Make Ahead

Finely ground black sesame seeds create a deeply flavored and dramatically hued cake.

Sweet meets salty in these oatmeal-raisin cookies flecked with crisp bacon bits. They're great for breakfast or an afternoon snack alongside a cup of coffee.

This dough is chewy, bubbly, and better than what you'll get at most pizza places. It bakes wonderfully in a home oven, on a pizza stone or a baking sheet. And thanks to the brilliant no-knead method of Jim Lahey—owner of New York's Sullivan Street Bakery and pizza spot Co.— it's easy to prepare, deriving its character from overnight fermentation, not laborious kneading. Just remember to start at least 1 day ahead.

We love the way these quickly pickled, supercrisp pears play off the briny and intense kimchi.

In North India these legume wafers are called papad and are dry-roasted over a flame, but in the South they are deep-fried until they form lots of air bubbles and become light and puffy. They are sold in many flavors, but plain is preferred in Kerala. Pappadams are always part of a Sadhya: You crush one up and mix it together with rice, dhal, and ghee. The pappadam helps to bind all the ingredients together so you can form balls when eating with your hand. Store-bought wafers are used almost exclusively by Indian cooks because the traditional recipes are labor-intensive and require days of drying in the hot sun. This recipe is part of our menu for Sadhya, a South Indian feast.

Bake in large decorative paper molds (found at kitchen supply stores), or simply line standard muffin tins with your favorite liners.

When both the recipe developer (Gina Marie Miraglia Eriquez) and the cross-tester (Melissa Roberts) raved about this soup, it was clear we had a winner! This almost-vegetarian chowder is chock full of a variety of colorful diced vegetables. Of course, we love the smoky nuance the bacon gives it, but if you wanted to make this strictly vegetarian, just lose the bacon and use vegetable stock in place of the chicken broth. This is ski-house material to feed a hungry horde, or use a long weekend to have several smaller gatherings to pay back all your friends (once you’ve cleaned for one party, you might as well throw another one).

This quintessential Kerala vegetable curry marries many of the best ingredients of the region: coconut, curry leaves, green chiles, and a host of tropical vegetables. All the vegetables are cut into batons and poached in a spiced yogurt-coconut sauce. This recipe is part of our menu for Sadhya, a South Indian feast.

Crunchy edges and soft centers make Lahey's cookies a classic.

Matt Wallace, bartender at Harvard & Stone in Los Angeles, created this potent fruit-filled punch for our story Spring Cocktails Perfect for Brunch. The combination of pineapple, orange, and lemon plus the crisp, dry bubbles from the Champagne really wake up your palate after a long winter, he says. The citrus and sugar base is called oleo-saccharum, and is common in older punch recipes. Wallace says it's an excellent way to add a subtle citrusy perfume to the final drink, and requires time but very little labor.

Editor's note: Use Jim Lahey's no-knead dough recipe to make his Popeye Pie. While I'm not picky about the flour—either bread flour or all-purpose is fine—what does concern me is how the dough is handled. Treat it gently so the dough holds its character, its texture. When you get around to shaping the disk for a pie, go easy as you stretch it to allow it to retain a bit of bumpiness (I think of it as blistering), so not all of the gas is smashed out of the fermented dough. I prefer to hold off on shaping the ball until just before topping it. If it's going to sit for a while—more than a couple of minutes—cover it with a damp kitchen towel to prevent it from drying out. I offer you two approaches for shaping. The simpler one, executed completely on the work surface, is slower than the second, where you lift the disk in the air and stretch it by rotating it on your knuckles. Lifting it into the air to shape it is more fun, too.

Basically, this is what you'd offer your future in-laws to ensure their undying affection. This is a taste-great, feel-good classic Jewish brisket, but while the recipe has been in the family for years, Joan is not averse to a new tweak or twist: Add a jar of sun-dried tomatoes, dry or packed in oil, for a more intense flavor. Or add a 2-inch knob of ginger and a few large strips of lemon zest to the pot—remove them before serving. Note: "Not Too Gedempte Fleysch" means "Not too well stewed." I didn't know either.

