Nut Free

After they are sandwiched with rich chestnut filling, these cookies are partially dipped into melted chocolate. Crème de marron is chestnut puree sweetened with brown sugar and vanilla. It is available at large supermarkets.

This recipe is based on the famous Key lime pie from Joe’s Stone Crab restaurant in Miami Beach. If you can’t find Key limes, use fresh juice from regular limes. The bars are best garnished with whipped cream and lime immediately before serving.

The key to success with these cookies is to bake no more than two to three on a sheet at one time. Shape them as quickly as possible after removing from the oven, because they begin to firm up as soon as they are lifted off the baking sheet. To avoid wasting cookies, try the shaping process with a circle of paper first.

The flavor of these dense bars is reminiscent of Black Forest cake, a classic German dessert that originated in the country’s southern Black Forest region, renowned for its sour cherries and kirsch (cherry brandy).

We spread apricot preserves between these meringues, but another filling, such as raspberry jam, would be delicious, too. The meringues should be baked no more than one day before sandwiching them.

This classic ingredient comes in handy. Double or triple the recipe and keep some in the fridge at all times for seasonin’ bread, sauce, or your best friend.

This is a thick dressing perfect for dippin’ hot-from-the-grill Chicken Wings (page 19) in. If you want to serve it as a salad dressing, thin it down by adding a bit of milk slowly at the end.

Makin’ your own stock is a bit time-consuming, but the reward is in the depth of flavor it brings to any dish. There’s nothing hard about the preparation, and it makes your house smell delicious.

Homemade stock is the foundation of all truly great soups and stews. Not everyone has the time to make it, but if you do you’ll find it really makes a difference in your cooking.

We use this versatile dressing on more than just salad greens. It makes a good dippin’ sauce for fried or grilled meats and veggies as well as a sauce for Chicken-Fried Chicken sandwiches (page 69) and Fried Green Tomatoes (page 28).

This is the lusty cousin of our All-Purpose Red Rub (see page 167). It’ll make whatever you rub it into earthy, spicy, and complex. But don’t use it only on meat destined for barbecue; sprinkle it on anything you’re grillin’, including veggies. Mix it into bread crumbs before coating food, or stir it into a casserole. It’s a great flavor-boostin’ agent.

Just like the name says, this is the basis—the true mother of all the sauces we have in this book. It is a balanced blend of sweet, savory, spicy, and smoky flavors that acts as our leapin’ off point for creating a world of barbecue sensations. It can even stand alone as a traditional slatherin’ sauce for ribs and chicken. Now being the shameless promoter that I am, I gotta inform you that there’s a fine line of Dinosaur barbecue sauces. So if you don’t feel like jerkin’ around cookin’ the Mutha Sauce, just check out Dinosaur Bar-B-Que Sensuous Slathering Sauce (page 174).

Rubbin’ spices into meat is the essential first step of great barbecue. This is a good starter rub, but feel free to personalize it. Add some of your favorite herbs or pulverized dried smoked chiles. Just make sure you keep the sweet, savory, and spicy flavors in balance.

To mop or not to mop, that is the question. There seem to be two schools of thought about moppin’ ribs while they’re cookin’. Personally, I think that if the ribs look dry and thirsty you should mop ‘em. Mop sauce should never contain sugars that would burn before the ribs are cooked through. A good mop sauce is based on the spicy flavors of the rub.

For years I carted cases of this citrus-flavored Cuban marinade back from Miami, til we started making it in the restaurant. The real thing is all tarted up with the juice of bitter oranges—nearly impossible to find. So we add a touch of lime juice to freshly squeezed orange juice to give it the right kick. It’s one of the most versatile pantry ingredients you can make. Use it as a marinade for pork and chicken, pour it over cooked veggies or potatoes, or toss it with salad greens.

I used to think I made a pretty good rice pudding. Then I went down to Miami and tasted the Cuban version, and I sent myself back to the stove. Now ours is modeled after the best ones I tasted down there. It’s perfumed with a bit of lime peel and has a creamy texture and a smooth taste spiked with rum.

Key limes from Florida make their way up north to our markets only every once in awhile. So we use regular limes. The real key is not to overbake the filling so it stays creamy.