Winter

Here's Hill's take on a tart he had at Chez Panisse in Berkeley.

Order pork shanks and pig's foot from nimanranch.com or 866-808-0340.

If you haven't thought of duck as comfort food before, this will change your mind. Pasta, confit duck, and Savoy cabbage become the perfect cool-weather dinner—rich and succulent without seeming heavy. If you haven't had confit duck before, trust us: It's just as good as you would imagine duck cooked in rendered fat would be.

Flavorful pork shoulder, along with fruit—dried and fresh, the perfect fall combination—stuff these chiles en nogada.

Dduk Gook Editor's note: The recipe and introductory text below are excerpted from Eating Korean by Cecilia Hae-Jin Lee and are part of our story on Lunar New Year. Eaten especially during Korean New Year (Soll), Dduk Gook can also be made with dumplings.

In winter we use a variety of greens and winter vegetables to make interesting salads that taste fresh, refresh our palates, and aren't trying to reproduce the delicate leafy greens of the summer.

This recipe makes much more dressing than you'll need for the salad, but it's so delicious you'll be glad to have extra in the refrigerator.

The holidays are gone, and the relatives have left. You can also say farewell to the season's fatty foods with this veggie-loaded soup created by Lulu Powers, Madonna's caterer. One bowl dishes more than all of your RDA for vitamin A and 20 percent for potassium. Bonus: Eating soup before a meal means you'll consume fewer total calories.

A protein-and-veggie-packed omelette alternative Eggs get the fancy treatment with this frittata, adapted from Mollie Katzen's Sunlight Café (Hyperion), the latest by the Moosewood Cookbook author. The dish easily feeds a crowd, and because it uses egg whites in place of some yolks, fat content stays within a healthy range. Self added lean turkey bacon for flavor, but it's worth a gobble with or without the meat.

George Hendrix of Carbondale, Colorado, writes: "My family is usually in a hurry to eat, so dinner has to be on the table fast. This soup was one of my mom's standbys when I was growing up. I often make it in big batches and just ladle it out and microwave as needed." This soup is even better the day after it's made, when the flavors have had a chance to mellow.

The ultimate dish for a cold winter day, this hearty pie couldn't be more satisfying. Picard uses venison along with pork to create an amazingly tender and sauce-rich filling.

This vegetarian main course is hearty, healthy, and delicious.

A perfect ending to a holiday meal, these gorgeous golden orbs are remarkably refreshing. And they will remind you why, in days past, good little children often found oranges hidden in the toes of their Christmas stockings.

This is also a wonderful sauce for hearty pasta dishes.