Steamed crabs from crabbing on the Choptank river with my father and fiance this summer.

This is an HDR shot of Hungarian sun pickles from The Joy of Pickling.

I made this out of the March 2012 Bon Apetit. It's a beef and pork meatloaf with a hoisin glaze topped with a cucumber, carrot, and radish quick pickled salad.

First we made Peter Reinhart's "Pain a l'Ancienne" demi-baguettes, and then constructed The Concious Cook's Vegan Bánh Mì's.

Buffalo Tofu, Salt and Vinegar Oven Chips, and Green Beans to make us feel better about ourselves.

Made this (and the rustic pan sauce) from the recipes posted here on Serious Eats.

Just the Cook's Illustrated recipe... made a year ago, but the warm weather has made me wish we were in corn season.

This is a recipe from Thomas Keller's The French Laundry Cookbook via via Epicurious.

This was my non-traditional Thanksgiving offering. The recipe is from Rick Bayless and was recently published in Saveur.

The classic Thai dish of ground chicken and basil, with chili, fish sauce, and a touch of sugar is quick and simple to prepare. More

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I have been working on this recipe for longer than any other recipe I've ever worked on. But at long last, I'm pretty darn pleased with the results. Here's how to get the slow-cooked, crisply charred effect of tacos al pastor at home, no rotisserie required. More

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Unless you are a robot, allergic to nuts, or hate fun, chances are you, like me, have a giant soft spot for peanut noodles. The sauce is a balance of salty, sharp, sweet and rich, and just hovering between liquid and paste for the perfect amount of "noodle cling". I threw in some easy pickled bean sprouts for kick (and crunch) and some simply seared tofu. More

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Soft and tender plantains with a lightly greasy exterior and a sweet, caramelized flavor, maduros don't have the crispness you may expect from a starchier fried food, but that's part of their appeal. When sprinkled with a little salt and served with an acidic sauce, you can't ask for a better snack or hors d'oeuvres. More

Hearty vegan Mexican-style sandwiches made with fried eggplant, refried beans, roasted chilies, and pickled red onions, served in a toasted roll doused in enchilada sauce. More

A vegan game-day snack made with ultra-crisp battered cauliflower tossed in garlicky buffalo sauce. More

A sweet and salty vegan mayonnaise made with miso, agave nectar, and tofu. More

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Chinese-style steamed buns are not new by any stretch, but stuffing them with interesting, carefully-selected ingredients and turning them into little composed sandwiches suddenly became a thing about a decade ago when first Momofuku then shortly after everybody else started serving them as (overpriced) appetizers all over town. It's a great idea that I felt deserved a bit of vegan-ification. More

This is my favorite dish of all time, in a completely meat-free form. Using dried and fresh mushrooms complexity and texture to the fiery dish, making it every bit as good as—if not better than—the original. More

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I decided before I even began this year's Vegan Experience that an excellent vegan ramen broth would be one of my ultimate goals. But one does not simply jump into ramen. Suffice it to say, ramen is a high mountain to climb. I decided that I'd start by coming up with a vegan udon broth that could compete with the real thing in terms of flavor potency and sheer deliciousness. More

"Pock-Marked Mother's Bean Curd," the translation of the name mapo tofu, gives a good indication of the homey, comforting nature of this dish, which tastes just like something Mom would make, if Mom were Chinese and an excellent cook. This vegetarian version omits the beef or pork, instead adding in some bright green peas. More

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I've got a confession to make: I love pan pizza. I'm not talking deep-dish Chicago-style with its crisp crust and rivers of cheese and sauce, I'm talking thick-crusted, fried-on-the-bottom, puffy, cheesy, focaccia-esque pan pizza, dripping with strings of mozzarella and robust sauce. If only pizza that good were also easy to make at home. Well here's the good news: It is. This is the easiest pizza you will ever make. Seriously. All it takes is a few basic kitchen essentials, some simple ingredients, and a bit of patience. More

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The Kale Caesar Salad is a natural extension of the marinated kale salad, in which kale leaves are roughly chopped, massaged with dressing and salt, then allowed to sit. The beautiful thing about these salads is that kale is robust enough that it stays crisp and crunchy even after sitting dressed in the fridge for days. You can make it once and eat it over the course of a few days with no loss in quality. Caesar dressing, which naturally pairs with slightly bitter, very crunchy lettuces, seems like a perfect partner in crime. And it is. More

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January or no, I like my good-for-you fare to taste amazing. That's where drinks like this Strawberry Shortcake Smoothie come in. It's creamy, just sweet enough, and smattered with cakey overtones of vanilla and almond. Smattered, I tell you. More

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Yeah, a big hunk of browned meat can look great, but a warm bowl of seasoned tofu can be just as sexy, dontcha think? More

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I come to you today with the perfect solution to the leftover cooked veggies conundrum: revueltos. Sounds fancy, right? But they're not. Revueltos are simply creamy, barely-set Spanish-style scrambled eggs that are cooked in a warm (not hot) pan with a) good-quality olive oil; b) tons of garlic; and c) pretty much any neutrally-flavored leftovers you've got. After cooking the eggs slowly, scraping the pan constantly to break up the curds that form, you'll be left with with custardy eggs that have a velvety, super-soft texture. More

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When it comes to frying chicken nobody—and I mean nobody—does it better than the Koreans. My apologies to all you Southerners. Korean fried chicken (or KFC as those in the know call it) differs vastly from American-style fried chicken. Rather than the craggly, crusty, significant coating you'd get on say, a Chick-Fil-A sandwich or a Popeye's drumstick, you get an eggshell-thin, ultra-crisp crust around a drippingly juicy interior. The end goal is clear, but the road to get there required a bit of bushwhacking. More

Turns out that most of the ingredients in ratatouille came from the New World, which means that before any French cook got his or her hands on the raw ingredients, they were probably served with corn tortillas. And thus was born the idea of ratatouille tacos. More

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This stew takes advantage of more than a few cooking techniques (blanching, boiling, steaming, glazing, and simmering); a good challenge for anyone wanting to test their skills. Each vegetable is precisely cut, cooked, and assembled to be as dramatic as possible. The method(s) works; the final stew is a celebration of vegetation. More

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For a twist on the classic pimento cheese sandwich, this recipe adds charred jalapeño and poblano peppers, as well as a warm hint of ground cumin. The soft, spreadable texture remains the same as always, but the flavors are bit more assertive and spicy. More

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You don't come across vegetarian tacos all that often, but in the rare instances in which you do, they're often wonderful. For a long time my go-to was another Rick Bayless recipe involving swiss chard and caramelized onions; I'd put them in front of any meat eater any day. Searching for a recipe using corn and zucchini, I came across this second Bayless recipe, which is similarly excellent. More

Tart, crisp fried green tomatillos paired with crisp salty bacon and herbs, all served on a bun slathered with a spicy mayonnaise with an Asian kick to it. More

Sausages full of red wine, caramelized sweet shallots, and canned Puy lentils come together in this hearty one-pot, half-hour meal. More

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After much trial and error, I hit on what I think is "The Best Biscuit Ever." On these flakey, mile-high biscuits you need crispy fried chicken and honey butter. Enough said. More

The pressure cooker is a central part of the cuisine of the Colombian Andes. This extraordinarily simple chicken and potato stew uses just five ingredients (ok, seven if you count salt and pepper), but the flavor that comes out after a brief cook under pressure is complex, rich, and filling. More