Cookbooks

The Basic Recipe Fish steaks, cut 1 1/2 to 2 inches thick—halibut, swordfish, and tuna are all good choices—are really best for grilling. Fillets are usually too delicate, and large whole fish are tricky—too often the outside is charred before the inside is cooked. If you're lucky enough, however, to find small whole fish, such as sardines, imported red mullet, small mackerel, or bluefish, they will be exquisite cooked over charcoal or the embers of a wood fire for a real Mediterranean-style treat. Count on 1/4 pound boneless fish steaks per serving, a little more with the bone in, and add a little extra for enthusiastic appetites.

This is one time when the shrimp should be served with their shells on— messy, yes, but utterly delicious.

Melitzanasalata This is similar to the well-known Lebanese eggplant puree called baba ghanouj but the addition of yogurt and green chilies gives it a pleasantly tangy spice. If you have a fireplace or an outdoor grill, roast the eggplant over live coals for a delectably smoky aroma. Select eggplants with smooth, shiny skins that are hefty for their size. Eggplant doesn't store well so be sure to use any you buy within a day or two; keep cool, but don't refrigerate—that only hastens deterioration. Fresh green poblano peppers are best in this recipe, but if you cannot find them, use jalapeños or serranos—as long as they are agreeably spicy but not fiery hot.

Why buy bottles of grenadine when it's so easy to make at home, the natural way? This garnet-hued, sweetly piquant syrup is a great addition to any number of beverages for both its color and its flavor—and it makes a delicious soda on its own, too. Use high-quality bottled pomegranate juice, or make your own.

Reminiscent of your favorite sundae sauce, but better! A sip of soda made from this deep, dark, intense brew is like chomping down on a chocolate bar.

A blend of rums, exotic juices, liqueurs, aromatic spices, absinthe, and trepidation. One from the Soulshakers' greatest hits collection, this drink has been honed to a lethal edge over the past eight years at Gaz's Rocking Blues at London's Notting Hill Carnival and the Glastonbury Festival in southwest England.

The name egg cream is misleading—in actuality, the soda fountain classic contains no eggs and no cream. The three winning elements are milk, flavored syrup, and seltzer. For an icy beverage like top soda jerks used to craft, it's best to frost glasses in the freezer.

Not quite so popular these days, this style of cocktail demands a steady hand to layer the ingredients, starting with the densest and ending with the least dense, to create the drink's snazzy colored stripes. The pousse-café glass is a specific vessel, but try it in a champagne flute or another glass you have to hand before you invest in extra equipment.

This is a twist on the Margarita and uses Japanese matcha for a modern feel. The finely milled green tea brings a touch of Zen to the cocktail ceremony.

Legend has it that a bartender at Chasen's, the famous West Hollywood gathering place for entertainment luminaries, created the eponymous cocktail for "Little Curly Top," the star of Bright Eyes, Little Miss Marker, and The Littlest Rebel. Necessarily nonalcoholic, the drink's appeal to children may lie in the brightly colored, candy-sweet maraschino cherry garnish.

Jose Bengoa, Yolanda Bolivar, and Gabriel Antunez, the BBQ Freaks of San Juan, Puerto Rico developed this easy method for infusing a sweet clove and nutmeg accent into your next back of pork chops. Finished with a tamarind glaze, these chops will likely be unlike any your guests have tried before. You can buy tamarind pulp at health food stores and in Asian, Hispanic, and Indian food stores. We advise throwing in a few extra chops for guests who will want seconds. For a variation, try grilling the brined chops over charcoal or gas, followed by smoking at 250°F for 25 to 30 minutes.

The Pacific Northwest is understandably known for its outstanding salmon, but Washington State and Oregon are also among the country's leading producers of apples, cherries, and hazelnuts—hence the pairing of this nutty apple and cherry salad with hot-smoked salmon. The full-flavored acidity of apple cider vinegar highlights the sweet-tart combination of Granny Smith and Gala apples as well as the dried cherries; the vinaigrette really helps cut the richness of the salmon.

We don't know where Bob Palmgren, head pitmaster and proprietor of RJ's Bob-Be-Que in Mission, Kansas, got the idea for smoked sausage in cornhusks, but we credit him for inspiring our own version. Bob features a pork sausage with chopped jalapeño peppers and other seasonings. Ours pays homage to the artist Georgia O'Keeffe, who spent much of her creative life in northern New Mexico at a place called Abiquiu, taking inspiration from the local terrain. This one features a chicken sausage with chopped fire-roasted Hatch chile peppers and other New Mexico seasonings.

Pea shoots are the young, tender tips and vines of the snow pea or the sugar snap pea plant. Once your plants are established and producing an abundance of pods, clip off leaf and tendril sections about 4 inches (10 cm) long. If you don't have your own plants, look for these tender shoots at farmers' markets or Asian grocery stores. Sambal oelek is an Indonesian chile paste, and tart, citrusy makrut lime leaves are used in Southeast Asian cooking.

Kale and radicchio both do quite well on the grill; the direct heat turns their edges charred and crispy while the inner leaves become tender and stay intact. Soaking the kale is important so that steam can build and cook through the tough stalks as the leaves grill. Because kale and radicchio are both slightly bitter greens, they take to a sauerkraut-style dressing just as well as cabbage does.

Radishes are routinely part of the salsa and condiment spreads available at the best taquerias. Here, I use them as part of a fresh topping for earthy chicken tostadas that is anything but routine. Achiote paste, a popular Yucatecan seasoning made from ground annatto seeds, is available at Mexican stores.

An abundance of mustard seeds grows in California's Napa Valley—as it does in the south of France; the regions share a similar climate. It makes sense, then, that many of the same ingredients feature prominently in both cuisines. These potatoes, grilled with a mustardy aioli (basically, garlic-scented mayonnaise) and served with a scattering of herbs, would be at home on either region's table. Delicate parsley, chives, and tarragon are known collectively as fines herbes and are a staple of Mediterranean cooking.

We had to include this fantastic recipe because the marriage of fresh ginger, garlic, mint, feta cheese, spinach, and freshly ground lamb with complementary spicy seasonings grilled over direct heat yields an outstanding flavor. Cover them with Spicy Afghan Green Sauce and you'll be serving one of the most remarkable backyard barbecues ever. Friends who think they don't like lamb will rave about these meatballs.

We can always count on Clint Cantwell to come up with flavor profiles that, at first glance, make us blink like we just got smoke in our eyes. Here he's done it again by rubbing steak with coffee, paprika, and coriander—some of the hottest seasonings out there now. It opens up some new flavors you might not have thought of, but they work!

If you want a real taste of Cuba, you have to start with a mojito. Rum, lime juice, mint…you've got the drink of Hemingway in your hands. For a delicious spin on the classic, try this version. Sweet, tart, and bursting with fruity flavor, blackberries are an outstanding addition.