Soup/Stew

This thick soup has a texture almost like porridge.

Happy Noodle Restaurant uses local farmraised hybrid striped bass, rated a "Best Choice" by Monterey Bay Aquarium's Seafood Watch guide, for this Thai-inspired dish.

The key to this comforting soup? Tons of fresh veggies and a rich broth.

Linguiça, a garlicky Portuguese sausage, and andouille, a smoky Cajun sausage, are both available at most supermarkets.

A little taste of the Southwest to get you in the mood for a rowdy game of Texas Hold'em!

Thai red curry paste and unsweetened coconut milk are sold in the Asian foods section of some supermarkets and at Asian markets. Be sure what you're buying is coconut milk, not sweetened cream of coconut, which is used for cocktails.

New Englanders find the very idea of tomatoes in clam chowder to be abhorrent; of course, by referring to the aberration as "Manhattan clam chowder" they're overlooking the fact that their own Rhode Islanders also add tomatoes to clam chowder. And let's not forget about the hundreds of ethnic cuisines around the world that combine tomatoes with shellfish in soups and stews. Unlike the New England purists, we just don't find an intrinsic problem with clams and tomatoes. We do find, however, that most Manhattan clam chowder served in restaurants is positively awful: thin, unclammy, often tasting like vegetable soup out of a can with a few canned clams thrown in. Try the following recipe, and you'll see how good this soup can be.

Carbonnade is the quintessential Belgian comfort food; this recipe’s caramelized onions, brown sugar, and brown beer make the sweet stew addictive. Chef Palombino also recommends making this carbonnade with any muscular cut of beef that's good for stewing, such as skirt and hanger steaks.

Traditionally, the broth, meats, and vegetables are all served separately, but feel free to serve everything in the same bowl. The beans need to soak overnight, so start this recipe one day ahead.

This Vietnamese dish from Chez Pham is called bun vit mang, a duck and bamboo shoot noodle soup.

This soup is good and velvety on its own, but the chile butter adds a luxurious crowning touch.

The original recipe that appears in my book, Cherries in Winter: My Family's Recipe for Hope in Hard Times is something of a template, a very basic beef stew that allowed for variations. For example, my Nana's recipe didn't call for beef stock cubes, but I find they really boost the flavor. I also added more garlic because I love it. You could add half a cup of red wine if you're going to put it in a slow cooker on low for a few hours and let the wine and meat juices mingle. And you can add beans instead of peas—or in addition to peas! Everyone in my family took this recipe and made it her or his own, and I invite you to do the same.

Anyone who's ever had a garden or raided a cornfield knows that when corn is young you can eat it cob and all, and that the cob has as much flavor as the kernels. That flavor remains even when the cob has become inedibly tough, and you can take advantage of it by using it as the base of a corn chowder—a corn stock, if you will. Into that stock can go some starch for bulk, a variety of seasonings from colonial to contemporary, and, finally, the corn kernels. The entire process takes about a half hour, and the result is a thick, satisfying chowder that is best made in late summer.

The technique used to make this soup can be repeated for other soups, the seasonings—be they sweet or spicy—varied to suit your tastes. Although the soup is good without it, the cheese adds a flavor note that punctuates the natural sweetness of the squash.

I fell for this soup on a trip to the Yucatan Peninsula, where it is a mainstay. It’s light and refreshing—a tasty first course that whets the appetite without ruining it for the main event. It’s a smart way to go if you’re serving heavier fare, such as Cheese Enchiladas with Chile Gravy (page 152) or Fiesta Chiles Rellenos (page 145) for a main course.

Any fat from the consommé can be used to make the matzo balls. If you need to purchase chicken fat, it's available in the freezer section of some supermarkets. Look for fresh lemongrass in supermarkets and Asian markets.

In this pretty soup, sweet fresh peas are enhanced with a bit of mint.