Chocolate Panini

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S’mores go uptown. You can make these crisp and gooey dessert sandwiches with any kind of bread as long as it’s fairly sturdy and sliceable. I like to keep it simple with Italian peasant bread, crusty on the outside with a chewy, open crumb on the inside; baguettes cut at a slight angle are nice, too. For the chocolate, choose what you like to eat, which for me is bittersweet. Serve with a scoop of ice cream if you like.

Arroz con Cosas

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Monkfish is a “for instance” here, and what I’ve made most recently. Substitute literally anything (hence the name: “rice with things”). If it’s something that can stand up to pre-browning (as monkfish can, as can almost any meat, many vegetables, and even tofu), do it. If not (tomatoes or flounder, for example), add when the rice is almost done. You can use brown rice, too; cooking time will double, and you’ll need more liquid.

Carnitas Braised in Witbier

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I like making this with Belgian wheat beer because they’re often spiced with coriander and bitter orange, akin to Mexican-style braised meat; they are also a little sour, which lends the meat a nice complexity. The result is delicious, but frankly, you can use any full-bodied, full-flavored beer that you like to drink.

More-Vegetable Less-Egg Frittata

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Frittata is one of those rare any-time-of-day dishes. You can eat it when you make it, or at room temperature, or even cold, straight from the refrigerator. The revelation here is that one egg easily binds two cups of cooked vegetables, and they’re all good! (See my list of recommendations in the notes)

Yogurt-Marinated Leg of Lamb with Cardamom and Orange

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This super flavorful marinade of yogurt, mint, orange zest and cardamom keeps the surface of the lamb from drying out, and gives it a great crust when you roast it. This doesn’t really need any sauce, but a dollop of harissa on the side wouldn’t be a terrible thing.

Cooked Beans, the Quick-Soak Way

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My favorite method and the easiest way to cook beans because most of the time they aren’t cooking at all; they’re soaking. Incredibly, if you start a pot of dried beans from scratch without soaking and start a pot with this method, both will be ready at about the same time, with no difference in taste or texture. What changes is that you don’t have to check as much or add water as often if you soak them.

If you’re cooking lentils or split peas—which take no more than 30 minutes to get tender—always follow the no-soak variation.

Cooking Grains, the Easy Way

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This process will allow you to cook almost any grain perfectly every time. (The most notable exceptions are bulgur, white or whole wheat couscous, and wild rice.) You really don’t even have to measure anything. I’m providing a recipe for the method, but you don’t need it: Put the grains in a pot with water and cook them until they’re done the way you like them. Period.

Boiled or Steamed Crab or Lobster

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Put a dozen blue crabs—or a 3-pound lobster—in front of people, and you’ll be amazed at how much they can eat. It’s important the water be seriously salted: You can cook in seawater, which is nice if you can get it; you can add seaweed, which is charming (and makes a terrific seasoning); or you can use a fistful of salt, as most of us do.

Vietnamese-Caramel Salmon

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Here, the salmon is cooked (poached, essentially) directly in the caramel, which gives it a delicate texture and an unbelievable amount of flavor. It may sound like a strange technique, but this cooking method is classic and totally ubiquitous in Vietnam. Feel free to swap in a different kind of fish for the salmon; red snapper, grouper, black sea bass and catfish will all work.

Bagels

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These are real bagels—bagels with chewy insides and respectable crusts—not the puffy kind sold so often nowadays. Cooking a bagel is a two-step process: First you boil, then you bake. Other than that, they are as simple as any other bread. (Malt syrup, the traditional sweetener, can be bought in some specialized cooking shops or wherever beer supplies are sold.) Helpful illustration below!

Chicken-and-Biscuit Pot Pie

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The Holy Grail of projects—which is probably why frozen pot pies remain so popular. But this recipe busts that myth into flaky bits and puts homemade pot pie on the table in an hour with very little effort.

“Boiled Water”

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This Mediterranean classic, as ancient and almost as simple as boiling, is the quintessential beginner’s or just-plain-basic soup. It’s one you’ll cook forever.

Baked Mascarpone French Toast with Cherries

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For French toast that’s custardy but doesn’t fall apart, you need stale—or at least dried-out—bread. Oven-drying fresh bread gets it there pretty quickly, and the results are worth the extra time. Heat the oven to 200°F and put the bread on a rimmed baking sheet in a single layer. Bake until the bread is dried on the outside but not browned, 5 to 20 minutes per side, depending on the thickness of your slices.

Baked Egg with Prosciutto and Tomato

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It can be challenging to give eggs enough of an elegant twist to serve them to company, especially when the company arrives en masse, as tends to happen during the holidays.
Enter the baked egg, at 15 minutes or so perhaps the slowest common cooking method. But this is in a way the easiest method for cooking eggs in quantity.

Seared Scallops with Pan Sauce

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Here’s the secret to simple and perfectly cooked scallops: Brown them in a hot pan, remove, make a little sauce, then return them to the pan just long enough to heat through and coat with the sauce.

Linguine with Clams

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You can make clam sauce with canned clams, but once you try it with fresh you may never go back; this dish is amazing.