Flour

A flavorful, colorful vegetarian stew that's as beautiful as it is easy to make. Rice on the side makes the dish complete and soaks up all those great flavors.

Try this for breakfast or as a side dish.

These tasty cornmeal cakes can be found grilled, baked, or fried in several Latin American countries. We love this Colombian version—the outside fries up crisp and golden, while the cheesy middle stays wonderfully moist. They can be eaten as a side dish or paired with hot chocolate for an afternoon snack.

Tamales—meat or vegetable fillings surrounded by masa dough and steamed in softened corn-husk packets—are a Latin American staple, and this rendition cleverly showcases corn in three distinct forms. Kernels of fresh sweet corn brighten up a dough made from corn tortilla flour. (Adding cornmeal to store-bought masa flour helps mimic the texture of fresh tamale dough, a trick we picked up from Magda Bogin at the Cocinar Mexicano cooking school in the town of Tepoztlán.) Poblano chiles add a touch of heat, but it's the time on the grill that gives the tamales real fire. The husks develop a light char, and the smoky flavor penetrates the tamale, accenting the corn in all its dimensions beautifully.

In Mexico, a quesadilla is more like what we think of as a grilled cheese sandwich, but with tortillas instead of bread. In Guatemala, these sweet little cheese things are like buttery cupcakes, and they are baked as special-occasion treats for children who've had a good report card or lost a tooth.

Perfect for a Sunday-afternoon baking project, these light, crisp crackers take an hour to make (okay, maybe longer if you have a little helper).

Feel free to swap in store-bought pizza dough here—the most important part of the recipe is grilling the pies.

Cornmeal gives these crisp rounds a sandy texture that makes them an ideal cookie for ice cream sandwiches. They're also delicious all by themselves, or with a tall glass of iced tea or lemonade.

Catfish stays tender and moist when baked in a crunchy crust of bread crumbs and cornmeal. A take on traditional New Orleans rémoulade adds a piquant punch.

These chewy oatmeal cookies are spicy with ginger and not too sweet. Look for candied ginger that's cut into cubes and is not dusted with sugar — it'll be more tender and easier to chop.

This recipe was created by chef Dan Barber of Blue Hill restaurant in New York City and Blue Hill at Stone Barns in Pocantico Hills, New York. It's part of a special menu he created for Epicurious's Wine.Dine.Donate program. For this Summer dessert, Chef Barber suggests experimenting with any seasonal berry.

Go ahead, give in! After all, you can feel good about polishing off this irresistible dessert because it features antioxidant-packed fresh fruit.

This recipe was created by Melissa Murphy of the Sweet Melissa Patisseries in Brooklyn, New York. To make the Lemon-Raspberry Wedding Cake, make this recipe three times. Use the first batch to make two 9-inch-diameter cakes. Use the second batch to make one 12-inch-diameter cake and one 6-inch-diameter cake. Use the third batch to make a second 12-inch-diameter cake and a second 6-inch-diameter cake.

There's enough dough for one more pizza, so freeze the extra. The vital wheat gluten flour is high in protein and helps create a chewy crust. It's sold at some supermarkets and natural foods stores. Bread flour will also give great results.

These crisp golden crêpes, filled with shrimp, pork, and vegetables, are both delicious and fun to eat. Simply wrap each crêpe in a lettuce leaf, tuck in fresh herbs like mint and basil, and dip it in the sweet-and-sour sauce.

Once a favorite breakfast of the Chinese, this dish might more accurately be called a daikon scramble. But the Chinese words for carrot and daikon are almost the same, and "cake" refers to the way the rice flour binds the ingredients.

Amber likes to serve these pancakes for brunch. Diced fresh pineapple would be a delicious alternative to the bananas.

Several traditional southern themes — pecans, Caribbean spices, and, of course, thick, tangy cream cheese frosting — come together in this gorgeous layer cake that's both down-home and elegant.