In Texas, the ubiquitous chicken fried steak is often plated with fries and a buttermilk ranch dressed salad on the same plate, making the ranch the dip of choice for the fries. Robb Walsh, author of Texas Eats, speculates that the popularity of ranch as a dip comes from Texas's cowboy culture, where those gruff dudes used the creamy-tangy dressing to compliment everything from fries to onion rings and even chicken fried steak. And now we know that we have Texas to thank for those little tubs of ranch meant for pizza crust dippage. More

Perhaps the most unusual curry in S.H. Fernando Jr.'s guide to Sri Lankan cuisine, Rice & Curry, is made of an ingredient more often found in a bowl of mixed nuts than in a steamy pot of coconut milk and chiles. Cashew Nut Curry is a wonderfully rich vegetarian curry, with soft, fatty cashews floating in creamy coconut milk spiced with curry leaves, lemongrass, coriander, and just enough chile heat. More

They don't call Mark Bittman, author of How to Cook Everything The Basics, The Minimalist for nothing. His recipes are simple, straightforward, and often pared down to their bare essential ingredients. Plus, he's not one to add in labor intensive steps. Take this Rice Pudding in the Oven—it's a solid dessert that requires nothing more than tossing rice, milk, and sugar into a gratin dish, and baking for roughly two hours. Sure, you have to stir the pot every now and again, but really, it's nearly effortless. And the pudding? Well, it's a beautiful batch of rice pudding: mild, milky, and entirely comforting. More

These Toasts with Ramp Butter and Fried Quail Eggs from April Bloomfield's A Girl and Her Pig are yet another way to enjoy everyone's favorite fleeting spring vegetable. The butter in this recipe incorporates both the cooked bulb of the ramp and its tender, raw greens into a rich butter dressed up with capers, anchovies, lemon, and chiles. More

Zakary Pelaccio, author of Eat with Your Hands has upped the club sandwich ante by adding butter poached lobster and turning that middle slice of bread into a riff on that classic Chinese restaurant app, shrimp toast, only here it's lobster toast. Sounds pretty good, right? Well, there's also slices of crispy bacon and the mayo on this club is a Sambal Aïoli. More

With flecks of thyme and a touch of tangy sour cream, this farro mushroom hash would be great on its own, but finishing it off with perfectly poached eggs puts it over the top. It's a winner. More

Tofu and pork are good friends, especially in Korean cuisine. Tofu with Kimchi and Pork Belly, or dubu kimchi, is an amazing match up of mild tofu, fatty pork belly, and spicy-sour kimchi. Doctored up with a few chiles—powdered and fresh—and a drizzle of sesame oil, this is Korean drinking food at its finest. But you don't have to be knocking back the soju to enjoy Andrea Nguyen's Tofu with Kimchi and Pork Belly from Asian Tofu. It makes for a great anytime meal, quick to assemble, easy to love, and full of a very satisfying array of textures and big tastes. More

Instead of relying on cheese for richness, Lahey has created a purée of long cooked, sweet onions and walnuts. It's bitter and sweet, deeply creamy, and bakes up beautifully under handfuls of sliced shiitakes and rosemary. The pizza is topped off with a drizzle of olive oil, which is more than enough for this pie, but if you must, a sprinkling of Parmesan wouldn't hurt. More

While we're pretty certain that there isn't a more dated vegetable out there than canned hearts of palm, there's something about this salad that feels quite contemporary. Peppery watercress, mild hearts of palm, and buttery Bibb are dressed with a vinaigrette that is packed with capers, bits of pickle, and finely chopped egg white to make for a salad that's not only tasty but quite nice to look at as well. More

This Crispy Fish and Green Mango Salad from Bangkok Street Food is a dish that you'll most likely never seen on the menu of your local Thai joint. And it's quite a shame since this intriguing combo of crisp-smoky fried fish served with salty-spicy green mango salad is pretty outrageous. The layers of texture and flavor are all over the place in the best possible way, with the sour dressing working its way into the crunchy little fish cake and the mango salad tying it all together with crunchy veggies and punchy heat. More