23 eel recipes

Silky anchovy spread mellowed with milk, enriched with Bel Paese cheese, and spiked with lemon and capers for elegant toast points that taste fancy but take minutes.

Salt-smothered chicken buried in a bed of red-hot rock salt with ginger, tangerine peel, and Szechuan peppercorn marinade sealed in the cavity. An ancient Cantonese technique that steams the bird to silken tenderness.

Cherry and almond Christmas cake: maraschino cherries, apricots, ginger, and almonds macerated in amaretto and brandy, baked into a lighter apple-puree batter, then soaked in more amaretto. A boozy, fruit-packed festive cake that keeps for a month.

Get another taste of the turkey with this hearty soup made with leftovers from that amazing Thanksgiving dinner.

Stir-fried beef with orange peel, Sichuan peppercorns, and dried chiles. The classic Szechuan restaurant dish with tender velveted beef, citrus perfume, and a numbing tingle on the finish.

Red braised pork shoulder slow-cooked in dark soy sauce, Shaoxing wine, star anise, cinnamon, and rock sugar. A classic Chinese hong shao technique for meltingly tender pork.

Hard-boiled eggs steeped overnight in a fragrant brew of black tea, star anise, cinnamon, soy sauce, and tangerine peel. Beautiful marbled shells reveal deeply seasoned, silky eggs.