Meal Prep

Leftover onions are great in a classic Martini.

Commercial fruit vinegars usually employ cooked fruit, resulting in a heavy, jammy, and not-so-nuanced flavor. We made our vinegar with uncooked berries, so it retains that fresh-from-the-patch essence.

This recipe was created by chef Dan Barber of Blue Hill restaurant in New York City and Blue Hill at Stone Barns in Pocantico Hills, New York. It's part of a special menu he created for Epicurious's Wine.Dine.Donate program and is used in his Summer Salad. The recipe makes more than enough lemon oil, but it stores well in the refrigerator and can be served with fish or used to flavor dips.

Short-grain rice has an especially high starch content, which makes it sticky — and easy to press into a lettuce or nori wrapper.

Use vanilla sugar to make Bittersweet Chocolate Irish Whiskey Cake and Hazelnut Gâteau Breton.

Don't be fooled by the short ingredients list; these vegetarian black beans have a surprisingly complex flavor. Since I can't use a meaty bone or lard for a boost, I rely on my trusty trinity of Sherry, balsamic vinegar, and soy sauce, three power ingredients that play well together. The pressure cooker makes cooked-from-scratch beans easily feasible for a spur-of-the-moment supper, though I still prefer to cook up a pot on the weekend; beans thicken as they stand, so by making them ahead and thinning them before serving, I actually get more. This recipe serves as the base for two different meals: I set aside half for flavorful beans and rice and purée the other half into a hearty soup spiked with additional Sherry and lime juice.

Generations of southerners have tucked fresh hot chiles into vinegar for a pungent homemade hot sauce that sits right next to the salt and pepper on the table. Drizzled over gumbo, red beans and rice, or anything fried, it both balances out and punches up any other flavors it's paired with. The adventurous should feel free to pluck a pepper out of the jar and eat it alongside the meal — it's fine southern form. Doctored with a little sugar and red pepper flakes, it's amazing on the cheddar rice fritters.

Editor's note: The recipe and introductory text below are from The Gourmet Slow Cooker: Simple and Sophisticated Meals from Around the World by Lynn Alley. For more on slow cooking, click here. Poaching salmon, or any fish for that matter, in the slow cooker is a no-brainer. Although it isn't a traditional dish for long, slow cooking, it is one of the things that the low, even temperatures of the slow cooker does well with. Poached salmon, needing no oil to cook, makes a light lunch paired with lemon rice, steamed vegetables, and salad, or a sumptuous dinner with herbed mashed potatoes and grilled vegetables.

This clever appetizer is halfway between a pizza and a flatbread.

Homemade ravioli are well worth the effort, and making them is the perfect task to share with a kitchen full of cooks (even novices can get in on the fun). Mixing the pasta dough is a breeze in the food processor, but if you don't have one, don't worry — we've given the method for making the dough by hand as well. A brown-butter pine-nut sauce is light enough to let your efforts on the pasta really shine through.

This yields enough broth for the gravy and the stuffing . Use heavy large rimmed baking sheets; regular ones may buckle.

Roasting the turkey and vegetables before simmering them results in a dark stock that takes you more than halfway to a rich brown gravy. The recipe yields enough for the gravy and then some, but you'll be happy to have the extra when it comes time to make soup.

This syrup is an ingredient in Audrey Saunder's Madeira Martinezand Tim Lacey's mint limeade. It may be used in place of simple syrup in many cocktails.

Use roasted garlic to make fresh spinach and roasted-garlic custards . Any leftover roasted garlic will keep in the fridge for up to four days. It's a great addition to mashed potatoes, soups, and salad dressings.

Audrey Saunders, owner Pegu Club, in Manhattan, uses this grenadine in several cocktails, including the Jack Rose, which was featured as a Cocktail of the Month.

This sauce adds a nice kick to Shabu-Shabu. Use it as you would wasabi in sushi restaurants.

Serve this super-easy sauce alongside Shabu-Shabu