Gourmet

Active time: 35 min Start to finish: 35 min

Active time: 25 min Start to finish: 45 min

Active time: 20 min Start to finish: 25 min Chuck blade steaks are a wonderful cut — luxurious flavor at a bargain price. They may appear under different names — flatiron or book steaks, for instance — in your butcher case, but they're easy to spot: Neat ovals that are slightly larger than your palm and bisected by a slender white ribbon — of gristle.

Active time: 20 min Start to finish: 35 min

Active time: 45 min Start to finish: 1 1/2 hr

Active time: 30 min Start to finish: 3 hr

Active time: 35 min Start to finish: 45 min

Adding Beaumes-de-Venise — a delicate, fruity dessert wine — keeps this cake moist and adds a whole new dimension to its flavor. Combining blackberries with blackberry preserves for the topping brings out the best in the berries, whether they’re tart or sweet. Active time: 40 min Start to finish: 1 1/2 hr

Active time: 30 min Start to finish: 1 1/2 hr (not including frico) Test your springform pan with water for leakage before getting started. If it leaks, tightly wrap the bottom and halfway up the side of the pan with two layers of foil before filling it.

For a delicious, quick accompaniment try our Creamy Parmesan Polenta .

Serve this soup with a sandwich or a salad for a delicious lunch or light supper.

The smoked paprika in this recipe adds depth. Unlike Hungarian paprika powder, which is prepared by drying the chiles in the sun, the Spanish smoked version (like La Chinata brand) is prepared by roasting the peppers over smoldering oak fires before being ground to a velvety powder. Active time: 30 min Start to finish: 30 min

We can thank Vic Bergeron — owner of Trader Vic's restaurant, in San Francisco — for bringing rumaki into mainstream dining culture. He claimed that this delicious hors d'oeuvre came from Hawaii, with Chinese roots and a Japanese name. Active time: 20 min Start to finish: 1 1/2 hr

I got the idea for this recipe from my Lebanese mother-in-law, Leila Matar, who often makes a tahini dressing for green salads. It also turns up in her kafta (meatloaf), on falafel, and, with some parsley and extra lemon, over fried or grilled fish. Active time: 5 min Start to finish: 5 min

Active time: 15 min Start to finish: 30 min