Herbs & Spices

This recipe offers treasures of the Caribbean “sugar islands”: chocolate, sugar, and rum. It’s a classic French buttercream using a cooked sugar technique, pâté à bombe, to blend and aerate the eggs and sugar, which creates incomparable richness. Or maybe it’s the butter. Or maybe it’s the chocolate. You get the picture—it’s rich! One batch makes enough to ice one 2-layer cake, but if you like generous layers and rosettes, double this recipe. Allow time to chill the buttercream. If soupy, chill it for another half hour. If stiff, heat it over a saucepan of hot water, then whip it. For children, you can omit the rum.

This is a moist, fragrant cake with a soft, strong crumb. Its flavors hold up well with chocolate. Use it with Cocoa Chantilly Cream (page 117) for subtle chocolate flavor, or use Sugar Islands Chocolate Buttercream (page 119) for the big bang of chocolate and vanilla together.

This moist cake combines the fruits, nuts, and spices from the New World that the Spanish conquistadores discovered in 1508. Chocolate was part of this Mesoamerican tableau. Brown sugar and ginger arrived much later, but this cake pays homage to the riches of the original jungles and river valleys.

Like chocolate, the chile peppers that give chili its name and flavor come from Mexico. By assembling the many ingredients below and allowing them to cook together over low heat, you can easily imagine earlier versions of this Mexican stew (despite a few modern concessions). The cocoa powder adds depth and earthiness to the spicy indigenous flavors. This is a big batch and serves 15 people. You can also freeze it.

Authentic, fiery mole sauces from the southern region of Mexico take days to prepare. This is a relatively quick version of the chunky, spicy, and chocolatey, mole negro or “black sauce.” To experience the full flavors of peppers, native spices, and fresh chocolate, book a culinary vacation to Oaxaca, Mexico, the Land of Seven Moles, where you can explore a district known as the Trail of Chocolate. In the meantime, get fresh ingredients from your local farmers’ market. You can substitute jalepeños for the poblano chiles, but the dark dried ancho and mulato chiles are important to bring the sauce to its characteristic deep chocolate brown. This will make a large batch of sauce designed to thin and use for a meal, then freeze and thaw as needed.

Some days, the fats and sugars of life must be avoided, but you can still squeeze in a little chocolate. I usually prefer natural ingredients like whole milk and real sugar, but on diet day, everything must be skinny, and I use sugar substitutes. Swirl a green apple slice through this dip in the afternoon, make a cup of green tea, soak up all your antioxidants, and you’ll forget that you’re even on a diet.

When you need a satisfying meal that uses ground beef, try this recipe. It’s as easy as 1-2-3. Just brown the beef, heat the sauce, and add the rice. Then ring the dinner bell!

While this meat-and-potatoes combo cooks, prepare a green vegetable and one of our speedy desserts.

Using prewashed spinach and presliced mushrooms makes preparation of an easy entrée even easier. Serve this stir-fry over hot brown rice to add a whole grain to your meal.

Lean ground beef and lots of vegetables, seasoned with peppers, garlic, gingerroot, and green onions, make a flavorful one-dish meal the whole family will enjoy.

No more dry pork chops! Our tender chops are braised to keep them moist. Serve with your favorite green vegetable and Orange-Flavored Acorn Squash and Sweet Potato (page 286).

A classic dish gets a quick makeover. Some flavor combinations never go out of style!

Don’t be scared off by the use of sugar in this highly aromatic one-dish meal. It just heightens the flavors of the spices, onions, and pecans.

Shredded potatoes serve as a tasty alternative to the bread crumbs that traditionally hold meat loaf ingredients together.

Both the turkey supper and the vegetarian version are good over brown rice. Add a cup of soup or a fruit salad to round out the meal.

It takes only a few minutes to make this out-of-this-world steak sandwich. Smoked paprika is what adds the “ultimate” to this dish.

You may want to prepare this meal quite often—not just for the holidays—when you see how easy it is.

This hearty dinner in a bowl is a great comfort after a hectic day, especially since you don’t need to chop anything to prepare it.

For dinner in a flash, start with the very thin slices of lean beef known as minute steaks. It does take more than a minute to cook them—but not much!

While the steak is simmering, prepare instant brown rice to serve with the sweet and spicy sauce. Round out the meal with tossed salad or your favorite green vegetable.