Serves 4 to 6

Cut back on the pickled jalapeños if you like your enchiladas on the mild side. Sour cream, diced avocado, shredded lettuce, and lime wedges make great enchilada sidekicks—let everyone at the table pick and choose as they wish.

Serves 4 to 6 as an entrée

The alcohol in the dough is essential to the texture of the crust and imparts no flavor—do not substitute for it or omit. Masa harina can be found in the international aisle with other Latin foods or in the baking aisle with the flour. If you cannot find masa harina, replace it with additional all-purpose flour (for a total of 4 cups). After step 5, the empanadas can be covered tightly with plastic wrap and refrigerated for up to 2 days.

SERVES 8 TO 12

We prefer natural to enhanced pork (pork that has been injected with a salt solution to increase moistness and flavor), though both will work in this recipe. Add more water to the roasting pan as necessary during the last hours of cooking to prevent the fond from burning. Serve the pork with the accompanying peach sauce or cherry sauce (related recipe) or with a sweet-tart chutney.

WHY THIS RECIPE WORKS:
Bone-in pork butt takes longer to cook than boneless but retains more moisture and cooks more evenly. We started our slow-roasted pork shoulder recipe by rubbing our roast’s exterior with brown sugar and salt, then left it to rest overnight. The sugar dried out the exterior and boosted browning. Elevating the pork shoulder on a V-rack and pouring water in the roasting pan kept the slow-roasted pork’s drippings from burning as it roasted. It also created a significant jus with no burning. Finally, a fruity sauce recipe with sweet and sour elements cut the slow-roasted pork shoulder’s richness.

Makes about 40 dumplings, serving 6 to 8 as an appetizer

Do not trim the excess fat from the ribs; it contributes flavor and moistness. Use any size shrimp except popcorn shrimp; there’s no need to halve shrimp smaller than 26 to 30 per pound before processing. The dumplings may be frozen for up to 3 months; cook them straight from the freezer for about an extra 5 minutes. Read about our favorite steamer basket in related testing. To jury-rig one, follow the instructions in related How to Cook. For more options on wrappers, see related How to Cook. Serve shu mai with store-bought chili oil or make your own (see related recipe).

Serves 4 to 6

The trimmed pork should weigh about 1 1/2 pounds. Tinga is traditionally served on tostadas (crisp fried corn tortillas), but you can also use the meat in tacos and burritos or simply served over rice. Make sure to buy tortillas made only with corn, lime, and salt—preservatives will compromise quality. For tips on baking tostadas, see How to Bake Tostadas (related). Our winning brand of ready-made tostadas, Mission, is also an excellent choice. We prefer the complex flavor of chipotle powder, but two minced canned chipotle chiles can be used in its place. The pork can be prepared through step 1 and refrigerated in an airtight container for 2 days. The tostadas can be made up to a day in advance and stored in an airtight container.

Serves 6 to 8

Our recommended beef broth is Rachael Ray Stock-in-a-Box Beef Flavored Stock. Chilling the whole cooked pot roast overnight improves its flavor and makes it moister and easier to slice; for instructions, see “Make-Ahead Pot Roast.”

Serves 6 to 8

The chimichurri sauce can be made up to 3 days in advance. Our preferred steak for this recipe is strip steak, also known as New York strip. A less expensive alternative is a boneless shell sirloin steak (or top sirloin steak). We prefer oak, but other types of wood chunks can be used. Flipping 3 times during cooking allows for even cooking and limits flare-ups. To substitute table salt for kosher salt, halve the amounts listed in the recipe.

Serves 6 to 8

A pair of kitchen shears works well for punching the holes in the aluminum pan. We prefer a top sirloin roast; see “Best Cheap Roasts for Grilling,” below, for other roasts that can be used with this technique. Start this recipe the day before you plan to grill so the salt rub has time to flavor and tenderize the meat.

Serves 4

Make sure to dry the potatoes well before tossing them with the cornstarch. For safety, use a Dutch oven with a capacity of at least 7 quarts. Use refined peanut oil (such as Planters) to fry the potatoes, not toasted peanut oil. A 12-inch skillet is essential for cooking four steaks at once. The recipe can be prepared through step 4 up to 2 hours in advance; turn off the heat under the oil, turning the heat back to medium when you start step 6. The ingredients can be halved to serve two-keep the oil amount the same and forgo blanching and frying the potatoes in batches. If you prefer not to fry, follow our recipe for Oven Fries, (see related recipe).

WHY THIS RECIPE WORKS:
Too often, steak frites in American restaurants miss the mark. The fries are usually too soggy and the steak just isn’t as flavorful as it should be. We wanted to re-create the steak frites of our Parisian dreams, with perfectly cooked steak and fries that are fluffy on the inside and crisp on the outside, even when bathed in juices from the meat.

For our fries, we liked high-starch russet potatoes and found that double-cooking, or a low-temperature “blanch” in oil followed by a high-temperature “fry,” yielded the crispiest exterior and fluffiest interior. Cooking multiple small batches of fries ensured that the oil’s temperature wouldn’t plunge too much. Soaking the potatoes in cold water before they were cooked further improved their crispiness, and a “rest” between the first and second frying allowed the fries to develop a thin coating of starch, which even further improved their crispiness. Tossing them with additional starch—in the form of cornstarch—made them perfect.

In France, steak frites is usually prepared with a cut called entrecôte (literally, “between the ribs”), which is a French cut you won’t find in the States, but is actually quite similar to our rib-eye steak. Choosing the right size—or cutting them to fit—meant we could sear four steaks at once in a large skillet. Capped with a quick herb butter, the steaks tasted just like the bistro classic of our dreams.

Serves 4

We prefer natural to enhanced pork (which has been injected with a salt solution to increase moisture and flavor). If using enhanced pork, omit the brining step. Look for ribs that are about 3 to 5 inches long. Cut ribs over 5 inches in half crosswise before slicing them lengthwise to make pounding more manageable.