In Japanese cookery, burdock is an all-purpose vegetable that's added to stews, stir-fried, and pickled. With a pleasantly crunchy texture, burdock has a sweet flavor that's similar to lotus root, though its taste is distinctive enough to make it worth the trouble of seeking it out and preparing it. More

Courtesy of Chef Zak Pelaccio of Fatty Crab.... More

A plain baked sweet potato is incredibly tasty, as far as I'm concerned, but Ina Garten's brown-sugared baked sweet potato fries are out of this world. Although I usually leave the peels on (out of laziness and a longstanding belief that the peels contain good stuff), they are even better peeled. With or without peeling, they come together very quickly and make a nice side for an easy and inexpensive meal of hot dogs or hamburgers. More

[Photograph: Gina DePalma] Previously Snowy Day Risotto » All Seriously Italian recipes » It is always a little weird to talk about cardoons in the context of Italian cooking, because I can't resist using a brogue and rhyming them with... More

[Photograph: Caroline Russock] This Corn Pudding from The Grand Central Baking Book by Piper Davis and Ellen Jackson is a not only an insanely rich side or fantastic brunch dish, it's also a bit of an optical illusion. When... More

"The texture was perfectly creamy, as any good risotto should be." [Photograph: Caroline Russock] For our final pressure cooker vs. traditional cooking methods face-off, I decided to focus on risotto. If you've ever made risotto at home you know making... More

[Photograph: Caroline Russock] My consumption of baked beans is usually limited to barbecue joints but I was dying to see how dried beans would fare in the pressure cooker. This recipe for Boston "Baked" Beans from Cooking Under Pressure by... More