Beverages

Sweet crabmeat and sweet peas make a great match in this springlike risotto.

This festive bubbly white sangria comes with a snack: Each glass is filled with sweet, fresh fruit. The recipe calls for Licor43, a Spanish liqueur that's flavored with vanilla.

Adapted from Pichet Ong's P*ONG restaurant in New York. Aleppo pepper is a Syrian red pepper with a bit of smokiness and just a faint touch of heat.

The luscious purple color of this drink is a stunner! Taste a berry first to check for sweetness. If it's not supersweet, add a tablespoon of sugar when muddling the berries.

Flavored creams (rose cream, geranium cream) served with berries are common in Britain. This take on the classic is a mix of drained yogurt and fromage blanc (fresh cream cheese). The soft, not too-sweet creams taste like a cross between an American-style pudding and a panna cotta. Keep in mind that the desserts need to chill at least eight hours.

From piña coladas to rum and coconut water, the fruit of the coco palm seems a natural pairing with the elixir of the cane reed. Here is a different twist on the rum and coconut theme—one that can be made in a larger quantity and kept on the sideboard or the bar until ready to serve. It only gets better.

Soon after the invention of the home blender, the machines were whirring about turning out all manner of cocktails including a raft of fruit-infused daiquiris. It might seem that strawberries are not Caribbean fruit, but anyone who has traveled to Haiti knows that in Kenskoff in the hills above Port-au-Prince and Petionville, the climate is cool enough to support strawberries and they grow there—small, sweet, and delicious.

This savory, fresh, and colorful drink was inspired by Adam Seger of Nacional 27. It has its roots in the Bloody Mary but skips the vodka, subbing in cachaça, a distant cousin of rum. Raid the summer garden for cherry tomatoes and basil in season!

Carbonnade is the quintessential Belgian comfort food; this recipe’s caramelized onions, brown sugar, and brown beer make the sweet stew addictive. Chef Palombino also recommends making this carbonnade with any muscular cut of beef that's good for stewing, such as skirt and hanger steaks.

These thin, anise-flavored pancakes are similar to French crepes.

Chimay "À La Bière" cheese is a Belgian smooth semisoft cheese that is washed with Chimay beer. It has a pungent aroma and mild flavor. Look for it in specialty cheese shops or on amazon.com or igourmet.com, or try another cheese with a beer-washed rind, such as German Temptin cheese.

Mussels are a quick and simple dish that is protein-rich and nutrient-dense. Don't forget to serve steamed mussels with a spoon so as not to miss any of the beery, creamy, herb-flavored juice.

Biscochitos are the best thing to get with your coffee when you eat breakfast at a Mexican bakery. Mi Tierra makes my favorite version of these rich Mexican cookies. Sorry, there is no substitute for the lard—it's the secret ingredient!

I pair the pecorino with a homemade fig paste that takes a little while to make—only because you have to let the figs dry in a warm oven—but is an absolutely spectacular condiment. There's no point in making just a little, so the recipe makes about three times as much as you need here, but that's okay; if well wrapped, it keeps in the refrigerator for about 2 weeks and goes well with other cheeses, meats, and poultry.

For chicken and turkey cutlets, boneless pork chops and tenderloin, steaks, and burgers. You can't offer a series of pan sauces without a mushroom one. I have chosen shiitakes, since they sauté more quickly than other mushrooms. Rather than using cream or butter, enrich this sauce with fresh goat cheese.

Although the method is very similar to the classic marinated and fried chickens of France, the marinade here has a particularly Greek aroma with its oregano, juniper berries, and coriander seeds. The marinade is also lovely on grilled chicken.