Jalapeño

The Pale Rider swaps out fruit for jalapeno and simply adds manzanilla, a small dose of cane syrup, and lime.

Use a very sharp cheddar to make this—it's the difference between pimiento cheese and cheesy mayonnaise.

"Never met a fritter I didn't like, and I love this one." —Allie Lewis Clapp, food editor

A super-juicy watermelon is key; it should feel heavy for its size and sound hollow when tapped.

Hit the reset button on your potato salad: These spuds are roasted, not boiled, and tossed with a mustardy vinaigrette and jalapeños while warm.

Miso and hot pepper paste are at the root of every ssam sauce, but no two household's are the same. Tweak it to your liking.

An homage to the breaded and baked fish at Luby's cafeteria in Texas, this tilapia goes Tex-Mex with a salty corn-chip crust.

Radishes make a crunchy salsa for these–or any other taco you're serving this summer.

Says Chef Yu: "I really love a slightly softer taco filling with lots of toppings for crunch. This is based off a chili verde recipe that my chef used to do for staff meal, with a Mexican/Southeast Asian tinge. The two cultures share so many of the same flavors, it's easy to blend them without making it feel out of place."

Wylie Dufresne, chef/owner of Alder and WD~50 in New York City, shared this recipe exclusively with Epicurious. "Modernist cuisine is a mind-set," says Dufresne. "It's a paradigm shift." In this recipe, Dufresne applies his modernist cuisine ideology to shrimp and grits, reimagining the flavors and textures of the classic dish. "I've always been interested in shrimp and grits. When I came across a Shrimp & Grits recipe on Epicurious, from an old issue of Bon Appétit, I thought, 'Wouldn't it be cool if we made the shrimp into grits?' Again, the modernist leap here was in the idea, not the technique, which is quite simple." To transform shrimp into grits, Dufresne grinds them in a meat grinder: once when raw, and then two more times after they've been cooked. Corn powder, vegetable stock, and "a healthy knob of butter" help create the creamy, starchy quality of actual grits, while homemade pickled jalapeños lend some heat. "Adding a fried quail egg is optional," says Dufresne, "but makes it much better, of course."

These are made with sweet potatoes, a superfood that helps you slim and energize. The sticks have kick, so dunk 'em in our cooling dip to put out the fire.

If your idea of coleslaw is the pleated paper cup of shredded stuff alongside BLTs at the diner, it's time for a new rule: Slaw doesn't go with the sandwich, it goes on the sandwich.

It's not traditional, but we love the heat that fresh ginger adds to salsa.

Ideas for serving: When I've got my grill going, I like to make my almost-Oaxacan tlayudas: I spread out commercially made tortillas (I buy them from a local tortillería and let them cool off completely) into a single layer, brush both sides of each one lightly but thoroughly with oil, then grill them until they're crisp. Once they cool, I break them into big rustic pieces for dipping into this guacamole. Wedges of grilled pita make a delicious and unexpected vehicle for dipping. For a pass-around appetizer, slices of crispy grilled baguette topped with a dollop of bacony guacamole are always a hit.