Epicurious

Steamed raisin pudding, or spotted dick, as it's also called, is a traditional English dessert cake that is steamed instead of baked. It can be portioned into 8 ramekins or steamed in a large bowl and turned out as a whole cake. If you're using the ramekins, rather than spooning in the batter, you may want to transfer it to a large pastry bag and pipe it in—this will keep things neat and produce evenly proportioned cakes.

For authentic flavor and texture in this dish, the meat should be sliced very thinly. To firm up the steak and make it easier to slice, place it in the freezer for 30 minutes to 1 hour first, and use a very sharp knife.

When adding your hot liquids to the bowl while whisking, it helps to stabilize your bowl by rolling a kitchen towel up into a log, wrapping it into a coil as wide as the bowl's base, then setting the bowl onto it to nest it in place. This recipe makes twice as much pastry cream as is needed for the Pavlovas . Leftover cream can be used to make èclairs, cream puffs, fruit tarts, or breakfast pastries.

The rich, intense flavor base of this traditional Malaysian dish comes from the rempah, or curry paste, that is made from scratch and infused into the oil before cooking the remaining ingredients. This recipe uses whole chickens that have been broken down into 10 pieces (2 drumsticks, 2 thighs, 2 wings, and 4 breast pieces each). If you're not comfortable cutting up a chicken yourself, you can ask your butcher to do it or buy chicken pieces.

This recipe originally accompanied Curried Lamb Samosas with Apricot Chutney .

This recipe originally accompanied Mushroom and Thyme Risotto Cakes with Roasted Tomato and Arugula Salad . If you're not keeping kosher or serving this salad with meat, you could top it with crumbled blue cheese.

This recipe originally accompanied Jalapeño Popper Fritters with Tomato Salsa .

A "buck" is a traditional type of drink containing a spirit, lemon or lime juice, and ginger ale. Julie Reiner, the owner-mixologist of New York's Clover Club cocktail bar, serves this version during the holiday season. It has a Scotch whisky base (she prefers the light flavor of Famous Grouse, but you can use any brand) and a balanced mix of autumnal and winter flavors: pear, allspice (infused into a simple syrup before making the cocktail), ginger, and cinnamon. The recipe makes more allspice syrup than you'll need, but the extra will keep for up to three weeks and is delicious in glögg or a Tom & Jerry It can also be served as a nonalcoholic beverage, sans Scotch.

Spice up winter nights with this variation on a popular bar snack. In our version, the cream cheese is frozen and grated and the jalapeños are diced and folded into the batter to create a chunky, spicy fritter.

If fresh peas are out of season, look for high-quality frozen brands such as Cascadian Farm.

In order to be kosher when served with meat, the risotto in these cakes is dairy-free. It gets its creaminess exclusively from the starchy rice, so it's important to cook it slowly, stirring continuously, to release as much starch as possible. If you don't need to avoid dairy, you could replace half the vegetable oil with melted unsalted butter and stir in 1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese with the mushrooms and thyme for extra flavor.

If you don't want to go to the trouble of roasting and peeling hazelnuts, you can substitute chopped walnuts here. Simply toast them briefly in a dry pan (and let them cool) to unlock their full flavor. This recipe offers a choice of finishing touches; if you serve the fritters in hot batches straight from the fryer, you can invite guests to dust their own with their choice of topping.

This recipe is perfect for a family reunion or any large summer gathering. If your party is being held at a park, be sure to bring charcoal, a chimney starter, oil for the grill grate, and a sturdy grill brush. These chicken breasts cook quickly, but let the coals burn down to medium-hot to cut down on pesky flare-ups.

Camper English, a San Francisco–based writer, developed this adaptation of a classic drink recipe to showcase the use of absinthe. In this case, because absinthe has a very strong flavor, the recipe doesn't call for much. In fact, a large number of cocktails including the Sazerac, Corpse Reviver #2, and even some tiki drinks call for just a rinse of absinthe. It is always poured into the glass, swirled, and then discarded. But still, it adds a layer of complexity to the final cocktail.

Camper English, a San Francisco–based writer, adapted this classic drink recipe to showcase the use of absinthe. This is basically an easy way to transform the well-known Absinthe Drip into an iced drink. To make the basic Drip, simply add an ounce of absinthe to a glass, set a sugar cube atop a slotted spoon over the glass, and slowly drip icy-cold water over the cube until it dissolves. Those absinthe fountains that you see in old pictures are full of cold water, not absinthe, and allow boozers to dilute the drink to their preferred level. The absinthe in the glass will "louche," or turn cloudy. Add three to five times as much water as absinthe, to taste.

The Chrysanthemum can be found calling for varying proportions of ingredients in different recipe books—the brands of absinthe and vermouth chosen will greatly influence the drink's flavor profile.