Beverages

If you're also making the slow-cooked onion salad , you can cook the cauliflower for this recipe while your onions finish roasting. Steam the mussels and cod after the onions are done, just before assembling your salad.

This simple Chinese preparation enhances the briny flavor of cockles. If cockles are hard to find in your area, you can substitute other small hard-shelled clams (though steaming time will vary with the type and size).

Relish each step of preparing coffee- and chile-braised short ribs: Searing a brown crust on the ribs before they bake adds a deep caramelized flavor; sautéing the aromatics (onions, peppers, garlic) in the drippings makes the sauce base really fragrant.

While any yeast dough can be kneaded by hand, this one is done in a heavy-duty mixer with a dough-hook attachment — it's the fastest, easiest way to get the best texture. Use a clip-on deep-fry thermometer to gauge the oil temperature when frying these doughnuts: too low and they'll absorb oil, turning leaden and soggy; too high and they'll burn before the insides are cooked through.

Heat leftover apple cider with a cinnamon stick on the stove top. It makes a great warm drink—and instant aromatherapy.

There are several stories about how this drink got its name, but one of the most common, from the 1950s, is that American oil rig workers would add vodka to canned orange juice, which they opened and stirred with their screwdrivers.

This punch — containing rum, Cognac, and peach brandy — is potent. If it packs a bit too much of a wallop for your taste, you can dilute it with cold black tea, a common mixer for this particular punch, or with seltzer water, for a bit of fizz. Some punch bowls may not be big enough to accommodate the size ice block we call for — feel free to use other freezing containers that are more suitably shaped. And though the block is a classic part of this recipe, you can, of course, simply serve the punch in a pitcher over ice cubes.

Try this refreshing drink on a sizzling-hot summer day. Add a splash of aquavit (we like Linie brand), then serve on the rocks with a parsley sprig, and you have a Norwegian Mary. As with any fresh-squeezed juice, this is best served the day it's made.

Sliced strawberries infuse raspberry brandy with fresh berry flavor, and the strained liqueur is topped off with Champagne.

This drink was dreamed up in Los Angeles in the 1940s by businessman John Martin, who was desperately trying to sell Smirnoff vodka. It so happened that Jack Morgan, owner of the Cock'n Bull, was trying to sell a ginger beer he had recently concocted. The two got together and tracked down a company that had a surplus of mugs, and they had a logo of a kicking mule stamped onto them. A drink was born ...

The tangy flavor of seasonal rhubarb complements the taste of gin surprisingly well. You can double the quantities for a bigger batch.

A vanilla bean is an extravagance that lends a note of sophistication to this drink, but extract is a fine substitute.