Make Ahead

In Trinidad, this rustic coconut loaf with a biscuit-like texture is traditionally eaten with bul jol, which is also known as pick-up saltfish . The bread is quick and easy to make, and is great for breakfast with tropical jams such as guava, passion fruit, or mango. Coconut know-how: To open a coconut, pierce "eyes" with an ice pick and drain out liquid. Break coconut open with a hammer, and then pry out the meat and scrape off the brown skin. Chop or grate meat by hand or in a processor.

This clever appetizer is halfway between a pizza and a flatbread.

Since the beans need to soak overnight, be sure to begin one day ahead. Spicy Italian sausage is a good substitute for the chorizo.

Florence Myers of Gainesville, Missouri, writes: "In the late 1950s and early 1960s I was a counselor at an all-girls summer camp in New Hampshire. When we went on long hikes in the mountains, the camp cook, Peggy Ward, would pack up plenty of her wonderful ginger cookies. I've passed that cookie recipe on to many people, including my granddaughter. She tells me that every time she makes the cookies people ask her for the recipe." Old-fashioned flavor in a super-easy cookie.

These cookies, a twist on traditional snowballs, are just the thing to enjoy with a spot of tea.

A tisane is a tea-like aromatic infusion; this one is a lovely partner to the cheesecake.

A gorgeous, satisfying vegetarian main course that's easy to make. Quinoa requires no pre-soaking, so it's as simple to do as rice.

Get the freshest ground star anise by making your own. It's as easy as grinding a few star anise pods in a spice mill or a coffee grinder.

Ají ecuatorianoají ecuatoriano Served on the table as an accompaniment to soups, this fresh sauce gets its tart, vibrant flavor from the tamarillo (tree tomato), native to South America. A small red tomato can be substituted.

Serve with cucumber rounds, red bell pepper strips, and sticks of jicama.

A far cry from the crisp-tender green beans of recent fashion, this is a classic example of the popular Ottoman-era dishes called zeytinagli, in which vegetables are cooked for a long time in olive oil, then served at room temperature so that the flavors are at their peak.

Prized by gardeners during the Renaissance, celery root, or celeriac, has a light celery flavor and a dense flesh that is perfect for shredding into slaws. This salad is wonderful with the chicken and biscuits or the flank steak. Enjoy any leftovers the next day.

This tart has a creamy, almost puddinglike center. We used bittersweet chocolate so the ganache filling wouldn't be too sweet. Choosing a quality brand results in more well-rounded flavor and even silkier texture.

This side dish plays the dual role of salad (with crunchy fennel and carrot and fresh parsley) and bed for the Cornish hens (recipe precedes) — the seasoning of these chewy grains echoes that of the olive butter tucked under the birds' skin.

Homemade ravioli are well worth the effort, and making them is the perfect task to share with a kitchen full of cooks (even novices can get in on the fun). Mixing the pasta dough is a breeze in the food processor, but if you don't have one, don't worry — we've given the method for making the dough by hand as well. A brown-butter pine-nut sauce is light enough to let your efforts on the pasta really shine through.