Soup

Perfecting this recipe required a mother-daughter collaboration. My mom started it off by cutting the kernels off the cobs, simmering the corncobs in the stock, and then scraping the cobs to capture every ounce of delicious corn flavor. Her friend Darryle Pollack taught her the trick of including potatoes and blending part of the soup to thicken it. I added warming spices like paprika and cayenne pepper to complement the sweetness of the summer corn and topped it with charred red bell peppers. Together we created a perfect soup. —Marea

Tanis insists on making broth for this restorative and iconic soup (pho ga) from scratch and warns against overcooking the noodles: "They should be pretty firm and snappy, not flabby."

There's an entire chicken in this soup, and then some. Not a mistake. You'll pull out the breast early on and use the white meat to garnish the finished bowls, but everything else stays and simmers for hours, enriching the stock with concentrated flavor and lip-smacking body.

The key to a vibrant green (not khaki) soup: Bring the water up to a boil quickly over high heat, and err on undercooking the peas to preserve their color.

This soup is what Mayim makes when she thinks she has nothing left in the house. It's an "everything but the kitchen sink" soup and can be as simple or complicated as you like. The main point is once you start with sautéed onion and garlic, it's hard to go wrong.

Coconut milk is one of my favourite ingredients and it makes a fantastic creamy base for all the other robust flavours in this Asian-style soup. Choose firm sweet potatoes with orange flesh for their vibrant colour.

When it comes to cooking, we like things to be quick and easy—as long as flavor is not sacrificed. However, when it comes to soup, we realize that an extra few minutes of prep work make a real difference in the richness and quality of a recipe. Quickly sautéing vegetables before adding them to the slow cooker scales back their acidity and firmness. Allowing them to then simmer in the slow cooker for hours allows all of the ingredients to meld. It's the perfect formula for a successful soup!

This fiery Korean stew is my weekend detox. It's spicy, clean, and capable of reversing any damage the previous night may have caused.

This light but richly flavored broth is good with any fatty, skin-on fish fillet, such as Arctic char or sea bass.

Our favorite Dutch oven is heavy-duty, big enough for any stew, and handsome enough to put on the table.

In every good restaurant kitchen, there's a combination of thrift and innovation. We always have a dish like this chowder on the menu because when we portion fish for main courses, there are inevitably some pieces of our excellent, sushi-quality fish too small to serve on their own. And that is another great reason to buy your fish whole: not only can you save the bones and head for fish stock, but you'll be generating two meals from one shopping trip. We call it chowder to give the idea of a hearty, chunky fish soup (sea bass, shrimp, mussels) with a lot of texture from vegetables. Our version shows off kabocha squash and ají dulce peppers. These are specific varieties of squash and pepper that I search for at the Greenmarket for their deep flavor and beautiful aroma. If you can't find these, use another variety of squash and mild pepper.

You can have almost no money and still have enough to live off this stuff for weeks, months, years. Eat enough and you'll start to look for ways to make it different: add a little more sauce, a little less sauce, cook the noodles less, cook them more, add more water, less water, add an egg, scramble the egg, etc. Me, I've become a freak when it comes to my instant ramen. Don't fuck wit it, don't fuck wit me, let me do my thing. This is how I do my own thing.

It might look like a lot when the greens are raw, but add them all anyway. They'll quickly wilt down to a silky texture.

This dish was inspired by pasta e fagiole, the classic Italian pasta and bean stew. Unlike macaroni, the grains stay nice and chewy, even when reheated days later.

If you like things extra spicy, pass some chili sauce at the table.

Choose dried chiles that are fairly flexible, a sign they're not too old.