Stew

Both spinach and eggplant are compatible with curry seasoning, so teaming the two vegetables makes this stew-like side dish twice as nice. This is delicious on its own or over couscous.

You can make this exceptionally hearty chili even after an exhausting day at work. All of the ingredients get tossed into the pot at once, and while the chili simmers, you can make a simple salad. Serve the meal with stone-ground tortilla chips.

Here’s a hearty stew made entirely of convenient ingredients (unless you opt to cook the beans from scratch). Serve with simple grain dishes or tortilla specialties that don’t include beans, such as Mushroom and Bell Pepper Quesadillas or Soft Tacos (page 172).

For me, commercially produced curry power tastes just that: commercial. You would never find prepared curry powder in an Indian restaurant, and because the spices are combined fresh, the flavors are robust and explosive. If you like a light curry flavor, use half the spice mix. If you like a spicy curry—use it all. I won’t be mad at ya. Serve the lamb curry with Perfect Steamed Jasmine Rice (page 240) or basmati rice. This is Bombay the right way.

Chicken Cacciatore is a dish that time has forgotten. It’s simple, rustic, and truly Italian, and my buddy Frankie DeCarlo likes it, too. I would serve this with Soft Polenta (page 244). If cutting up a chicken intimidates you, buy precut pieces or have the guy at the meat counter do it for you—that’s his job, right?

In culinary school, beef bourguignon is one of the first dishes you’re taught that truly represents French cuisine. It’s basically beef stew with a deep red-wine flavor. The kicker is that it’s one of the easiest recipes in this book. Serve this with creamy mashed potatoes and I swear you will feel like Paul Bocuse, and you don’t have to go to cooking school.

This recipe is a hybrid from different schools of thought. The texture is that of shredded beef, which is authentic Texan, but the flavor is the American Southwest. The dried chilies and the chocolate give this dish an amazing rich, smoky depth. If you’re a purist and think adding beans is a sacrilege, leave them out, but they do work really well here. This is truly one of the best dishes I’ve ever made.

All Thai curries start with a handful of aromatic ingredients (chiles, galangal, lemongrass, turmeric, etc.) pounded into a paste with a granite mortar and pestle. The paste is then stirred into soups or stews (often with coconut milk) or used as the basis of sautéed dishes. Use a mini-processor to make the curry paste if you'd like, although this incendiary stew will take on a deeper flavor if you use a granite mortar and pestle.

This vegetarian take on a traditional Mexican red pozole—pozole being the name not only of a type of stew, often made with pork, but also of the large dried corn kernels (hominy) integral to the mixture—is rich and satisfying. The accompaniments are an essential and fun part of the dish, adding some fresh crunch to the toothsome bite of hominy, beans, and vegetables. It's the perfect meal to have waiting on the back of the stove for family and friends as they straggle in from near and far for a holiday weekend.

One-pot dishes are all about planning well and laying out your prep in a smart sequential order. The beauty of this dish is the vinegar, which is malty, nutty, and nuanced. I love a Philippine cane vinegar called Datu Puti. Great stuff, super-inexpensive, and readily available at most Asian grocery stores.

You'll want crusty bread for sopping up this San Francisco fish stew.

Polenta is cornmeal and comes in yellow and white as well as in instant form. Served on soup plates and eaten with a spoon, this soft polenta is topped with a mushroom stew that is particularly delicious when it incorporates some wild varieties. A satisfying side, the polenta can also be served in larger portions as a vegetarian main course.

Talk about a lean bean! Adding about 1/2 cup of filling high-fiber chickpeas to your daily diet can cut your consumption of fatty foods, a study in the journal Appetite finds.

This Moroccan-style braise is deeply aromatic, meltingly tender, and exactly what you want on a chilly winter weekend.

When it comes to nutrition, cherries don't bomb. They're rich in anthocyanins, which can jump-start your immune system and mop up free radicals.

Khoresht-e bamiyeh
Okra and lamb khoresht is cooked throughout Iran, and recipes vary in different regions. This version, from the south, is quite garlicky and spicy, and uses tamarind juice; the okra is cooked until soft and potatoes are added for texture and taste.

This hearty Southwestern-style stew was created by executive chef Chad Luethje. Swap chicken for pork if you prefer.

My dad brought the family to the States when I was five. Before we moved, he came over to New York on his own to look for a house. One night, as he tells the story, he was playing poker with some guys in one of the players' apartments in Manhattan. They're all sitting around the table, and one fellow says, "What are you doing here?" "I've got a wife and children in Italy and I'm looking for a place to live." "I've got a nice piece of property in New Jersey," the fellow says. "I've been promoted, and I have to move and sell the property." "Well, I'll go over and take a look at it," says my dad. It was a nice piece of land. He bought it and built a house on it, and I grew up there. The name of the fellow who sold it to him was Joe Namath. We were lucky in that many of our friends from Italy also moved into our neighborhood in New Jersey. We all lived within about five miles of one another. My mom's friend Gabriella lived across the street. She's a fabulous cook. I tasted this lemony rosemary-and-sage chicken stew at her house one night and promptly asked her to show me how to make it. It's now a staple in my own kitchen. Serve it with rice to soak up the sauce, or with roasted potatoes.

Tender and succulent, this red wine-braised beef stew is the ultimate one-pot meal, loaded with tender potatoes and carrots. Don't forget to bring over a loaf of crusty French bread for sopping up the rich sauce.