402 lard recipes

Oaxacan black mole simmered with charred pasilla chiles, Mexican chocolate, toasted nuts, and fried tortillas. The iconic sauce of saints and celebrations, spooned over poached chicken.

Chinese shrimp balls (pai chiao hsia chiu) rolled in stale bread cubes and double-fried until shatteringly crisp. Served with Sichuan pepper-salt dip. 30 pieces.

Gringo chili: retro American chili built on canned tomato soup, French onion soup, kidney beans, and ground beef. Loaded with ground chile, cumin, and oregano. Weeknight chili with zero apologies.

Beef and root vegetable soup made the slow way: a from-scratch stock from meaty soup bones, then simmered with shank meat, barley, turnip, parsnip, and tomato. Hearty, deeply savory, and better the next day.

Crawfish enchiladas from Gabrielle's restaurant, rolled in corn tortillas with a creamy cheddar-chili sauce and melted Monterey Jack. Where Cajun crawfish meets Tex-Mex soul.

Bigos, Poland's legendary hunter's stew: sauerkraut and cabbage simmered with roast pork, beef, ham, sausage, dried mushrooms, prunes, and red wine. Tastes even better reheated the next day.

A no-bean Texas-style chili with 4 pounds of beef chuck, cactus (nopalitos), serrano chiles, and green tomatoes. Slow-simmered for hours until thick and fiery.

Mock crab roe is a clever Chinese dish of steamed white fish mixed with egg yolks and scallions, then fried into golden nuggets. Served with soy-vinegar dip.

Oat and onion tarts: little British-style savory tarts with crisp oat-and-cheese pastry, slow-sweated onions, and a baked sour cream and cheddar custard. Perfect with drinks or a green salad.

Cajun-style stuffed pork loin roast with deep pockets packed with sautéed onion, celery, and green pepper trinity, all wrapped in a fiery dry rub. Roasted low and slow then blasted hot for a dark, peppery crust.

Spicy tamale pie with simmered beef chuck and pork shoulder, dried chile gravy, raisins, and olives under a cornmeal masa-style crust. Tex-Mex history on a plate.

Porkaghetti platter with pork steak strips braised in tomato sauce with mushrooms, rosemary, and green olives, served over spaghetti with Romano cheese. A retro Italian-American Sunday dinner.

Beer-braised jalapeño chili loaded with beef and pork, three kinds of chiles, and toasted cumin, with no beans in sight. A fiery Texas-style bowl that simmers low in the crock-pot until the meat falls apart.

Mole poblano with turkey and pork simmered in a two-chile sauce of mulato and pasilla peppers, almonds, peanuts, chocolate, and warm spices. Authentic Mexican flavor.

Esquire's Eastern Establishment chili with whole brisket, two types of chile, and a surprising splash of coffee. A refined East Coast take on Texas chili with masa harina thickening and deep beef flavor.

Cucidati, the traditional Sicilian Christmas fig cookies, with a rich filling of figs, raisins, nuts, chocolate and rum wrapped in tender pastry, shaped into slashed horseshoes and dusted with sugar.