Gluten Free

There are all kinds of radishes available at the markets in the spring—use any shape or color that looks good to you.

Start this recipe one day ahead; the pork is best if it is left to marinate overnight.

This dish is a great way to serve eggs for a group. Take the eggs out of the oven when the whites are slightly undercooked; carryover cooking will finish them.

Creamy without being heavy, a dollop of lemony yogurt brings the dish together.

"This spicy butter has a built-in garnish; it turns into a sauce as it melts over your steak, leaving the herbs on top for looks and extra flavor." —Brad Leone, test kitchen assistant

The pleasantly earthy flavor of black rice pairs well with the bright acidity of this vinaigrette. If you can't find it, use wild rice instead.

The slight tang of this dessert is complemented by the sweet and sour flavor of the vibrant topping. Because the panna cotta can be made so far in advance, it's an ideal choice for a party.

Almost nothing makes me happier than buttercream at the perfect temperature, a small offset spatula, and a beautiful cake waiting to be frosted. There are different types of buttercreams, but I prefer the Italian-meringue version, perhaps because its consistency is very similar to thick oil paint, Thiebaud's medium in Display Cakes. If you're making one of the variations, ensure that whatever you're adding is at room temperature and incorporate it slowly.

Ellsworth Kelly's enormous sculpture, Stele 1, was the anchor in the Rooftop Garden when we opened our café in 2009. A 1-inch-thick oblong steel plate weighing seven tons and rising eighteen feet into the air perched on one narrow end, the sculpture seemed to defy gravity. The deep rust-colored patina of the Corten steel was an incredible contrast against gray volcanic stone walls of the Rooftop Garden and the stunning art deco Pacific Bell building that towers over the east side of the museum. Of course, I thought the piece looked like an enormous slab of chocolate. Trying to figure out a dessert based on the sculpture, I played with various truffle recipes and cakes baked in oblong pans, but nothing was giving me the rich matte color and texture of the weathered steel. One day I was chatting with the museum's brilliant and witty social media guru, Ian Padgham, about Stele 1, and I asked him what the sculpture reminded him of. "A Fudgsicle, of course!" he said. And, so it was. I found some silicone ice-pop molds in the shape of the sculpture and developed a creamy, rich chocolatey base with a touch of natural cocoa powder to give the frozen fudge pops the reddish matte finish of Corten steel.

I use simple syrup for keeping cake layers extra moist. Plain simple syrup works perfectly well on its own, but when I have used vanilla bean pods on hand, I like to steep them into the syrup (feel free to keep them stored in the syrup indefinitely). It's an unnecessary step, for sure, but I always welcome a little extra pop of vanilla flavor in my cakes.

These wraps work well as a dinner party dish—either as a starter or as a main course with side dishes, such as warm potato salad or sautéed leeks with zucchini, alongside. You can assemble them beforehand and then bake them when your guests arrive, making for a more relaxing evening for you.

A delightful option for a mid-morning snack or brunch, our Teff Banana Bread is also gluten-free and dairy-free. We slice ours with a serrated knife, first lengthwise down the middle and then across into 12 slices, for a total of 24 one-ounce servings per loaf.

Everyone needs one quick, easy, go-to recipe that looks and tastes like a million bucks. These eggs work like a charm: the fragrant truffle oil adds rich, sexy appeal, and a sprinkle of black lava salt lends an elegant finish. Make them super bling by adding a tiny flake of edible 24k gold leaf to each.

Kids and grown-ups alike will be charmed by the Seussian whimsy of these delicious deviled eggs; Sam-I-Am won't have to ask you twice whether you'd like these! If you have a favorite pesto recipe, by all means, use it in the filling.

Makes enough for a standard doughnut recipe.

Boiled peanuts, perhaps more than any other Southern snack, inspire a kind of intense cultural loyalty, one that crosses all lines of class and race. That may be why we missed them so when we moved away from Charleston to colleges in Massachusetts, and it's why, when we began to sell Southern foods by mail order after college (our liberal arts degrees be damned), we used the boiled peanut as the keystone in our little mail-order foods catalogue, which we named "The Lee Bros. Boiled Peanuts Catalogue" (boiledpeanuts.com). Boiled peanuts are associated with the outdoors, and can be purchased in the Charleston area by the side of the road from vendors set up in vacant lots and sandy strips on the way to the beach, adjacent to the ballpark, or at fairgrounds. They are prepared in homes as well, but rarely seen in a restaurant setting (with a few exceptions these days: Hubee-D's, Hominy Grill, The Bar at Husk, and The Wreck). Like the ungainly name, the damp boiled peanut itself presents a few obstacles to universal enjoyment. Not everyone likes their distinctive grassy flavor or the clammy wetness on the fingers as one picks them apart—and they achieve some exclusivity by being challenging in that respect. Judged on flavor alone, with an open mind, they are divine. And the smell of peanuts boiling is, to us, part of the pleasure of the process. Our grandmother's landlady, the late Elizabeth Jenkins Young, once remarked to us (in her sonorous variant of the Charleston accent, with a sea island cadence from an upbringing on Edisto Island) that the smell of our peanuts boiling on Gran's stove reminded her of a "sweet potato gone sour." Not that she didn't like them; she proudly displayed her I BRAKE FOR BOILED PEANUTS bumper sticker in the back window of the blue VW Rabbit she won at the 1983 Spoleto Festival auction. But the earthy quality of the peanut, which grows underground and is full of minerals, and the sweetness of it, does in fact suggest the basic character of a sweet potato. When peanuts are freshly dug, and refrigerated like a fresh vegetable rather than dried, they are called "green" peanuts; and these, when available (usually in the summer months and into the fall), are worth seeking out for their extra tenderness—cut about 4 hours off the boiling time below—and subtlety of flavor. Some green peanuts will be slightly immature, and like a soft-shell crab, may be eaten whole, shell and all.

The secret ingredient in this satisfying soup is a small amount of cornmeal (polenta), just enough to thicken the broth slightly. It balances the substantial sausage and greens for a soothing cold-weather dish. Aleppo pepper comes from the town of Aleppo in northern Syria; the flaky crushed sun-dried pepper has a slightly smoky flavor. It's become easier to find in gourmet markets, but if necessary, you can substitute red pepper flakes.