Winter

Serve this over a bed of soft polenta for catching the juices, with a simply dressed salad on the side.

Some parsnips can have a woody core, which you'll want to cut away before cooking.

This recipe traces a familiar path: Slice fruit and nestle it in some caramel, pour cake batter over the top, bake, and unmold. When you flip over the cake, you'll find it's topped with delicious candied orange slices and citrusy caramel. Stressed about that caramel? No need to be. Keep a distant eye on the sugar once you put it on the stove, but don't hover. Chop some vegetables. Check Twitter. Pet the dog. Every so often, swirl the pan to make sure the caramel is cooking evenly. Don't bother stirring (the sugar will only clump up on your spoon). Once the mixture starts to color, swirl it slightly more frequently. When it turns an attractive chestnut brown, take it off the heat, add your premeasured butter and salt (and a splash of booze, if you want), and stir.

If you can't find freekeh, use another whole grain, like spelt or rye berries.

One whiff of this hearty, fragrant sauce bubbling on your stove and you'll think you've just parachuted into the Apennines right in front of a trattoria, in sheep country. The mountains of central Italy—notably in the Abruzzo and Molise regions—have always been populated by shepherds. Consequently, lamb is the basic meat, and the cheeses are made from sheep's milk. Shoulder would be our cut of choice, but really any lamb stew meat will do. Even though the recipe calls for boneless meat, if you have some lamb on the bone, throw it in. The bones will add flavor and will be easy to remove once the sauce is cooked. Lamb is fatty, so the sauce will benefit from overnight chilling and subsequent degreasing. But if you can't bear to throw away that yummy lamb fat, roast some potatoes Italian style—cut up in small pieces with lots of rosemary—and use the lamb fat instead of olive oil.

Just as American children anxiously await their Christmas gifts months in advance, I anxiously awaited this scrumptious cake. Nian-Gao, New Year's cake, is one of the most important holiday dishes in many Asian countries. Eating Nian-Gao during the New Year's celebration is said to bring safety and fortune to the entire family for the coming year, though I now make it for family gatherings throughout the year.

The addition of an anise-flavored liqueur turns this hot cocoa into the liquid version of chocolate-covered licorice.

My mother grew up in Bad Nauheim, Germany, where she helped her parents with their inn and restaurant called Die Krone (The Crown). When I was growing up, she cooked several traditional German dishes, but one of the most memorable for me was her recipe for sweet-and-sour red cabbage. Though I was a pretty picky eater, I adored the cabbage and loved how it colored the mashed potatoes my mother would always serve with it. Mom never wrote the recipe down for me, but I reached out to German relatives and re-created it. I hope you enjoy it as much as I enjoyed taking the trip down memory lane. Grating the cabbage takes a while, so make sure to have some good tunes on!

Two humble ingredients have big impact here: The Parmesan rind adds richness; the dried beans deliver creaminess.

This light but richly flavored broth is good with any fatty, skin-on fish fillet, such as Arctic char or sea bass.

Our favorite Dutch oven is heavy-duty, big enough for any stew, and handsome enough to put on the table.

The broccoli can be cooked early in the day, but toast the bread just before assembling so it doesn't dry out.

Make this dish ahead of time: It's great at room temperature.

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.

Kabocha squash is made for purées.

Rather than fussily cutting the grapefruit into neat segments, Mattos cuts them crosswise into disks; he likes the slightly bitter flavor of the membrane itself.

This stew calls for water instead of stock to be added. The pork shoulder will create a rich cooking liquid on its own.

A mix of fragrant spices, garlic, and fresh ginger turn this stewed chicken into the most perfectly warming dinner for an October Sunday.

Think of the crunchy, granolaish sesame clusters as seedy croutons for this juicy and bracing salad.

Rompope is served chilled, often over ice, but it can be served warm, which is how I prefer it when cold weather sets in. Either way, it's rich, velvety, fragrant, and certainly full of cheer.