Harper Collins

Giant beans in some form or another are never absent from Greek meze menus. The key to making this dish taste as good as possible is to use high-quality roasted sweet peppers preserved in extra virgin olive oil. I usually make my own oil, and have them on hand. All you need to do is roast the peppers whole under the broiler, let them cool, peel them, and store them in a container in the fridge covered with good olive oil. You can pour a few tablespoons of the pepper-infused oil into the baking dish for added flavor. As for the beans themselves, the trick is to get the texture right. Giant beans need first to be soaked, then boiled, and finally baked. Once done, they should be soft, almost buttery, without being baked to the point that they fall apart.

Bianco Another Corfiote fish recipe with an Italian-sounding name. Bianco is pungent with garlic and is called "white" because it is made without tomatoes.

This is a tasty dish for a tapas party, but I also like it served with greens alongside warm lentils for lunch. Spanish fresh pork sausage is flavored with garlic and oregano, but any sweet pork link sausage can be used for this recipe.

When fresh wide rice noodles are stir-fried, they are called fun. Fresh rice noodles have to be pulled apart and fluffed before cooking.

Crema Pasticciera I Campanians are wild for pastry cream. Thickened with flour, rich with eggs, flavored with vanilla, lemon, chocolate, or coffee, it fills cream puffs, sponge cakes, and ladyfingers in all the composed desserts called delizie (delights), and the grandest of all, Zuppa Inglese. It goes under fruits and fruit preserves in tarts, which are called either crostate or pizze. It forms a topknot in the hole of the famous fried Zeppole di Guiseppe, the bignè — or French crullers, you might call them — made in honor of St. Joseph on March 19. Pastry cream is also one of the bases for frozen desserts. It can be lightened with whipped cream, thinned with loquid cream. It also makes a fine sauce, the same as the French crè anglaise. This recipe requires total concentration and a quick eye and hand. The eggs must be heated just to the point that they do their maximum thickening and never so much that they scramble. The starch must be kept in constant motion, too; otherwise it will lump. I find that even with the best technique it is always prudent to be prepared with a strainer placed over a bowl. No matter how careful you are, there are frequently at least a few lumps that need to be smoothed out.

Tomatillos are the key ingredient in this alluring green sauce. They have an unusual and pleasant tartness that works well with a variety of dishes. I pair this mojo with a grand Fish in Foil . The sauce has the brightness of a lemon with the attendant complexity you'd expect of the other ingredients that go into making it.

Few foods metamorphose as dramatically or alluringly as garlic when it is roasted. Hardly a savory recipe exists in which one could not imagine this substance. I always have these garlic preparations on hand. This recipe is a component of Fish in Foil with Sweet Onions, Tomatoes, and Mojo Verde and Grill-Roasted Rack of Lamb in Red Mole .

Elote Asado Out on a walk in practically any Mexican town, who can pass up the always-present fresh ears of chewy field corn, turning and crisping over the coals? Who isn't attracted to the smoky-smelling, pit-roasted ears (pibinales) when they're poured from gunnysacks in Yucatan? And who doesn't like the fried corn kernels with epazote and chiles in Toluca (esquites), or the ones served from big boiling cazuelas in the capital's Alameda Park, or the ones topped with cream, powdered chile and cheese in the northeastern states? Our sweet corn isn't the same to me, boiled and buttered and served as a summertime vegetable. It lacks a little backbone. So when I'm having it, I usually give it a taste of an open fire, a squeeze of lime and a sprinkling of hot powdered chile…or the lavish spread of butter, cream and cheese of this recipe. Serve it anytime you're grilling, and you'll please practically everyone.

(Cebollas Fritas) These egg-battered onions have a sweetness that marries well with rich dishes such as Churrasco de Sao Paulo a la Parilla .

Zeppole di San Guiseppe The bignè form of these donuts or crullers was invented for the St. Joseph’s Day (March 19), 1840, by Don Pasquale Pintauro, who was given a noble title by King Ferdinand II of the Two Sicilies for his creation. The Pintauro pasticceria still stands at Via Roma, 275, and it is still among the most highly regarded in the city, although some Neapolitans are fond of saying, "It isn't what it used to be." Until Pintauro adopted the French cream puff pastry — pâte à choux, in French—for his bakery's zeppole, only the much cruder kind of zeppole di Natale, or, in dialect, scauratielli. They are made from a dough of only flour and water or flour and milk, with no leavening, not even an egg. After the Christmas zeppole are formed into rings, actually more the shape of an AIDS ribbon, and fried, they are dipped in hot honey. As you might imagine, they are considerably heavier than the bignè form of zeppole, an because they become even weightier and rather indigestible as they stand, they have to be eaten almost as soon as they emerge from their honey bath. These light, eggy bignè, on the other hand, although they are best when just cooled, can be made hours ahead and re-crisped in a 350-degree oven for a few minutes. The dough can be made a day ahead and kept refrigerated.

