Starter

Active time: 1 3/4 hr Start to finish: 2 1/2 hr

Chayote (often mistaken for a squash) is a fruit with a cucumber-like taste and texture. The sweet-spicy balance of this appetizer goes well with Sauvignon Blanc or beer.

If you can't find fresh fava beans, use edamame (fresh green soybeans in the pod). You'll need to buy two pounds to yield the 3/4 cup for the recipe; do not peel. What to drink: Sauvignon Blanc or a dry Spanish white made from Albariño grapes.

An easy and innovative first-course salad.

Tlacoyos con Queso de Cabra Traditionally these rustic cakes are made with a mashed bean filling. The goat cheese called for here adds a contemporary twist.

Don't be put off by what might look like a complicated technique. It takes more time to describe how to make Parma braids than it does to actually assemble them. Slightly salty and very buttery, these savory croissants are hard to resist. Active time: 2 hr Start to finish: 18 hr

The aged goat cheese called for in this recipe is firmer than fresh and has a dry rind. Two kinds work best in this dish, Bucheron and Pouligny-St.-Pierre, both of which have just the right amount of tang — but ask at the cheese counter for comparable substitutes if you have trouble finding them. Cafe Pasqual's, in Santa Fe, serves its version of this dish — "pigs 'n' figs" — with blue cheese. Active time: 45 min Start to finish: 45 min

Allen Susser is the man behind Chef Allen's, a favorite special-occasion restaurant near Miami. (He is also a cookbook author, has his own line of sauces, puts out a newsletter and has a Web site—www.chefallen.com.) Calling his food New World Cuisine, Susser uses an international repertoire of cooking techniques to prepare dishes with the best local ingredients. His focus on simple but powerful flavors shows in this dish.

Feel free to add, subtract, or substitute any raw or cooked vegetables you'd like, but make sure there's a good variety of textures and colors.

This is one of the never-absent standard-bearers of the Greek meze table, a classic dish found from one corner of the country to the other, on almost every taverna and meze menu.

When fresh wide rice noodles are stir-fried, they are called fun. Fresh rice noodles have to be pulled apart and fluffed before cooking.

A nice side dish for grilled fish or lamb.

These splendidly rich tarts are my version of French onion galettes. Buttery, flaky pastry crusts are filled with deeply caramelized onions that are generously laced with sage. The steps to prepare these tarts may seem familiar, but if you take extra care with them, you'll be amazed by the results. Handle the pastry with precision so that it bakes tender, flaky, and shatteringly crisp; spend the time to slowly and thoroughly caramelize the onions until they melt into a golden marmalade; and give the tarts their final baking as close to serving time as possible. You'll notice the onions are caramelized in a deep saucepan instead of a wide skillet. It makes them easier to stir without flying out of the pan and gives them a chance to soften and stew in their own liquid before it boils away. Once the liquid evaporates, the onions will concentrate and brown, and the balsamic vinegar works to balance the sweetness of the onions and deepen their color. For the best flavor, the whole process should take at least half an hour. Be sure to use regular yellow onions, not Walla Walla, Vidalia, or other sweeter summer onions—they have too much water and do not caramelize well. Serve the tarts as an hors d'oeuvre at any elegant occasion, or as an accompaniment to a seasonal salad for a light lunch or supper.