Onion

This recipe originally accompanied a story on a matzoh ball taste test.

Anthony Bourdain I will always associate the smell of this dish with my first imaginings of France — and with the imminent arrival of guests. When I smelled this dish cooking downstairs, I knew company was coming. My mother made it for special occasions only. I remember being terrifically impressed that she served it in scallop shells. I yearned for this dish — knowing it only by smells — and was delighted when I finally turned old enough to sit down to eat with the adults. This was the reward.

This salad is wonderfully refreshing even without purslane, but if you can find the green at your produce market, it's worth using for the nice crunch it adds. Active time: 30 min Start to finish: 30 min

The gravy can be started while the turkey roasts. When the turkey is through cooking, finish the gravy with balsamic vinegar and the pan juices. Watch how to prepare and carve your bird with our streaming video demonstration.

Hash browns are deceptively simple. Most people can turn out a so-so version. Loftier ambitions, however, will be rewarded by following this recipe precisely.

Also known as jook, congee turns up in Chinese households morning, noon, and night. This thick rendition is made heartier with the addition of chicken.

In this classic French dish, a veal roast is sliced and layered with a combination of soubise (onion) and duxelles (mushroom) stuffings, then put back together in the shape of the roast. Traditionally, it's covered with more stuffing and heavily coated with a Mornay sauce (which glazes the roast as it's heated in the oven). In our updated version, we keep the soubise and duxelles separate and arrange them side by side — black contrasting with white — on each veal slice, so the stuffings are visible. We use only a very thin coating of Mornay to glaze the dish, and serve the rest on the side.

This recipe is an accompaniment for Cabbage Slaw .

This is great warm or at room temperature.

Trimming all corners and ragged edges from the carrots and potatoes is very Japanese; rounded edges also ensure even cooking. In Japan we used metal molds to cut our carrots into plum blossoms for a seasonal motif. Active time: 30 min Start to finish: 1 1/2 hr

Buy a heavy coconut that has no cracks and that sounds full of liquid when shaken.

Our take on this soup is faithful to the classic flavors. Assorted marinated vegetables from the local Italian deli are nice to start, and wedges of almond cake with espresso are a great finish.

We use this dressing with our Onion-Crusted Fried Chicken Salad, but it's great, too, as a dip with pieces of fried chicken, vegetables, or best of all, with fried frogs' legs. It's a real thick dressing that gets even thicker when chilled.

Buy cooked fresh lobster meat and you can whip this salad together in about 30 minutes. Cooking your own lobster, however, not only ensures the freshest flavor and the tenderest meat, but you get more bang for the buck—you can use the lobster shells to make stock and lobster oil.

Louis Osteen makes his mayonnaise fresh, but we've substituted bottled mayonnaise to avoid raw egg yolks.