Onion

Asparagus heralds spring! It still may be a little early, but as the asparagus season moves along, the stalks will be less woody.

Guacamole con Tomatillos Use Haas avocados if available; their buttery creaminess makes for the best guacamole.

This delicate cut of meat is ideally sautéed (a quick cook in butter or oil) until lightly browned. Don't overcook!

For this warm-weather dish, a salsa cruda à la Grec — or uncooked Greek-style sauce — is combined with hot pasta and served at once. Be sure to use the ripest, juiciest tomatoes you can find, preferably from a farmers' market or your own backyard.

Halved cherry tomatoes and diced green chilies make a chunky relish for the tri-tip.

This recipe was created to accompany <epi:recipelink id="12388">Grilled Spiced Garlic Skirt Steak</epi:recipelink>. Can be prepared in 45 minutes or less.

This recipe was created to accompany <epi:recipelink id="12400">Pork Tournedos with Blackberry Gastrique and Mango Salsa</epi:recipelink>.

The glaze can be made a day ahead; it is intensely flavored, so use it sparingly. Take the roast out of the fridge one hour before cooking. What to drink: Merlot or Australian Shiraz.

Serve with: Crusty French rolls and steamed new potatoes tossed with butter and chervil. Dessert: Meringues filled with purchased lemon curd and sprinkled with blueberries.

Green chilies, cumin, and chorizo flavor this spicy southwestern rendition of the eastern seaboard classic.

Serve over steamed basmati rice. Garam masala, a spice mixture, is available at Indian markets and some supermarkets.

If you are looking for a chowder that is deeply flavored and hearty but not overly rich, this is it. It's perfect for a casual occasion, but the "meatballs" deliver an element of surprise, along the lines of an optical illusion, and make it really quite special. The idea for this chowder came from an old San Francisco recipe for "Force Meatballs" in a cookbook called Joe Tilden's Recipes for Epicures (1907), reprinted in Richard Hooker's Book of Chowders. The "meatballs" were actually made from crabmeat, a fun idea that I knew had great potential. Tilden, a renowned Bay Area amateur cook, left only these instructions for his meatballs: "Serve in any fish chowder or soup." So I paired my version of his meatballs with a chowder that had flavors similar to cioppino, the famous San Francisco seafood stew flavored with garlic, onions, bell peppers, and tomatoes. I served it to my wife and kids, telling them only that it was "meatball chowder." The well-browned meatballs look like the real thing, so they were all a bit dumbfounded when they tasted them. My son, J.P., said "Wow, they taste like crab cakes!" Everybody loved the chowder!