can actually cease right here. But I’ll all the time advocate ending on a candy notice. For that, why not Clare de Boer’s springy strawberry and sesame swirl smooth serve?