30 Minutes or Less

The simplest of all Thai dishes, stir-fries are a great way to showcase fresh green vegetables. You can increase the spiciness of your stir-fry by adding more chiles. The key to this dish's success? Controlling the heat on the pan from beginning to end.

I can just hear someone shouting "Oh, no, not quinoa again," but this is really good. I made it for friends who cannot eat onions or garlic. Looking around for a solution, I found that the freezer had two plastic containers of Boletus mushrooms that I had picked, cooked, and frozen in the summer. If—as is probable—fresh Boletus are not available, use another good mushroom. Even if you don't forage as I do, you will find an expanding selection of flavorful mushrooms in shops—labeled "wild" only to differentiate them from regular mushrooms. They need not be frozen. In fact, they will need to be defrosted if frozen.
Don't worry if this makes more than you need. My friends took home the remains, and so will yours.

We like to whip up this delicious tofu scramble with home fries made from Yukon Gold and sweet potatoes on lazy weekend mornings. Begin to cook the scramble just as the home fries are nearly browned to perfection so you can serve this hearty and soul—satisfying breakfast all at once. It tastes and looks great when accompanied by salsa or chopped tomatoes and a handful of garden—fresh herbs.

Skip the bottled ranch; make this dressing all winter long to add a tangy kick to salads and crudités.

This buttery crust can be used for sweet or savory dishes, baked in either a pie pan or a fluted French tart pan with a removable bottom. This recipe will make a crust for a 9-inch pie or tart.

What makes this recipe special is its lightness: twice as much milk as cream, and the white of the egg whipped stiff and folded into the mix, so it was almost like clouds on top of the eggnog.

This was on the bar at every establishment in New York City during the holidays in the Gay Nineties.

We swooned over deputy food editor Janet McCracken's pumpkin seed and cilantro pesto when she made it in the BA Test Kitchen. Now we use it on rice, pasta, roasted vegetables, and chicken, too.

Slice the red beets last and keep them separate until serving so their color won't bleed onto the other vegetables.

Herbaceous, nutty, and bright, this rendition of the Prohibition-era classic doubles the gin for a more robust cocktail.

The Pacific Northwest is the birthplace of America's specialty coffee culture, and beyond the coffee shops that dot every street corner of the region, bars have gotten in on the action, mixing locally roasted coffee into cocktails like this one from Seattle bartender Andrew Friedman, which features espresso from Stumptown Coffee Roasters. "Their Hair Bender espresso is so expressive that I thought it deserved to be in a cocktail," says Friedman. Taking inspiration from the classic froth of a flip cocktail, this velvety concoction harmonizes the rich, chocolaty notes of the espresso with vanilla-flecked Navan liqueur. Mandarine Napoléon adds the perfect splash of orangey sweetness.

This traditional Thai-style soup is my personal favorite. I love coconuts, and this soup is all about the coco. I like to use different ages of coconut meat to get varied textures. A more mature nut makes a chunky soup, while a younger one makes a creamy soup. I also like to use a variety of hot peppers: jalapeño, serrano, and even the super-spicy Thai chile, just to get a wide range of spiciness. Some peppers are hot as you eat them, others after you eat them; my favorites are hot only when you stop eating them.

The vanilla sapote is misnamed since it is actually not a member of the sapote family but a member of the citrus family. Vanilla sapotes, also called white sapotes, are green on the outside with pale ivory flesh. The green sapote (a true sapote) is green on the outside and orange on the inside. Look for vanilla sapotes at Latin markets and specialty produce stores.

Customize this one to your liking, from the fillings to the doneness.

Look for shichimi togarashi, a Japanese seasoning mix, at Japanese markets and savoryspiceshop.com.

Use this for a glossy finish on the Chocolate Hazelnut Cake with Praline Chocolate Crunch and for assembling the Milk Chocolate and Salted Caramel Gâteau Saint-Honoré . It's also great drizzled over ice cream.

Serve this dish with toasted bread to soak up the juices. To debeard the mussels, grab the beard with a kitchen towel for a better grip.

Piquant Dijon mustard and a little cayenne pepper put the diable in these crisp pan-fried chicken breasts.

For the crispiest results, dry the chickpeas before frying.