Sauce

Most braises start by browning the meat. Not this one. The cooked meat is sliced, floured, and seared at the end, which lends a pro touch to this dish.

If you leave this on the thicker side, it's a great crudités dip. Or, thin it and pour onto salad.

If the vibrancy of this dressing fades, perk it back up with more lime juice.

A steak sauce good enough to rival the most popular brand makes this steak (or any, really) even more delicious.

Breakfast is just the beginning. Use this in stir-fries, to marinate tofu, or to glaze chicken as it roasts.

Editor's note: Use this recipe to make Chef David Chang's Bo Ssäm. Ssämjang—a spicy fermented bean paste sold in Korean markets—is a traditional accompaniment to grilled meats. Ssämjang is like the love child of two Korean sauces: a mix of denjang (Korea's funkier answer to Japanese miso) and kochujang, a spicy chile paste. Anyway, rather than just thinning out the ssämjang with oil or water as is most commonly done, we've allied ssämjang with extra kochujang and added vinegar in the mix to bring up the acidity of the sauce.

This sauce is the cook's best friend and the building block of many great French dishes. The powdered stuff sold in stores is not even in the same ballpark. This fond, or foundation sauce, takes my Basic Veal Stock then flavors and reduces it to intensify its power. Fond de Veau does require a bit of preparation and is probably the most expensive sauce I use, but it is so worth it for the potent, authentic flavor it confers to something like sautéed porcini mushrooms or as literally the secret sauce in the Ragout of Lamb Shoulder with Cavatelli.

Can't find Meyer lemons? Mimic their flavor by mixing half lemon zest and juice, and half orange zest and juice.

The BA Test Kitchen likes Grade B maple syrup for its deep and rounded flavor.

You know how guests always ask what they can do to help in the kitchen? Give them this recipe.

Editor's note: Use this sauce to make Suzanne Goin's Sticky Toffee Pudding with Blood Orange, Tangerine, and Whipped Crème Fraîche . NOTE You can make the toffee sauce ahead of time and warm it up when you are ready to use it.

You will be surprised at how quick and easy it is to make real homemade caramel sauce.

Editor's note: Use this with Maricel Presilla's Boiled Yuca (Yuca Hervida) . Ajilimójili (ah-hee-lee-MOH-hee-lee) is the wonderful whimsical name for this Puerto Rican–inspired sauce. How to translate this tongue-twister? It seems that it is a composite of the words ajo (garlic) and moje (sauce), but much more can be drawn from it. In Cuba and the Mexican state of Tabasco, ajilimójili is a colloquialism for the Castilian Spanish intríngulis, a hidden reason that is suddenly revealed, or the workings necessary to pull something off, or the key to making a difficult feat look simple. Why was this sauce called ajilimójili? Perhaps because it has its own ajilimójili—the "inner workings" to make any food it touches splendid. Serve with Puerto Rican Pasteles .

This garlicky sauce is the traditional accompaniment to the starchy root vegetables of the Hispanic Caribbean, especially Cuba. The acidic medium is usually Seville, or bitter, orange juice, though lime juice or white vinegar can be substituted. The mojo is at its best spooned or brushed over piping-hot boiled yuca, plantains, or other starchy tropical vegetables.

Here's a good base recipe for using frozen berries to prepare a flavorful sauce. I find that frozen berries need to cook a little to make them less watery and to concentrate their flavor. Look for raspberries that come frozen in a bag. Feel the bag to make sure all of the individual berries are loose and not clumped together. Bags of frozen berries tend to taste better than those frozen in a block.

I introduced this recipe to the Oyster Bar in the early 1990s. We serve about 12 gallons of it every day.