This is the go-to recipe for knowledgeable brisket lovers. Who then share it with others. Who share it with—perhaps—the Obamas and other notable families. So warm and welcoming, the secret is what Nach did way before anyone else: slice the meat midway through cooking. If you serve this the day after you make it, reheat, covered, for about 1 hour in a 325°F oven.

I've been doing the previous marinades forever. This new one is first cousin to a good barbecued tofu: piquant, sweet-hot-rich, and scintillatingly tasty. The tofu is baked in the marinade/sauce, which cooks down and coats it, caramelizing them. You'll probably have to soak the baking dish overnight before washing it, but it's worth it. Vary this using fruit juice concentrate instead of honey or sugar, and adding extra ginger, orange zest, or both. For an incendiary smokiness, add chipotle in adobo.

A lot of commercial red bean ice creams are just your basic, junky, mass-produced ice creams made with inferior ingredients like gums and thickeners, with a little of the red-bean paste called anko stirred in. Not so the following: a custard-based, from-scratch ice cream, enriched with enough anko so that you really get both its flavor and the extra creaminess contributed by its starch. The vanilla is optional; some feel it detracts from the red- beaniness, but I think it enhances it. If you want to go to town with this one, serve it in scoops sprinkled with a little matcha (brightly colored powdered green tea), and offer matcha-flavored meringues alongside; you can make them from the egg whites you'll have left over from the ice cream. Those who are allergic to dairy products can make this using canned full-fat unsweetened coconut milk: substitute 4 cups for the milk and cream.

There are countless variations on this much-loved recipe, which has its origins in kosher cooking. By making a meatless (pareve) version of chopped liver, Jews who keep kosher get to enjoy a much-loved dish while sticking to the dietary requirements of nonmeat meals. While this is often served as a Sabbath appetizer, particularly in homes with Ashkenazic roots, and also as a seder dish, novelist Ellen Levine brings it to the annual potluck picnic that gathers together writers and illustrators of children's and young-adult books from all over new England. It's always swiftly scarfed up. As odd as it may sound to prepare a vegetarian spread whose name references an animal organ, somehow this dish lacks the turn-up-your-nose unpleasantness of many pseudo-meat dishes. Maybe this is because its origins are based in authentic foodways. But it could just as well be because it is very versatile and just plain good. as with all home-style dishes, from bouillabaisse to barbecue to gumbo, there are many versions of pareve chopped liver, and whichever one you grew up with is, to you, the one and only. I've attempted to give at least a nod to some of these variations following the main recipe, but this is my take on Ellen's. Try it as a sandwich spread or with crudités; or serve it with crisp crackers, toasted baguette slices, or, at Passover, matzoh.

This unusual pie was inspired by a version made by Fern Butters, who ran a small boardinghouse and dining room in the Florida Keys. According to David L. Sloan, a Key lime pie expert, President Truman used to travel to Key West just to enjoy Mrs. Butters' pie. The recipe contains vanilla ice cream, and is baked and then frozen. The end result is a pie with a soft and delicate filling reminiscent of Italian semifreddo. Most graham cracker pie shells are baked briefly before they're filled, but because this pie is frozen after it's baked, we recommend skipping the usual pre-bake for a tender, easily cuttable crust. For more on Sloan and the story behind Key lime pie, see Molly O'Neill's feature, "The Curious Case of Key Lime Pie."

This fairly classic recipe for Key lime pie comes from Pepe's Cafe in Key West, Florida, and is a favorite of lime pie aficionado and author David L. Sloan. The addition of whipped egg whites, says Sloan, makes for a filling that's fluffier than those in more traditional versions. For more on Sloan and the story behind Key lime pie, see Molly O'Neill's feature, "The Curious Case of Key Lime Pie."

Among the many virtues of this salad is that it can be made ahead very successfully and it also looks so attractive.

The dressing is what makes this salad: it’s sooo delicious I use it to marinate chicken and fish, drizzle it on pasta salads, or even toss some with boiled new potatoes to make an Italian potato salad. When you make it, double or triple the quantity so you’ll always have it on hand to toss with your favorite foods.