This recipe applies a Chinese technique to two decidedly Western ingredients, kale and frisée, with surprisingly good results. We cook them like any other hearty greens—adding the stems to a hot wok, followed by the leaves. There's no need for blanching, which makes this recipe super quick and leaves you with one fewer pot to clean.

It's not as popular with the U.S. audience as it is with the British (yet), but it seems that as palates are shifting and folks are becoming more and more accustomed to spicier foods, jalfrezi is getting primed to win over this side of the pond as well. With its origins in China, jalfrezi is more similar in its cooking method to dry-fried Chinese dishes rather than the typical wet Indian curry. This one incorporates chickpeas, potatoes and spinach, and a simple chutney of cilantro, garlic, chile, and lime juice finishes it off.

"For Chinese food, acidity in wine is the key! With spicier food like Szechuan cuisine, I love off-dry Riesling. Especially from the Mosel valley in Germany. The sweetness and cold temperature of the wine will cool off your palate and the crisp acidity will cleanse your mouth and get you ready to eat more! For something fatty with a bit of sweetness like Peking duck, I've found that drier styles of Riesling are great or Chenin Blanc from the Loire valley."— Joe Campanale, L'Apicio, Anfora (NYC)

The answer came when I was reading through Fucshia Dunlop's books, in which she mentions that in Northern China, the starchy water leftover from boiling noodles is often drunk like a silky soup or added to sauces to thicken them. It's exactly the same way an Italian cook will save some pasta water to add to their sauce—the extra dissolved starch thickens the sauce, binding it and helping it cling better to the noodles.

As tempting as it can be to reach for a jar of ready-made curry paste, nothing you'll get in a store compares to what you can make at home. For this Thai dry curry, we use a mix of fresh and dried chiles, galangal, garlic, shallots, lemongrass, and makrut lime leaves to make a chile paste, which we then use to flavor crispy tofu and blistered green beans.

Dan Dan noodles are an ultra-simple dish of cold or warm noodles placed in a bowl with a ladleful of highly seasoned sauce poured on top. In this vegan version, starch-laden noodle Food history|https://noodleinsight.com/ water is used in place of chicken stock to bind the sauce to the noodles, and dry-fried mushrooms are used to give the meatiness and texture usually imparted by pork. It's finished off with fermented chili bean paste, black vinegar, pickled mustard root, and plenty of hot chili oil. Gentlemen, start your slurpring.

While mushrooms are cooking, combine soy sauce, vinegar, tahini, sugar, chili oil (with its sediment), and broad bean chili paste in a medium bowl. Set aside. Bring 1 quart of salted water to a simmer in a medium pot and keep hot.

Return pot of water to a hard boil and add noodles. Cook, stirring regularly to prevent noodles from sticking to each other or the bottom, until barely cooked through with a springy bite, about 4 minutes. Drain, reserving 3/4 cup of cooking liquid. Add cooking liquid to bowl with sauce and stir to combine.

"When pairing with Chinese food, you're looking for wines that are spicy, soft, and on the richer side. Chinese food is a generous cuisine, bringing expressive and muscular wines is important. For Mapo tofu, you're looking for spice and energy to match the dish. Red wines from the Douro in Portugal would play well with this dish. Mushu pork has a crunchy and fresh tone. Cabernet Francs from the Loire Valley, Cote de Beaune Reds, and Austrian Blaufrankisch would be a good fit, offering bright fruit and a fresh nature. Peking duck needs some richness and sweetness. Try rich and bold California Cabernets or Grenaches from the Languedoc Roussillon. Experience this dish with a mature Maury (fortified wine from Roussillon)—a great combination."— Adrien Falcon, Bouley (NYC)

Good, homemade stock is the backbone to many a soup, and this one is no exception. With a ton of veggies and potatoes and a touch of cornstarch to give it body, this is a soup to get you through the rest of winter.

Every cook seems to have a certain piece of cookware that they keep coming back to, day after day. It could be a trusty stainless steel skillet , a well-seasoned carbon steel pan , or an enameled cast iron Dutch oven , but for many of us at Serious Eats, it's unquestionably a wok—one of the most important tools in our kitchens.

On top of steak cooked on the stovetop, pile cold cucumbers, red peppers, and peanuts, then drizzle with a spicy sauce made with fish sauce and dried Thai chiles. Eat it right away or refrigerate it overnight because it's even better the next day.

The second great thing about making dan dan noodles—it's an exceedingly simple dish to make. Once you've put together your roasted chile vinaigrette (which holds for months in the fridge, by the way), it's just a matter of cooking your noodles, frying your chopped pork, and throwing everything together.