Side

This puffy deep-fried bread has a beautiful sheen and is wonderfully flaky. Its ravishing appearance is matched only by its exquisite flavor. This is why poori is generally served at parties, special dinners, wedding banquets, and most festive occasions. 

This spoon bread is as tender as a soufflé but much simpler to make.

Fuyu persimmons look like orange tomatoes and have a melon-like texture. Many farmers' markets and supermarkets carry them from October through December.

Traditionally, escabeche refers to fish marinated in a spicy sauce. Here, mushrooms stand in for the fish with delicious results.

These popovers are like individual Yorkshire puddings. To make a dozen large popovers, just double the recipe and use two pans.

To dress up a typical watercress salad for the holidays, Santibañez added orange segments, avocados, and a sweet-tangy pomegranate dressing.

Editor's note:
The recipe and introductory text below are excerpted from Grace Young's book The Breath of a Wok. Young also shared some helpful cooking tips exclusively with Epicurious, which we've added at the bottom of the page. For Young's article on Cantonese cooking, click here. Chef Lee Wan Ching of Yee Hen restaurant on Lantau Island, Hong Kong, taught me this recipe. Traditionally ginger is always cooked with broccoli — its warmth balances the coolness of yin vegetables such as broccoli. Just a small amount of ginger juice intensifies the flavor of the vegetables. To make ginger juice, grate a small amount of ginger and then squeeze it with your fingers to extract the juice.

Verbiak, who learned how to make charcuterie at L&M's Kitchen and Salumeria, in Oxford, Mississippi, pairs this rich side dish with braised veal cheeks or rabbit. It would also be good with chicken or fish.

Truffles are pressure-cooked during the canning process, which causes them to release some of their water content. Using just a bit of this truffle juice in a vinaigrette will impart a delicious woodsy flavor.

This delicate salad, combining crisp celery and tender fresh porcini, grew out of the memories of two food editors — Zanne Stewart and Alexis Touchet — of similar ones they had enjoyed at restaurants in Italy. (Surprisingly, they were in different regions and traveling 20 years apart.)

The leftover cooking liquid makes the perfect base for a soup or white sauce. This recipe is an accompaniment for Rack of Lamb and Roasted Cabbage with Cauliflower and Date Purées .

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.

Actress Bridget Moynahan is fueled both by stardom and foods that keep her in top form. "I love beets," Moynahan says. She can get her fix with this dish from Axe, her healthy eatery of choice. Pick up organic fixings at a farmers' market and enjoy!