Make Ahead

The most refreshing treat of summer is just a few ingredients away.

Cabbage is perfect for fermenting because the cell walls are easily broken down with salt, and the juices that are released quite easily make the brine. While you are chopping and grating your cabbage, eat a piece raw. It will be crunchy and sweet. After fermentation it will be pretty crunchy still, shiny and alive-looking; the sugars will have been eaten by the lactobacillus bacteria (et al); and the sauer that you taste is the lactic acid cleverly produced by the lactobacillus.

Give flaky halibut the foil-packet treatment with burst cherry tomatoes and spicy, paprika-loaded sausages.

This summery, thyme-scented layer cake is easier to pull off than it looks. The genoise-style sponge is made with melted butter for a tender, flavorful base, and sour cream adds brightness to the whipped-cream filling.

The sturdier your cress, the longer this salad will hold up at room temperature.

You can do the first fry ahead of time, then soak the plantains in garlic water, dry, and hold at room temperature until closer to mealtime.

Make extra seasoned butter to eat with pasta, on crusty bread, or, as the name implies, with shellfish.

This Jamaican classic gets richness from coconut milk, heartiness from kidney beans, and an intoxifying aroma from fresh herbs and garlic.

For a salsa that won’t send smoke shooting from your ears, be thorough about removing the seeds from the chiles—and even scraping out the ribs, the hottest part.

Cookie dough lovers, eat your hearts out! Toasting the flour in this egg-free version zaps any bacteria, making the raw dough safe to eat as is.

Because they are lower in starch than Yukon Golds or russets, baby red potatoes hold their shape when tossed.

Green mangoes would be ideal, but slightly unripe mangoes are an imperfect but successful substitute.

Rhubarb’s signature tartness is actually brought down by pickling!

Looking for a throw-together app that seems way fancier than it is? Look no further than this gussied-up goat cheese situation.

Holding the raw oysters in the rice-flour dredge is a genius do-ahead trick, allowing you to shuck and coat the oysters hours ahead of fry time.

Serve with anything and everything—it will get better, spicier, and more Vietnamese-approved over time.

Chocolate cake absolutely has to be two things: dark and moist. To make sure it is sticky and dense I use buttermilk. Adding coffee to chocolate cakes really brings out the flavor in the cocoa.

There's no better way to celebrate warm, sunny days than by sharing these fruity rosé wine ice pops with friends.

This very lemony curd is made with whole eggs instead of just the yolks, which gives it an extra-light texture.