It’s my favourite dried herb. Dried mint, I think, is one of those ingredients, especially in Cypriot cuisine, that has such a distinctive flavour profile, just a teaspoon can immediately change a dish. We use it a lot in cakes and pastries such as pilavuna. This is a Cypriot pastry filled with cheese, but the dried mint offsets that saltiness.
It pairs incredibly well with hellim [halloumi], another quintessential Cypriot ingredient. So if we’re making any kind of pasta dish, there’s no parmesan – instead we use finely grated hellim with dried mint.
It’s something I’ve grown up with. It goes really well with dried fruit, so you might have a salty hellim muffin, but there’ll be sultanas in it and some dried mint – it brings a sweetness.
If you’re making something like a ragu or a casserole, or meatballs like kofte, and you’re using spices such as cumin, dried mint is great to offset that earthiness – with a bit of ground cinnamon as well. I can’t imagine not having it in my store cupboard.
Meliz Berg’s latest book is Dinner Tonight (Ebury, £22)
