Herbs & Spices

It's not traditional, but we love the heat that fresh ginger adds to salsa.

This cooling raita, or yogurt sauce, is a popular condiment for Indian feasts. It's also great with lamb chops.

Smørrebrød only sound complicated. "You can put whatever you want on them," says chef Nicolaus Balla, who serves the Scandinavian open-face sandwiches at San Francisco's Bar Tartine. Simply slather a creamy spread like butter or sour cream on dense rye bread. Top with classic combos like roast beef and crisp onions, or smoked salmon and scallions—and since they're on view, make sure they look good. Finish with herbs, lemon zest—anything, really, except a second piece of bread.

If using skin-on hazelnuts, rub them inside a clean kitchen towel after they've been toasted—the skins will slip right off. Serve the fish with a lightly dressed butter lettuce and herb salad.

Drizzle this sweet-salty vinaigrette on green salads or on roasted carrots.

The belly's thick layer of fat keeps the pork tender as it cooks. It's cooked low and slow to ensure the meat is tender, then crisped up over high heat.

Fleishig Our Friday night chopped liver was not just the start of another memorable meal but was also part of the Sabbath celebration. My late mother gave the preparation as much importance or respect as the main course. She used a few saved and koshered chicken livers, carefully extended with a mound of sweet fried onions, cooked gently with a little schmaltz and a handful of homemade gribenes, and hard-boiled eggs. She'd grind it all together in an old-fashioned grinder, clamped to the Formica tabletop, apart from one egg that was left to be grated carefully over the served mounds of liver—yolk and white separate. Finally the mixture was combined and, on extra-special occasions, moistened with a little Kiddush wine already sitting next to the polished candles. The chopped liver was then served in generous mounds on small glass plates from Woolworths and decorated with the egg and circles of pickled cucumber.

This is especially pretty made with a mix of orange and purple carrots, and even nicer if you flute the carrots lengthwise with a channel knife before slicing them—this results in slices with pretty scalloped edges. A channel knife is handy for cutting decorative strips of citrus zest, too; you can pick one up in nearly any gourmet shop.

Healers have touted saffron's medicinal properties since the days of Hippocrates, and Cleopatra claimed that it was an aphrodisiac. Its scarcity (it takes some four thousand crocus blossoms to create an ounce of saffron) and the belief that it could be used to treat everything from wounds to the plague even caused the Austrians to go to war over the spice during the Dark Ages. This is at least one feudal folk myth that modern science has corroborated. Studies have shown that saffron has outstanding antibacterial and antiviral properties and also aids digestion. People sometimes balk at saffron's cost, but it isn't unreasonable when you consider its potency; this recipe calls for only 1/8 teaspoon, and as you'll see, a little goes a long way. This pilaf is a delightful and gorgeous dish. The rice is sautéed before cooking to avoid that sticky, gummy consistency, and ginger, parsley, and lemon zest add zing. Prepare ahead: Soak the rice in cool water and the juice of half a lemon for 8 hours or overnight before cooking; this will make its nutrients more available and decrease the cooking time. If you don't have time to soak the rice, add an extra 1/4 cup of broth and cook for an additional 15 minutes.

These vanilla bean–speckled marshmallows have a more pronounced vanilla flavor than our classic Homemade Marshmallows , plus an adults-only hint of bourbon. See Make Your Own Marshmallows for more recipes and tips.

This sausage uses chicken and schmaltz, along with plentiful sage, garlic, ginger and pepper. And salt of course—sausage needs salt. My optimal salt level is 1.75 percent, so I multiply the weight of the meat (in ounces or grams) by 0.0175 to get that amount of the salt needed (also in ounces or grams). If you like less salt take it back to 1.5%. This seasoning makes a great breakfast sausage as well as an excellent grilling sausage. If you have a sausage stuffer and like to link sausage, by all means stuff this sausage into casing. I like to cook this in patties and cook them either in a sauté pan or on the grill. The schmaltz can be replaced with pork fat or pork belly, if you have access to thighs but not schmaltz, but I think it's most intensely flavored using chicken fat. I'm fanatical about keeping sausage fixings cold all the way through the making, and I'm especially crazy about it here, because chicken fat is pourable at room temperature. Thus it's important to keep everything—the fat, the meat, even the seasonings—close to frozen while you're making this. I freeze the fat, cut it in chunks and then grind it frozen. After grinding this can be mixed by hand using a stiff spatula, dough spatula or wooden spoon, but a standing mixer with the paddle attachment works best. Either way, make sure the mixing bowl is cold.

If your Marcona almonds haven't already been oiled and salted, add another 1 tablespoon oil when toasting.

This dish is a perfect side for roast chicken; or crumble feta on top for a vegetarian lunch. Quinoa freezes well, so cook a big batch, let cool, and freeze in resealable plastic bags until ready to use.

This dish is inspired by a salad on the menu at Keens Steakhouse in NYC.

Of all Chinese dumplings, wontons are the simplest to make, if you buy ready-made wrappers. They cook in minutes and have a delightfully slippery mouthfeel. In Sichuan, the source of this recipe, they are known as "folded arms" (chao shou). Some say this is because the raw dumplings look like the folded arms of a person sitting back in relaxation; others that it's because of the way they are wrapped, with one corner crossed over the other and the two pinched together. The basic wontons can be served in a host of different ways and this Chengdu version is one of my favorites, with its sumptuous, heart-warming sauce. Wonton skins can be bought fresh or frozen in most Chinese food shops; they should be very thin and supple. If you want to take the easiest option in wrapping the dumplings, you can simply fold them in half, on the diagonal, to make a triangle. Otherwise, wrap into classic "water caltrop" shape, as professional cooks and market vendors do across China. (The water caltrop is an exotic-looking aquatic nut with a pair of horns.) This recipe makes 15-20, enough for four as an appetizer, or two for lunch. If you use fresh ingredients and make more than you need, the surplus can be frozen and cooked straight from the freezer.

Peanut butter has a place on the dinner table. This recipe makes enough for two or three different meals.

We're seeing gigante beans everywhere. They're creamy and buttery, and their size adds a dramatic look.

"Using kombucha for tartness in this drink offers a flavor profile that we know and love in highballs like a Tom Collins, but with a different perspective." —Eamon Rockey; Aska, Brooklyn

If you forget to thaw the shrimp in the morning, set the bag in a large bowl filled with cold water. It will defrost in minutes. One cup of dry rice will yield 3 cups cooked; leftover rice, which is slightly dried out, makes the best stir-fries.