Chile

This tart and spicy condiment is always served with a Sadhya feast. It is especially nice mixed with plain rice and yogurt as a palate cleanser. This recipe is part of our menu for Sadhya, a South Indian feast.

Erisheris are thick curries traditionally made with yams or pumpkin, toasted coconut, and whole kidney beans. They are hearty and earthy, with a tropical twist of coconut and curry leaves. My variation, made with sweet potatoes, crosses over beautifully to a fall or winter menu; I've even served it for Thanksgiving. This recipe is part of our menu for Sadhya, a South Indian feast.

This Mexican dish of tortilla chips smothered in chile sauce is just as good for dinner as it is for breakfast. If you don't want to make your own chips, substitute your favorite brand, but don't skimp on the garnishes; they add color and freshness.

Korean pickled cabbage, a.k.a. kimchi, provides the spice in these savory fritters, while soaked raw mung beans hold the flourless pancakes together. They're great with or without the dipping sauce and pickled pears.

I grew up on green beans thoren, and while I'll never tire of its crunchy deliciousness, I think adding corn makes it even better. And even though people don't often associate stir-fries with Indian cooking, this dish is a favorite in Kerala. It's a combination of diced vegetables and coconut, but the key is moistening the coconut so it can soak up the ground spices first. This recipe is part of our menu for Sadhya, a South Indian feast.

This aromatic mixture of split peas and vegetables is a staple in the South Indian diet. It always accompanies favorite snacks such as dosas (lentil crêpes) and idlis (lentil dumplings). A traditional Sadhya feast wouldn't be complete without this flavorful source of protein. Asafetida (a garlicky resin from the sap of a fennel-like plant; it's often used in lentil dishes) and fenugreek provide its pleasantly pungent aroma. This recipe is part of our menu for Sadhya, a South Indian feast.

This quintessential Kerala vegetable curry marries many of the best ingredients of the region: coconut, curry leaves, green chiles, and a host of tropical vegetables. All the vegetables are cut into batons and poached in a spiced yogurt-coconut sauce. This recipe is part of our menu for Sadhya, a South Indian feast.

Jim Lahey keeps these moist by adding grated boiled potato.

We love the way these quickly pickled, supercrisp pears play off the briny and intense kimchi.

I've been doing the previous marinades forever. This new one is first cousin to a good barbecued tofu: piquant, sweet-hot-rich, and scintillatingly tasty. The tofu is baked in the marinade/sauce, which cooks down and coats it, caramelizing them. You'll probably have to soak the baking dish overnight before washing it, but it's worth it. Vary this using fruit juice concentrate instead of honey or sugar, and adding extra ginger, orange zest, or both. For an incendiary smokiness, add chipotle in adobo.

Sweet meets spicy when parboiled baby carrots are sautéed with honey, ginger, and sliced hot red chile. Not to be confused with the type sold in bags at the supermarket, the baby in this recipe are young carrots with the tops still attached. If you can’t find them, buy regular carrots; cut off the thick sections, then halve or quarter them.

A papaya salsa with fiery Scotch bonnet chiles makes a colorful—and spicy—condiment for grilled steak. The salsa also goes well with grilled fish, particularly snapper. For less heat, seed the chiles before slicing them.

Stuffed with quinoa, black beans, mushrooms, and corn, these peppers make a satisfying vegetarian main course. Poblanos are among the mildest chiles, although they still offer a nice zing. Chipotle chiles are smoked, roasted jalapeños, usually sold in cans with a spicy adobo sauce.

Aside from supporting your eyes, immune system, and heart, Swiss chard helps maintain bones and may protect against osteoporosis, thanks to high doses of vitamin K and magnesium as well as a healthy dose of calcium. Don’t worry if your pan seems overcrowded with the chard; it will quickly wilt and lose most of its volume as it cooks. Cooking the stems a bit longer than the leaves will ensure they become perfectly tender.

One of the preparations that make Thai cuisine so fresh and refreshing in the tropical heat is its raw vegetable salads that serve as backdrops to fish or meat. The sauce used on these salads is typically a blend of chiles, fish sauce, fresh lime juice, and herbs, with fresh cabbage as one of the side dishes. This Thai slaw is inspired by those classic recipes. Use it as a base for Thai Shrimp tacos (page 59) or for other shrimp or seafood fillings.

Refritos—refried beans—are one of the most common side dishes in Mexican and Southwestern restaurants. Finding a good rendition, though, is rare. Most places use flavorless canned beans for a base—already a poor start. And they don’t take the time to slowly cook and stir them to infuse the mixture with flavor and texture. The best refritos are made from beans cooked from scratch with many different seasonings so the beans absorb the flavors and the cooking liquid is intense and balanced. Here are two recipes for refritos. The first is for black beans cooked from a dried state, which takes several hours to prepare. The second requires just forty minutes and uses canned black beans that are already cooked as a base.

“Red or green?” means what color chile sauce do you prefer? It’s the usual question posed to anyone ordering a main course in traditional New Mexican restaurants. This is my version of the favorite cooked green chile sauce served with just about everything in New Mexico and other parts of the Southwest. It pairs well with all kinds of dishes, from eggs to roast beef. Make it hot or hotter by the type of chile you use—up to you. I prefer the fall chiles, roasted when they are turning red from green and a little sweeter.

One herald of fall’s cooler weather in northern New Mexico is the ristra—the strings of ripe, red chiles that hang outside to dry alongside doorways and against brown adobe walls. Once dried, the chiles are stored to use throughout the winter in sauces like this one. This recipe is a classic New Mexican red chile sauce and the perfect stage for a whole range of Southwestern foods or as a base for other, more complex sauces from barbecue sauce to moles to stews.

This sauce is offered at most taco stands throughout Mexico and is probably the one most widely served with tacos. Chile de árbol—literally “treelike”—is searingly hot, with a smoky, grassy flavor, but its heat is tamed slightly in this recipe by the tomatoes. A variation using serranos follows.