Make Ahead

Sweet butternut squash teams up with earthy red lentils to make this simple and satisfying vegetarian dinner.

Elegant and deliciously buttery, these golden fantails are an obvious choice for entertaining. Their shape resembles a blooming flower, with each petal forming a perfect pull-apart bite. But don’t worry—they are surprisingly straightforward to put together in a muffin pan.

Grimes spent hours exploring Nagyvásárcsarnok, Budapest's largest indoor market hall, where he discovered all kinds of cured and jellied meats, pickled vegetables, and a virtual hanging garden of sausages. This magnificent cold layered terrine, which requires almost no cooking, was inspired by that bounty. Horseradish and sour cream, so abundant in central European cooking, complement the beets and the tongue's smoky richness. The success of this dish depends largely on using good-quality borscht such as Gold’s Russian Style (avoid brands containing high-fructose corn syrup).

The delicate crust of this galette gets a warm spiciness from fresh sage.

Classic shape plus not-so-classic flavors gives these rolls an element of surprise. That’s not to say the wintry blend of pumpkin and orange is overpowering; it’s actually very subtle, so the rolls go with just about anything you put on the dinner table. Leftovers would be awfully good slathered with butter and toasted for breakfast.

During a research trip to Budapest, food editor Paul Grimes ate his way through plates of wild mushrooms for dinner and servings of sweet strudels for dessert. When he returned, he came up with this elegant hors d'oeuvre of thin cylinders of phyllo filled with the woodsy intensity of mushrooms. Brushing the phyllo layers with duck or goose fat lends an authentic flavor; butter also works perfectly well.

This fudgy cake is packed with intense, chocolaty richness.

Tender veal shanks get great depth of flavor from lecsó, a kind of Hungarian sofrito of sautéed onions, frying peppers, and tomatoes, to which paprika and, in this case, stock are added. (Grimes found that Cubanelle peppers are the best substitute for the long, yellowish-green peppers found throughout Hungary.) Finished with sour cream, the sauce yields more than you need, but you'll be happy to have leftovers to serve over noodles, chicken, or pork.

These rolls have a lot in common with brioche—both are rich and tender, and they bake up with a gorgeous browned crust. However, these are much easier to make than that time-intensive bread, and they have the added advantage of aromatic Parmigiano-Reggiano. We guarantee they’ll fly out of the bread basket.

Braised dishes are often served with a creamy side like mashed potatoes, polenta, or grits. Black beans offer an earthy change of pace and complement the chile purée.

Inspired by Vietnamese pho (pronounced "fuh"), this soup creates its own broth as meaty short ribs and beef shank simmer with ginger, garlic, chile, and the sweet spice of star anise and cinnamon—supermarket ingredients that come together with slippery rice noodles to produce a wonderfully fragrant and authentic-tasting dish. It’s a great choice for a party, because everyone gets to customize their bowl to their own taste with a spritz of lime, some fiery Sriracha sauce and sweet hoisin, and a scattering of mint and cucumber.

Increasingly available in supermarkets, the firm wheat protein known as seitan is mild in flavor and versatile in the kitchen. In this casserole, it takes on the earthy flavor of mushrooms, adding heartiness and heft.

There really isn't a lot of work involved in making chicken stock—you pretty much drop everything into a pot of water and let it simmer. What you do need, though, is time and patience to let the chicken, vegetables, and herbs transform the water into a golden, savory liquid that will make all the difference in soups and sauces.

Using stocks in place of water in a recipe gives an added dimension of flavor, so they're well worth making and using if you can. Many of the stocks in this book are described within the recipes, but here is a general method of making a variety of stocks. The key to making good stock is to simmer it very slowly for a long time, with only a few bubbles breaking on top of the pot. Slow-cooked stocks come out clear and full of flavor. The longer you cook a stock, the more intense it gets and the less of it you need in a recipe. Stocks hold up for a few days in the refrigerator or for a long time if well sealed in a freezer. Many cooks freeze stock in ice-cube trays, so they can slip out a few cubes and add it to recipes conveniently. Canned chicken stock can be used if you don't have your own. It's not as good, but it's acceptable. Canned beef stock is not very good, and I wouldn't recommend using it.

Mature ginger is used for drying and grinding, as its flavor is more intense. The skin of the rhizome is removed and the flesh is sun- or machine-dried and then ground to a powder.