Lamb

This homey spot, which gets its name from the tidal strait that runs between Brooklyn and Governors Island, is a neighborhood favorite. Locals crowd around the butcher-block bar and take a seat at the communal table crafted from ceiling beams from a local warehouse. Chef Ryan Angulo keeps diners satisfied with house-made pickles, Brooklyn-made mozzarella, and hearty hunks of meat, like the roast leg of lamb here.

The lamb in this dish from Cress Restaurant lends immunity-building zinc. For extra fresh flavors, pluck the rosemary, thyme and mint from plants purchased at a garden center; they'll flourish in a sunny window, so you can use them over and over.

Bulgogi (grilled marinated beef) is a traditional Korean dish. Here, lamb stands in for the steak. The meat is served with lettuce leaves and other veggies, hot pepper paste, and a slightly sweet dipping sauce. Guests use all of the ingredients to assemble their own lettuce wraps, which is a common practice in Korean restaurants. Timing note: The lamb needs to marinate for at least four hours.

This smoky grilled meat will be a delicious addition to your barbecue repertoire. For a casual party, serve the lamb with grilled pita bread, grilled eggplant, and tzatziki so that guests can make their own Greek-inspired sandwiches. Timing note: The lamb needs to marinate overnight.

Here is a jewel of an Afghani dish. It is one I cook regularly, sometimes with shoulder of lamb instead of chicken thighs. I serve it with slow-cooked spinach, finished with leeks and a minuscule amount of rhubarb. This may sound strange, but the rhubarb is sweetened by the leeks and it really does work.

What makes this entrée so flavorful? Tucking garlic slices into the lamb and covering the meat with a puree made of garlic, Dijon mustard, rosemary, and lemon.

It might seem like a joke to include a recipe designed to use up leftover white wine (from our Roast Turkey with Black Truffle Butter and White–Wine Gravy )—after all, why not just drink it?—but if you take the time to make this marvelous one–dish lamb dinner, you might find yourself hoarding half–empty bottles so you can make it again and again. Lamb shoulder chops are an inexpensive cut that benefits from braising, and the wine really helps tenderize the connective tissues running through the flavorful meat. Snuggling the lamb between sheets of thinly sliced potatoes, plus scatterings of golden garlic, onions, and thyme sprigs, creates a handsome and wonderfully aromatic dish.

One advantage to being married to a Lebanese man is that the food of his people is fantastic. I've never been able to perfectly replicate a single dish my mother–in–law makes until now: mahshi batinjaan, which my husband despises due to a lifelong aversion to eggplant. But ask yourself: How could he possibly resist this dish's charm? Once you slice through the silky flesh to reveal a fragrantly seasoned lamb and rice stuffing, this deceptively simple one–dish dinner is absolutely luscious and satisfying. (Editors' note: This recipe is solely the creation of Melissa Roberts and has not been formally tested by the test kitchen.)

The lamb needs to marinate overnight, so be sure to begin one day ahead.

Lamb khorma is sensuous curry made by simmering lamb with yogurt and cream and thickening the sauce with a cashew paste. If you can find goat's milk yogurt or sheep's milk yogurt, it will make a discernable difference in this dish.

Cassoulet is a robust meal, filled with cured and smoked meats and sausages, baked in a stew of beans until a rich crust forms. According to tradition, the cook repeatedly breaks the crust and pushes it down into the stew.

The Middle East on a flatbread: Turkish meatballs, a tahini-spiked yogurt sauce, and muhammara, a Syrian red pepper spread.

I call this herb and spice rub North African because, besides the classic oregano and rosemary, it contains Tunisian and Moroccan spices such as caraway, cumin, and turmeric. In addition, it is spiked with harissa, the ubiquitous hot pepper paste that is to Arab North Africa what chile oil is to Asia. Use the same spice mixture to rub poultry, beef, or pork two to three hours before grilling and leave at room temperature. Or you can mix 3 tablespoons of this rub with 3 tablespoons yogurt and baste chicken breasts or legs or skewered lamb and pork before grilling. Better yet, leave in the spicy yogurt marinade in the refrigerator overnight.

Here, the sunny warmth of mint escapes the sweet-jelly cliché to find new expression in the thick Argentinean herb sauce called chimichurri. Its bright acidity cuts the lush richness of lamb shoulder chops.

Butterflied lamb cooks faster and more evenly, and is easier to trim of fat and silverskin, than a whole leg of lamb. A butterflied leg has more surface area than a whole leg, so there's more flavor from the marinade and the grill. The lamb can be marinated up to 2 days in advance.

Pasta in the Greek style, with an added surprise: parsnips.

Lee believes that classic dishes are far from being precious artifacts; they are inherently adaptable, and that's what makes them timeless. The starting point here was his "very Italian" wine importer, Enrico Battisti, but instead of polenta, Lee uses quick-cooking stone-ground grits from Anson Mills, in Columbia, South Carolina."They're better than any polenta," he says, "because they're so fresh. I call them hero grits."