Beverages

My favorite recipe for the Bloody emerges from years of experimentation. Think Jonas Salk behind a bar. What I have come up with in my lab is:

Baker's sugar, a favorite of pastry chefs, is also called superfine sugar. It measures the same as regular but dissolves more quickly. It's available at some supermarkets. You can also make your own by whizzing granulated sugar in a food processor until powdery.

What to drink: A red Rhône wine like Châteauneuf-du-Pape or Gigondas, with bold fruit flavors and earthy notes.

Editor's note: This recipe was developed by Shane Philip Coffey, the chef at Alias restaurant on New York City's Lower East Side. This rich and luscious dessert came about because I needed a special dessert for a St. Patrick's Day tasting menu. I was on a mission to use my favorite beer, Guinness, something I consider to be one of Ireland's gifts to the world. As the 17th of March drew closer, I looked for inspiration at my favorite Irish pub in Manhattan. As I savored my pint, I saw a Guinness poster that said, "My Goodness, My Guinness!" It was like an angel sang in my ear: "What if you combined a dark chocolate pudding and Guinness, topped it with whipped cream lightly flavored with Guinness, and then put it in a glass to make it look just like a pint of the black?" After a few failed attempts, I got it just right. Make the effort to find a good dark chocolate (about 70 to 72 percent cacao). The better the chocolate, the creamier the dessert. And, unless you have an Irish pub next door where you can pull it straight from the tap, a 14.9-ounce can of Guinness Draught works best.

In addition to its traditional role on the Seder plate, this charoset is delicious as a condiment for duck or roast beef.

These warm little drinks are delicious — you may want to make a double batch.

Crêpes au cidre
These are not the thin, delicate crêpes you may be used to. Made with baking powder, they are rustic-style: heartier and a little thicker — and perfectly suited to soaking up plenty of sweet syrup. Hard cider (fermented apple cider) can be found in the beer section of most supermarkets.

Donald D. Wilson of Sidney, British Columbia, writes: "Your recipe for coffee fruitcake ("The Way We Were," October 2005) reminded me of something our family calls Aunt Maggie's Boiled Raisin Cake. My wife, Frances, claimed she could make the cake just as well as her Aunt Maggie. Frances and I have been married for over 55 years, but guess who has made the cake during all that time?" Raisins, currants, and candied orange peel bring bursts of sweetness to this rich coffee-flavored cake.

Condensed milk is the secret ingredient that gives this popular Spanish dessert its silky texture.

Why this once popular drink has faded into obscurity is a mystery to us. It's relatively light but packed with flavor, and it deserves to reclaim its place in the punchtheon.

A bit of cardamom gives this dessert its exotic flavor. The pudding needs to chill about five hours before serving, so be sure to plan ahead.

This chai is a knockout on its own, but gin adds subtle flavors that complement the chai's complexity. (Needless to say, since Kashmir is predominantly Muslim, alcohol would not be added there.) Nuts in a cocktail seemed a little odd at first, and it's fine to strain them out before serving, but most of us found them addictive.

Light and fluffy, these impressive desserts look, smell, and taste extraordinary — meringue gives them a cloudlike texture, while quince adds a delicious fragrance and beautiful pink hue. And they're very manageable for a small dinner party if you make your crêpes and prepare the quince ahead (see cooks' note, below). Bring them both to room temperature when you sit down to dinner; when it's time for dessert, you'll only need to beat your egg whites and assemble the soufflés for baking.

Just the thing to warm up a cold February night. Lighten up: Use light whipping cream and omit the chocolate to cut calories and fat.