Truite à la Tomate This trout recipe could be page 1 of [fishmonger Neige] Perez's Workbook for Cooking Fish 101. There are no fish bones to fillet, no tomatoes to peel, and no saucepans to clean. Cooked together in a single roasting pan, the capers, olives, onions, tomatoes, garlic, olive oil, white wine, and trout fillets conspire to create a wonderful, unmistakably Mediterranean ensemble sure to entice even Marseillais who were scaling and gutting fish — or so they say — before they could walk.

(Churrasco de Sao Paulo a la Parilla con Chimichurri Rojo) Churrasco is a very primitive form of cooking meat. The gauchos, or cowboys, of Brazil would kill and butcher the animals out on the pampas, build a big fire, and barbecue the meat on a spit of some sort, basting it with a vinegary liquid. As cities developed, however, this recipe too became more civilized — I do ask you to prepare it the way they do in many Brazilian steak houses, with cebollas fritas (otherwise known as onion rings).

The tamarind, a tropical shade tree native to India, also grows in Southeast Asia, Africa, Hawaii, Mexico, South America, and, of course, the Caribbean. Its long brown brittle bean-like pods each hold a sweet-sour sticky brown pulp containing up to ten seeds. Its flavor is akin to dates mixed with lemon and peaches. Just as we in the West often use a squeeze of lemon to lift the richness of a dish, in Asia they use tamarind. The American palate is not accustomed to the tamarind's particular brand of sourness, and so Western dishes using the fruit are usually tempered by ingredients that soften its acidity. In this dish, the heavy cream in the Smoky Plantain Crema balances the tamarind's acidity, while the chipotles complement the flavor of the grilled duck meat. When preparing this, note that the duck should marinate overnight.

Hot or cold, this soup is a great starter and can be a meal in itself. It's thickened with potatoes — not cream — but tastes self-indulgent just the same. [NB: This recipe requires a slow cooker.]

These sand tart cookies are a dream, and actually are the best version I have had of this popular Southern cookie. Aunt Mary made her cookies with ground pecans added to the batter. Halfway through the baking she sprinkled on grated chocolate. These cookies have a seductive "gritty" texture, and are perfect with ice cream, fresh fruit, a cup of coffee or tea, or simply to satisfy a longing sweet tooth.

Nuoc Tuong Pha This vegetarian dipping sauce can be made with any soy sauce, including the Japanese-style Kikkoman, although the Vietnamese prefer the lighter-bodied Chinese-style products marketed under the brands Kim Lan, Bo De, and Pearl River Bridge. Like dipping sauces made with fish sauce, you can embellish this with different aromatics such as ginger and cilantro.

Cooking doesn't get much easier than this, but it still took me a while to catch on. Being a northerner, I didn't realize that everyone south of Baltimore knows spiced shrimp like New Englanders know maple syrup. I tried spicing up my shrimp and crabs with a spice mix called "Shrimp and Crab Boil." I took the cue from the name and added the spices to boiling water to boil the shellfish. Not until I moved to Maryland crab country did I find that you douse the shellfish with spices and steam them over boiling water. Perhaps someone should market a spice mix called "Shrimp and Crab Steam" for us literalists. The shrimp are cooked with their shells on, so provide lots of napkins for spice-coated hands and beer or lemonade for spice-coated throats.

Cooking Time: 8 hours on LOW or 5 to 6 hours on HIGH
Slow Cooker Size: 5 1/2- to 6-quart oval I think the slow cooker was invented with brisket in mind. This sweet and savory version is perfection itself, melting in your mouth. It's very important to buy a "first-cut" or "flat-cut" brisket, which has far less fat than other cuts.

The method of preparing this salad — paper-thin shavings of vegetables, usually raw, tossed together and lightly dressed just before serving — has become a regular theme on the restaurant's menus. The variations are extensive (peppers, celery, and radishes are often added) and always fresh and satisfying. Note: Slices of very fresh, raw cepes (porcini, or Boletus edulis) are superb in this salad. Another autumnal variation on this salad theme is to dress the shavings of fennel with lemon and olive oil and top with shavings of fuyu persimmon accented with a few drops of balsamic vinegar.