Cookbooks

This recipe is a prime example of how to cut calories without sacrificing flavor. We use a ton of vegetables and just a handful of flavorful sausage. Don't skimp on the time needed to wilt down the vegetables, because that time adds sweetness to the sauce.

We love King Soba noodles on the Clean team and could easily find hundreds of uses for them. This is a delicious Mediterranean-flavored version of a noodle bowl, quick and easy, and perfect for those meals you need to have on the table as fast as possible.

The one-bowl chocolate cake is a busy baker's workhorse, and a concept that's been riffed on in countless ways by just about every cookbook, food magazine, and professional domestic goddess over the past few decades. And for good reason-who doesn't love being minutes away from homemade chocolate cake, no complicated machinery required? My version is naturally sweetened with maple syrup, which also makes it unbeatably moist.

Though good with any fresh vegetable, this sharp, creamy feta dip, smoothed with a little buttermilk, is exceptional with crisp spring radishes. Much as in the combination above, salt and fat mellow any heat from the raw radishes. Cheesemaker Mary Rigdon of Decimal Place Farm has been brining her goat's milk feta to order for us every week since Miller Union opened. If you have a local farmers' market that sells fresh cheeses, look there first for good-quality feta. I love the little pink, purple, or red garden variety radishes for this dip.

Talk about a showstopper! A stack of traditional flapjacks with butter and syrup is fabulous enough as is, but here we're taking that idea into mind-blowing dessert territory. 

Though the healthful and now mainstream Middle Eastern dip we know as hummus typically includes chickpeas and sesame tahini, this adaptation contains neither. Rather, its similarly smooth texture comes from the natural starch and protein of the English pea. In the summer, I make a variation of this using blanched field peas of any variety, and I substitute thyme for the spring herbs and fresh garlic in place of the early green garlic of spring.

Raisins have a long shelf life and are great for a boost of energy. I was walking on a cold boardwalk, quite a ways from home, when a pang of hunger attacked. I was wearing my ski jacket-an ideal jacket for the beach in the winter and also ideal for storage with its plentiful pockets for goggles, headphones, keys, money, credit cards, lip balm, sunblock, and Starburst. There are always a few raisins tucked away somewhere (long pocket life?), too; same in this recipe-hidden and sweetly surprising.

This works as a fancy little passed hors d'oeuvre toast or as a more substantial dinner toast. As an hors d'oeuvre, it'll pair especially well with rose but also any sparkling wine or crisp white. If you're eating it for dinner, saute some garlicky bok choy or watercress on the side, plus a little kimchi for bite. If you're tight on cash but still want to impress, this is a great one-you don't need to buy the most expensive crab; the miso makes up for it. That said, it's always best to buy the highest quality you can afford.

On those mornings when you don't want to do anything but get up, pour coffee, and sit with your face in the sun, homemade granola is a good thing to have around. Ours is meant to be not too sweet. We serve it over very tangy plain yogurt from upstate New York's Ronnybrook Farm dairy and add a swirl of local honey for people who want it a little sweeter.

The mere mention of ramen noodles may bring you back to your college days...and just like then, it's time to experiment a little. This spicy ramen dish contains ginger, chiles, and garlic-aromatic spices that have two amazing properties: they help to increase blood flow throughout the body and help to protect your gut against harmful bacteria, as they work as natural antiseptics in your digestive tract.

Our mom makes this cake every year for Dad's birthday. The tradition is that she always makes a mistake and that the cake is never perfect. Though she always messes up, it always tastes good and this is a great recipe. You'll need a 9-inch angel food cake pan for this cake.

(Djej Emshmel) Editor's note: The recipe and introductory text below are excerpted from Paula Wolfert's book Couscous and Other Good Food From Morocco. Wolfert also shared some helpful cooking tips exclusively with Epicurious, which we've added at the bottom of the page. Preserved lemons, sold loose in the souks, are one of the indispensable ingredients of Moroccan cooking, used in fragrant lamb and vegetable tagines, recipes for chicken with lemons and olives , and salads. Their unique pickled taste and special silken texture cannot be duplicated with fresh lemon or lime juice, despite what some food writers have said. In Morocco they are made with a mixture of fragrant-skinned doqq and tart boussera lemons, but I have had excellent luck with American lemons from Florida and California. Moroccan Jews have a slightly different procedure for pickling, which involves the use of olive oil, but this recipe, which includes optional herbs (in the manner of Safi), will produce a true Moroccan preserved-lemon taste. The important thing in preserving lemons is to be certain they are completely covered with salted lemon juice. With my recipe you can use the lemon juice over and over again. (As a matter of fact, I keep a jar of used pickling juice in the kitchen, and when I make Bloody Marys or salad dressings and have half a lemon left over, I toss it into the jar and let it marinate with the rest.) Use wooden utensils to remove the lemons as needed. Sometimes you will see a sort of lacy, white substance clinging to preserved lemons in their jar; it is perfectly harmless, but should be rinsed off for aesthetic reasons just before the lemons are used. Preserved lemons are rinsed, in any case, to rid them of their salty taste. Cook with both pulps and rinds, if desired.

(Baha) Editor's note: The recipe and introductory text below are excerpted from Paula Wolfert's book Couscous and Other Good Food From Morocco. Wolfert also shared some helpful cooking tips exclusively with Epicurious, which we've added at the bottom of the page. If you really love the taste of lamb, you will love this dish. It's a pity that we Americans know so little about steaming meats; just as steamed vegetables keep their original flavors, so do steamed chickens and lamb. If you don't have a steamer, use a couscousière or a colander with a tight-fitting lid that fits snugly over a kettle. Some people think that steamed lamb looks unattractive (though no one denies that it's incredibly good). If you feel this way you may brown the meat quickly in butter or oil at the end, or roast it at high heat until it browns. Steamed food should be eaten the moment it is ready, when it is at its peak: if left too long, it will dry out.

(Djej Emshmel) Editor's note: The recipe and introductory text below are excerpted from Paula Wolfert's book Couscous and Other Good Food From Morocco. Wolfert also shared some helpful cooking tips exclusively with Epicurious, which we've added at the bottom of the page. I first ate this dish in a home in the city of Meknes, sometimes called the City of Olives. Djej Emshmel (pronounced meshmel or emsharmel) is a classic Moroccan dish—chicken served in an intricately spiced, creamy, lemony, and sublime sauce with a scattering of pale-hued olives.

Here at Epicurious, we're big fans of the nutty, fruity buckwheat-biscuit shortcakes in Alice Medrich's cookbook, Pure Desserts. So we created a version we can enjoy all year long. Cooking dried apricots in Earl Grey tea with a vanilla bean infuses them with sweet spices that pair nicely with the earthy bitterness of buckwheat flour. Don't forget to freeze the butter for 1 hour before grating.

Baking pro Alice Medrich's gluten-free oat sponge cake, from her book Flavor Flours, makes a wonderful base for apples caramelized with brown sugar and cinnamon, along with a dollop of pure whipped cream.