Gourmet

Even the gastronomic wizard who invented this recipe calls the name gimmicky, but who cares? The clever technique of using both a seltzer charge and a cream charge gives you a foamy, snow-white dessert with an almost ethereal lightness.

Xiao Fan's spicy sauce will transform not only this steamed chicken but also plain rice, noodles, tofu, even grilled steak. The sauce can be doubled and leftovers chilled for a week. To reheat, add a bit of broth or water and simmer for about a minute.

If using dried shrimp, grind to a powder in an electric coffee/spice grinder or use mortar and pestle. Seasoning paste can be made ahead and chilled, covered, up to 1 week or frozen 1 month.

These plump, fried hors d'oeuvres, a seafood variation on Chile's signature baked onion-and-meat-filled empanadas, are hot and juicy. Have plenty of napkins ready.

All sorts of English terms have made it into the Indian culinary lexicon. This is what's called a chicken "roast."

Panfried eggplant, walnuts, and cheese melt into each other and make a rich filling between crisp layers of phyllo in this hearty, meat-free pie.

Don't be frightened by the word soufflé. This subtly sophisticated dish isn't difficult at all (just be careful not to overbeat the egg whites).

This well-balanced stew is intense yet mellow. The prunes soak up the fragrant spices, and long, slow cooking turns the lamb fork-tender.

Your market basket loaded with produce, olive oil, and fish, you saunter home to your idyllic farmhouse and marinate the vegetables. The following evening, you invite your friends over. Berets optional.

You'll want to have plenty of white rice on hand to soak up the incredibly complex sweet-and-sour sauce that adorns these ribs.

We know these monster biscuits look like gougères on steroids, but we promise there are no illicit performance-enhancing ingredients at work here: just an egg-rich batter that (naturally) bakes up big.

Fiery Buffalo sauce gives buttery salmon tanginess and heat, while a sprinkling of breadcrumbs lends a satisfying crunch.

The glaze, which goes on the asparagus as well as the steak, has a rich sweetness that is transformed into something wonderfully complex once it hits the heat of the grill.

Inspired by the floral qualities of Japanese teas and sweets, this cool jelly's lightly flowery flavor is enhanced by orange Muscat.

Visually, this dish speaks softly, but it combines quite a number of sensations: a buttery fish, sautéed for a crisp skin, and a broth of such depth you'll never believe it was simmered for just five minutes. The mixture of enoki and shimeji mushrooms looks gorgeous and lends a meatiness, punctuated by an elusive woodsy smokiness, to the sansho-flecked broth.

Food editor Maggie Ruggiero became enamored of a sesame-dressed salad at Donguri, a Japanese home-cooking restaurant in New York City. This is her take on it. Because the sesame seeds are unhulled, they have a richness that flatters the freshness of spring vegetables—here, cool kohlrabi and sweet pea shoots.

Slender Asian eggplant magically holds its shape as you sauté it, without going mushy, and yet it collapses in the mouth with a final suggestion of its glaze, bold with Japanese seven-spice powder and the gentle heat of fresh ginger.

The Japanese are wild about pickles, pickling practically every vegetable and root they come across—and in sweet, salty, sour, and bitter incarnations to boot. In this classic, a hit of wasabi powder adds a subtle heat to these savory quick pickles.

That distinctive quality of ume-shiso—the tart-and-salty combination of umeboshi (pickled plums) and green shiso, an exuberantly undefinable fresh herb—really enhances the juicy sweetness and char of grilled shrimp and the faintly radishy crunch of daikon.