Make Ahead

The recipe below is excerpted from restaurateur Jenny Kwak's book, Dok Suni: Recipes from My Mother's Korean Kitchen.

This recipe was created to accompany <epi:recipeLink ="14220">Grilled Shellfish and Potato Salad with Avacado Salsa, Scallion Oil, and Plum Coulis</epi:recipeLink>.<P> Can be prepared in 45 minutes or less.

Shortbread cookie crust meets airy filling.

Rare is the serious restaurant-goer who ventures into an unfamiliar city without a copy of the local Zagat Survey. Tim and Nina Zagat published their first guide back in 1979, and since then, their burgundy pocket-size compendiums of consumer opinion have led millions to the best dining rooms in the world. Over the years, the Zagats have had hundreds of stunning restaurant desserts, but for Nina, nothing is as well remembered as her grandmother's apple pie. "She only believed in the basics: good apples, sugar, a squeeze of lemon," says Nina. "Even cinnamon was suspect. I used to bake the pies with her, and I loved to make sweet little things from the leftover pastry scraps. She baked the pies in a wood stove and they always came out perfectly." In honor of such grandmotherly comforts, here is a beautiful and delicious pie to serve with vanilla ice cream or slightly sweetened whipped cream.

Can be prepared in 45 minutes or less.

An interesting mix of spices lends wonderful flavor to this simple pasta dish — known as pastitsada — from Tavern Tripa.

Canned chipotle chilies — which give this dish a smoky depth — are available at Latin American markets and many supermarkets. Top the chili with chopped cilantro and green onions, and serve sides of corn bread and spinach salad. For dessert, try lemon sherbet with sugar cookies.

Miniature Tourtières Every French-Canadian home serves a version of tourtière during the holidays. Various thickeners (such as flour, crushed crackers, or even oats) can be used to bind the filling. Our version is made with flour, and the filling is enclosed in a tender biscuit crust. We decorated our pies with a maple-leaf-shaped cutout.*

This recipe can be prepared in 45 minutes or less. This recipe originally accompanied Citrus Chiffon Cake .

Be sure to use extra-ripe mangoes when preparing this rich, creamy dessert.