Starter

This versatile salsa also pairs well with scallops or roast fish.

Hominy, or hulled corn kernels, is the backbone of this Mexican soup (pronounced poh-SOH-lay), which can easily be made vegetarian by using vegetable stock and omitting the pork. Either way, it's best garnished with lots of cilantro, cheese, and lime and served with warm flour tortillas.

Cold soup and hot shrimp—this is a fantastic combination on a warm night. Blending the honeyed sweetness of this summer melon with intensely savory vegetables makes this dish incredibly refreshing. And I give the hot, spicy shrimp a hit of freshness by grilling finely sliced mint right onto them.

Thai salads are full of crisp vegetables and fruits mixed with intense condiments. "It's not about just tossing the ingredients together," says Ricker. "It's about working them into the dressing," which can also be used to dress green-papaya and cabbage slaws.

If you can only find regular coconut milk, buy 2 cans and use the thick cream that's floating at the top. The coconut cream will caramelize during cooking, leaving sweet brown flecks in the rice.

Rustic yellow pea soup goes upscale with a foie gras garnish.

Sip this beefy, faintly sweet broth as is, or, to make it even heartier, simmer diced root vegetables and/or little pastas in it.

Our microwave polenta technique puts an end to nonstop stirring.

Use this dressing to add zip to broccolini, also sold as baby broccoli or Asparation.

There are two categories of entrée in Thailand: dishes served with rice, and noodle dishes, which are presented as one-pot meals and often eaten on the go. Rice noodles cook more quickly than wheat pasta and are the perfect neutral vehicle for intense Thai flavors. This Pad Thai is not the dish from the neighborhood take-out joint. "It ain't made with chicken," says Ricker, whose traditional take—pleasantly funky with fish sauce and preserved radish and a touch sour from tamarind—is meant to be eaten in the evening as a stand-alone dish.

Gently poach shrimp, then marinate them in the rémoulade for at least 2 hours or overnight to allow the flavors to meld.

Our fresh take on the classic Moroccan salad pairs shaved fennel and red onion with assorted beets and oranges for color contrast.

Duck fat makes for a special treat; you can also use clarified butter or ghee, available at specialty foods stores.

My grandmother passed this recipe down to my mom and she then passed it on to me. It's a casserole of pure comfort. First, bitter endive is simmered until sweet, then wrapped in savory ham and smothered with a creamy nutmeg béchamel. Gruyère tops it off before it's baked until bubbly and golden.

Butter lettuce, grown hydroponically, is a great way to add green to your cold-weather menus. This quick and easy salad is so tasty that Mary-Frances Heck, Bon Appétit's Associate Food Editor, throws some leftover roast chicken on top and calls it a meal.

Ginger has anti-inflammatory properties and can also calm an upset stomach. We love the heat it adds to this soup.

To save yourself some chopping, look for bags of mixed, pre-cut braising greens, available at some supermarkets. (Buy spinach separately for the gremolata.) Serve with warm bread for a filling main course.

I can just hear someone shouting "Oh, no, not quinoa again," but this is really good. I made it for friends who cannot eat onions or garlic. Looking around for a solution, I found that the freezer had two plastic containers of Boletus mushrooms that I had picked, cooked, and frozen in the summer. If—as is probable—fresh Boletus are not available, use another good mushroom. Even if you don't forage as I do, you will find an expanding selection of flavorful mushrooms in shops—labeled "wild" only to differentiate them from regular mushrooms. They need not be frozen. In fact, they will need to be defrosted if frozen.
Don't worry if this makes more than you need. My friends took home the remains, and so will yours.

You can buy premade Chinese dumpling wrappers from any Asian grocery store, and in most cases they work as well and taste as good as homemade wrappers. However, Shanghai Soup Dumplings should be made with homemade wrappers or they will not hold their soup when steaming. If you are making wrappers for Shanghai Soup Dumplings, try to keep the center of the wrappers thicker than the edges when rolling the dough disks.

It is no coincidence that in Chinese, the word for "family" (jia) is the same as the word for "home"; home is a central part of family life in China. Parents, children, mothers-in-law, grandparents, and other family members often all live together for generations, taking care of one another. Jiaozi, or classic Chinese dumplings, is a dish that celebrates this supportive community. Often made at holidays, these labor-intensive dumplings are prepared in an assembly line, with the greatest to the least in the family all having a hand in their production. The process starts when wheat dough is kneaded, rolled flat into teacup-size circles, and stacked as dumpling wrappers. The next person in the line spoons a pork or vegetable filling (depending on the recipe) in the center of each wrap before passing them on to the "crimper." My first experience making jiaozi was at the house of one of my professors, Mr. Zhang. Having been invited to dinner, I was surprised when Mr. Zhang put me to work in the kitchen. I was the "crimper," charged with folding and crimping the edge of the dumpling wrappers to form plump, sealed pockets of goodness ready to be thrown into a boiling pot. That night, in the room full of brothers, sisters, cousins, and grandparents who were not my own, all of us working together to make jiaozi, I felt more like family than simply a guest in the Zhang home. Invite your friends and family over and put them to work. We like to make more dumplings than we can eat and freeze the extra for later. If you throw all the freshly made dumplings into a plastic bag, they will freeze stuck together into one giant block of dumplings. To avoid this, first spread out the uncooked dumplings on a lightly greased baking sheet, taking care that they do not touch each other. Place the sheet in the freezer for about 30 minutes. Then throw all the dumplings into a large resealable plastic bag and store in the freezer. When you are ready to eat them, do not defrost the dumplings, but cook them frozen exactly like you would fresh dumplings—just add 3 minutes to the cooking time.