Beverages

Mushrooms simmered in sherry and sweet and savory seasonings—an elegant, yet hearty sauce.

This way of cooking eggplant makes the flesh soft and creamy. The miso glaze sweetens it with a Japanese flair.

Warm and aromatic—like bouillabaisse without all the fuss. Mussels are best eaten right away, so call everyone to the table when you put the mussels into the pot.

Monkfish is perfect for this recipe because it doesn’t fall apart. It has a wonderfully tender and succulent texture similar to lobster, but monkfish is less expensive. This dish is also good with other types of fish and other kinds of seafood, such as scallops, shrimp, or lobster.

Many of us think to eat creamed pearl onions only once or twice a year at holiday feasts. We thought it would be fun to turn the traditional side dish into a soup for any day of the week.

Beer and Cheddar aren’t typical ingredients for risotto, but this dish sure is good!

We think this inventive adaptation of a classic Italian dish is so good that it will soon show up on menus in the old neighborhoods. You never know.

We used pears in this ice cream’wich, but many other fruits would work well, too, such as apples, figs, or peaches. Because the fruit is poached, it won’t harden in the same way that raw fruit does when it is frozen. And not to worry if you do not like rum: you can simply leave it out of the ice cream recipe, yielding a simple and tasty vanilla ice cream.

Perennially popular at Craft are the short ribs braised in red wine. For our ’wichcraft sandwiches, though, we wanted something a bit different, so we chose to braise the short ribs in dark ale with horseradish. The light pickling of the vegetables is so quick there is no time for fermentation; the vegetables retain their crunch and acidity, which contrasts well with the richness of the meat.

This is a sandwich that was so good we had to take it off the menu! Conceptually similar to a cheese steak, it was offered as a pressed sandwich, and when too many people ordered it at once, we had a traffic jam on our premises. So while you can no longer find it at ’wichcraft, you can make it for yourself. Flank steak is wonderfully easy to work with because it’s lean—there’s no waste, and it has an excellent texture for braising. There are many schools of thought about the right wine to cook with. Some advocate cooking with the best wine, or at least a wine that you would want to drink; others believe in using the cheapest wine available. We suggest going with the wine that you can afford to use for cooking or the one you have lying around. At home, whenever he has some leftover red wine at the end of a meal, if he doesn’t drink it the next day, Sisha puts it in a container in the freezer. He keeps adding to that container, and when he needs wine for braising, there it is. The blend is never the same twice—and always good.

The fried onions in this recipe are sliced very thin and coated with flour to make them crisp. We wanted them to be a bit tart, but the more customary buttermilk just didn’t take the onions where we wanted them to go. So we first soak the onions in vinegar, then flour and fry them; this way they have the acidity we were after. (Think salt-and-vinegar potato chips.) The radish salad adds some heat to the equation, balancing the ensemble.

I find that soy milk most closely mimics the creamy consistency and richness of traditional hot chocolate, but I know some people don’t care for its nutty flavor. If you fall into that camp, rice milk or oat milk will yield equally delicious results. If you choose to substitute either of these alternatives, though, use just 3 tablespoons agave nectar, or your hot chocolate will be far too sweet.

If ever we cross paths, there’s a 99 percent chance you’ll find me sipping a yerba mate tea. The South American beverage quickly became part of my routine once I discovered that it lifts my energy level without the highs and lows of coffee. Come summer, I ice it, stir in some Agave Lemonade (page 133), and relax with the day’s saving grace: the BabyCakes NYC version of an Arnold Palmer. If you’re confined to the kitchen and have a blender handy, toss in the ingredients, add ice, pulse for a minute or so, and sip your way through the afternoon.

I’m sure it would be nice to summer in the Hamptons or spend weekends bronzing poolside on the rooftop of a trendy hotel in Manhattan, but the fact is there’s baking to be done. To banish the summertime blues, we at the bakery take turns whipping up our own interpretations of the classic vanilla shake. Use the recipe below as the basis for your own adventures in milk shake mixology. My favorite rendition came about when Kylie, part of the bakery’s prized counter staff, added a piece of chocolate crumb to the mix and created the most amazing brownie shake in the history of frozen beverages. (Thanks, Kylie!) You can do her one better by adding chocolate chip cookies, fresh mint, or—gasp!—a slice of apple pie.

Until the newest wave of mega-size frozen yogurt franchises catch on to the fact that even those of us who can’t have dairy would still like a frosty, probiotic-packed soft-serve now and then, we’ll just have to make do. And by “making do” I mean blending a chilled masterpiece that will have all the teenyboppers banging down your door for a taste. Tell them to take a number.

Inspired by my daily “free lemonade” that I used to make at the old KFC in grade school, here’s a recipe so simple and refreshing that you’ll be shocked there are only four ingredients!

I’m all for mindful eating—scanning each and every nutritional label, chewing each bite of food twenty times before swallowing—but we all know there comes a time when we want to slide into a pair of elastic-waisted pants and go to town. When that urge arises, I, for one, succumb. Composed of three of the bakery’s most popular items—frosting, brownies, and cookies—this extraordinary layered cake is an indulgence that would make even the lovely Paula Deen blush. Right with you, Ms. Deen!

This coconut cream is light and fluffy, but it has a truly rich body, which comes from the coconut curd base. You can use this cream—or even the curd on its own—as a filling for tarts and top with fresh berries, mango, or papaya. Serve the leftover curd on toast or toasted brioche.

This brightly flavored jelly would make a delicious layer in a birthday cake. Pour it into the cake pan you’re using for the cake and let it set.

There were always barrels of pickles at the flea markets my parents took me to when I was growing up. My dad loved half-sours; my mom loved sweet pickles; I loved both. Mom would cut both kinds in half and stick them together, so I’ d get two flavors in every bite. This is my homage to those days, made with one of my favorite ingredients.