Gourmet

Inspired by the street food in the grand plaza of Marrakech, food editor Ruth Cousineau recasts the sandwich.

Homey and old-fashioned, this comforting dish can be on the table in a flash, thanks to store-bought rotisserie chicken and biscuits made with self-rising flour.

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.

Usually broiled or grilled, flank steak is cooked on the stove here, then topped with a garlicky rosemary and mushroom ragout.

Salty, sweet, and tangy, the onion and pickle butter stands up beautifully to the rich oiliness of mackerel. Aside from their distinctive taste, the fish fillets have the bonus of broiling in just minutes.

For this lighter-than-air Austrian soufflé, we've added tart lingonberry sauce, but any preserves or jam will work.

This speedy version of the long-cooked classic is light and brothy, but it's still substantial and flavorful enough — thanks to lamb, kale, and barley — to be a great winter meal.

Tired of chili con carne? This warming pozole-inspired stew is a welcome departure. Its spiciness depends on the heat of the jalapeños you use.

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.

Cornish hens have a distinctive, delicate flavor that can be easily overpowered. Perhaps surprisingly, the extroverted combination of olives and capers doesn't drown out the meat, but gives it an unexpectedly earthy and savory quality.

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.

Roasting the heads of garlic results in a less-pungent aioli — a nice quality in an appetizer, since too much raw garlic can hijack the palate for the rest of the evening.

Locro de papas This traditional Andean soup, warm with potatoes, milk, and cheese and bright with cumin and avocado, may be the ultimate comfort food.

Encebollado de pescado This hearty stew combines simplicity with deep, distinct flavors.

This ice cream doesn't hit you over the head with the flavor of chestnuts. Mellow and creamy, it's great on its own — though when we're not having it with the Tarte Tatin, we like to serve it with a delicate butter cookie.

Palmer wanders out behind the Dry Creek Kitchen to pick the apples for this tart. He generally goes for a combination of Macouns, Pippins, and/or Gravensteins, but we used easy-to-find Golden Delicious and were very pleased with the results. Palmer likes to serve this French classic warm, with a scoop of chestnut ice cream and crisp strips of candied bacon alongside. The three elements make for a textural symphony, but this caramelized beauty is also fantastic paired with a humble scoop of store-bought vanilla — or even by itself.

Artichokes speak of indulgence, partly because preparing them involves a degree of fuss. Luckily, they can be cooked ahead of time.

The labor is minimal: Soften the butter and mix in herbs and spices, then chill. But it pays off in so many ways — the butter provides a richness to the pan sauce for the filet mignon and an exotic finishing for the accompanying artichokes and haricots verts.