Food Processor

Think of it as a giant potato pancake, or latke, made even more savory with the addition of cheese. This skillet-fried cake of Yukon Golds, cut into neat wedges, is elegant enough for guests and versatile enough to serve any time of day.

This recipe makes more than enough pesto for Chef Ryan Hardy's Artichoke and green garlic soup . Leftovers, which freeze wonderfully, are great with pasta.

An unusual pesto made from pistachios and cilantro gives the chicken Middle Eastern flavor.

This dough is easy to handle and will give you a crispy crust that's also tender.

Wasabi peas are dried green peas that are covered in a spicy coating made from wasabi powder. They can be found at some supermarkets and natural foods stores, and at Asian markets. Serve this dish with a bowl of steamed jasmine rice.

Look for panko in the Asian foods section of the supermarket.

The combination of potatoes and cheese just can't be beat, especially here, in this rich, filling soup.

This dish makes delicious use of the warm spices prevalent throughout island cooking. The chicken needs time to marinate, so start the recipe ahead.

This is the easy way to make ginger beer, where the ginger is simply soaked — just slightly fermented — for 24 hours (another method requires up to a five-day fermentation). Ginger beer is one of Jamaica's most popular soft drinks and is sold practically everywhere, from the supermarket to roadside stands. This drink is wonderfully refreshing. If the ginger heat is too much, tame it with more crushed ice and some club soda.

Serve with cucumber rounds, red bell pepper strips, and sticks of jicama.

Inspired by croquettes, these brightly spiced fish cakes will transport you to sunnier shores. The recipe takes advantage of the large flake and meatiness of hake to give crab cakes a run for their money.

Cornish hens have a distinctive, delicate flavor that can be easily overpowered. Perhaps surprisingly, the extroverted combination of olives and capers doesn't drown out the meat, but gives it an unexpectedly earthy and savory quality.

Homemade ravioli are well worth the effort, and making them is the perfect task to share with a kitchen full of cooks (even novices can get in on the fun). Mixing the pasta dough is a breeze in the food processor, but if you don't have one, don't worry — we've given the method for making the dough by hand as well. A brown-butter pine-nut sauce is light enough to let your efforts on the pasta really shine through.

Roasting the heads of garlic results in a less-pungent aioli — a nice quality in an appetizer, since too much raw garlic can hijack the palate for the rest of the evening.

The garlic-nut sauce known as tarator, which sometimes also includes tahini, is a classic Turkish accompaniment to mussels and fried fish as well as vegetables. Here, it's used with cauliflower that is sliced — rather than separated into florets — so that it can be more easily browned, which gives it a nutty flavor that complements the tarator perfectly.

Smoked turkey drumsticks can be found in the meat section of most supermarkets. If unavailable, substitute smoked ham hocks. WHAT TO DRINK: A pale ale with a spicy finish, like Sierra Nevada.