Rice

The key to buying fish for this recipe is asking your fishmonger what she would eat raw. Red snapper or black bass are good subs for lean, mild fluke.

There's no doubt about it: this magnificent cut of meat puts any humble braised brisket to shame.

How to prevent tofu from being bland? Toss it in a robust, spicy, salty, and deeply seasoned marinade.

Rich with nutty tahini, savory miso, and plenty ginger and garlic, this comforting vegetarian soup is just what the doctor ordered for a chilly weeknight.

I love the classic combination of beef, potato, and carrot cooked in a saucy, slightly sweet curry and ladled next to white rice. You can use whatever meat and vegetables you want, but for me, curry has two unbreakable rules: First, make sure that meat is nice and fatty. Second, embrace the premade blocks of Japanese curry roux. Curry is not health food, but neither are the deep-fried pork cutlets called tonkatsu, and I’m not planning to give those up either, no matter what my wife says!

No squash? No problem. This rice bowl—which was developed for our #cook90 initiative—can be made with all sorts of roasted vegetables (and, for that matter, any kind of grain).

There is no better use for leftover rice than chahan. A brief trip in a pan resurrects the grains and a few pantry ingredients—little more than eggs, oil, and salt—transform tired rice into a super-satisfying meal. To give the humble dish a little flair, I whip up a saucy broth filled with vegetables and shrimp and pour it on at the last minute. Of course, you can add any ingredients you like—peas or asparagus, kimchi or Japanese pickles, pork, or even, as I do at Morimoto Napa, duck confit.

This hearty salad combines roasted parsnips, hazelnuts, fresh orange, and crisp lettuce for a bright, refreshing vegetarian dinner.

When you peel the kabocha squash for this recipe, use a vegetable peeler—not a knife. (Better to dull a $4 tool than your best kitchen blade.)

Toss leftover stuffing into a big pan with sautéed rice, eggs, mushrooms, and kale for a glorious carb-on-carb send-off to the rest of your post-Thanksgiving stash.

If you don’t have cinnamon and star anise in your pantry, don’t buy them just for this congee recipe. You can tweak the flavor profile by using black peppercorns and parsley stems, or fennel seeds and crushed red pepper flakes instead.

Probably the biggest, most versatile recipe I've ever written and it's become a model for my master-recipe formula. Here six basic components are completely transformed with simple substitutions into 18 totally different dishes.

Knowing you have a bubbling hot breakfast waiting for you on a chilly morning makes getting out of bed so much easier.

Sticky rice is worth using for this porridge-y, comforting chicken soup recipe; it releases lots of creamy starches and helps builds nice body as it cooks.