Pork

Marinating the pork in citrus juices gives it a flavor that is perfectly complemented by the slightly spicy sauce. If you cannot find plantains, use ripe bananas.

After being tenderized by a beer marinade, these chops require only a quick turn on the grill or under the broiler to form the centerpiece of a hearty meal.

This recipe originally accompanied Crown Roast of Pork with Apple and Pork Stuffing and Cider Gravy . Part of the terrific stuffing is used to fill the crown roast of pork, and the rest is baked alongside. But if you are making the stuffing to go with other meats, simply bake all of it in a shallow baking dish until a meat thermometer registers 155°F.

This compound butter is great on lamb or chicken, too. Or try it on crusty hot bread.

At Clark's Outpost Barbecue in Tioga, Texas, Warren Clark uses St. Louis-style pork ribs (slabs of ribs that have been trimmed to uniform size) and prepares them in a smoker. To make this recipe easier, we call for the more readily available baby back ribs and suggest a combination of baking and grilling for equally delicious results.

You can use purchased sauce here, your own homemade or the versatile This is terrific over pasta.

Mashed potatoes and Green Beans with Warm Bacon Dressing (see recipe) are great side dishes. Follow with apple pie à la mode.

Our Cuban-style mango mojo could enhance any grilled meat, as could the anise-seed rub. Adding our grilled asparagus and herbed bulgur creates a well-rounded meal, but rice and green beans or broccoli would also work. Active time: 25 min Start to finish: 35 min

We adapted this recipe from Big Bowl Noodles and Rice, by Bruce Cost with Matt McMillin (HarperCollins). Cost likes to stuff dried black Asian"flower" mushrooms. Because these can be expensive and hard to find, we asked if we could try fresh shiitake mushrooms instead. Cost agreed, and we loved the results. Look for shiitakes with caps that have rounded edges to better hold the stuffing. Active time: 25 min Start to finish: 1 hr

Active time: 40 min Start to finish: 4 hr In China, northern China in particular, pork belly — fresh (unsmoked) bacon with skin and bones — is cooked just like the rest of the pig. Chef Susur Lee simmers it, then steams it until its fall-off-the-bone-tender. Pork belly is available at Chinese meat markets and some butcher shops.

This Portuguese classic cooked in the style of the Ribatejo region, consists of pork and shellfish in a red wine sauce. The recipe comes from Antonio's restaurant, in New Bedford, Massachusetts, where they accompany the stew with fried potatoes.

Little spareribs with "oriental" glazes were quite popular in the fifties. The sweet lacquers were composed primarily of ketchup, soy sauce and ginger, and they were nice complements to the rich meat. Forty years of progress at the supermarket have given us access to many more Asian ingredients, not to mention a taste for zestier fare. The glazes today tend to be like this one-complexly flavored and definitely more authentic.

Active time: 10 min Start to finish: 40 min