Onion

The two imperatives are that the tomatoes must be truly ripe and sweet and that the sauce should be eaten at once. If you must, you can hold it for up to two hours refrigerated and tightly covered, but it loses its magic fast. For the right slightly coarse texture, the ingredients should be chopped separately by hand. The only thing I sometimes do with the food processor is the chiles. Try to find fresh ones—canned jalapeños will work, but aren't ideal in a sauce supposed to be sparkling fresh.

This is my version of a veggie burger—using the meatiness of seared clusters of maitake mushrooms gives an additional layer of umami with a miso glaze.

Marinating chicken wings in a base of tamarind purée, fish sauce, brown sugar, crushed red pepper flakes, and cumin gives optimal flavor and just-enough char.

Flavored with citrus, maple syrup, and cilantro, this slaw makes an excellent topper for tacos or huaraches.

This is a great last-minute dinner.

Qiāng bǐng is crispy on the outside, fluffy and chewy on the inside, and truly magical when fresh off the stove.

With a simple sweet onion dressing, roasted peanuts, and crunchy potato chips, this salad is an easy favorite. As the salad sits, it becomes even more flavorful.

These simple, flavorful noodles are seasoned with soy sauce and a sprinkle of umami-rich dashi powder, plus three dimensions of garlic: fresh, fried, and infused into oil.

Some people might be afraid of cooking chicken hearts, but they’re not that much different from any cut of dark chicken meat. These morsels of muscle are perfect for grilling: lean, flavorful, with a perfect bouncy bite.

Our new favorite pot roast is just a pile of veggies. Here, carrots get a fresh wake-up from a combination of bright, lemony sumac, funky anchovies, and sweet spring onions.

The dressing was a crowd-pleasing sweet onion recipe that we’d used at Old Lahaina Luau. It's made with a fresh, uncooked sweet onion, that gets puréed with cider vinegar, sugar, Dijon mustard, and oil. Try it on our Maui Kale Salad with cabbage and spicy peanuts.

This shepherd’s pie uses ground chicken and leans toward warming flavors, incorporating bright bursts of the tropics—ginger, habanero chile, lime—as well as aromatic Angostura bitters.

This omelet is flavored simply with nearly charred onions and fresh chives. To ensure the accompanying frites are soft and pillowy on the inside, they’re cooked in salted water before being fried.