Leafy Greens

Chinese viceroy Li Hung Chang, visiting San Francisco's Palace Hotel in the 1890s, requested vegetables with a bit of meat "job suey," or "in fine pieces," and chef Joseph Herder obliged.

The chile-tamarind sauce is a refined, complex variation on classic satay sauce, which is traditionally thickened with peanuts. This rendition owes its silky texture to mashed kabocha squash. At Arun's, this is served both as an appetizer and as a main course.

"My wife, Jean, and I run a coffee farm on the Big Island of Hawaii," writes George Fike of Keauhou Mauka, Hawaii. "I really love to cook, so we entertain a lot, and I enjoy planning the dinners as much as I do making them. I tell people the best restaurant in town is our house! Since I do most of the cooking, recipes must either be relatively fast or look after themselves." This recipe is an accompaniment for Hawaiian-Style Braised Pork with Stir-Fried Cabbage .

For a change of pace, use purchased tortellini filled with pumpkin instead of cheese.

In a large menu, the salad is often served after a number of hearty dishes, so the portions are scaled down. For a smaller meal, this amount would serve 4 to 5 hearty salad eaters.

For convenience, you can use a purchased roast chicken or substitute smoked turkey.

Use vegetable stock or broth to make this soup vegetarian.

Pick up grilled zucchini and fresh figs from a specialty market to round out the meal.

Active time: 1 1/4 hr Start to finish: 1 3/4 hr

These exciting flavors complement seared or grilled scallops, fish fillets, or chicken.

Pluots are a great stand-in for true plums in this recipe.

Pink grapefruit can be used if you can't find the blood oranges.

To impart smoky flavor to food when using an outdoor gas grill, add a handful of wood chips (soaked in cold water 30 minutes and drained) to a smoker box and place it under the grates and on top of ceramic briquettes in the far right or left corner of the grill.