Cabbage

A perfect balance of sweet, savory, soft, and crunchy.

Once separated from the ribs, the pale green leaves of the under-appreciated Napa cabbage are delicate and mild. Tossed with a lemony dressing, creamy avocado, and tiny tomatoes, they make a great cold-weather salad.

Chef Ming Tsai created this recipe for Epicurious's Wine.Dine.Donate program. Serve the potstickers with his dim sum dipper and cranberry-teriyaki glaze.

Editor's note: This recipe is reprinted from The Second Avenue Deli Cookbook, by Sharon Lebewohl and Rena Bulkin. On Succoth, a joyous seven-day autumn harvest festival (a kind of Jewish Thanksgiving), stuffed foods—most notably holishkes, but also kreplach, stuffed peppers, and strudels—are served to symbolize abundance. Stuffed cabbage has been a staple of Jewish cooking since the fourteenth century, when it was introduced in Russia by Tartars. There are an infinity of recipes for it, both Eastern European and Middle Eastern; ours, in a sweet-and-sour sauce, is of Polish derivation. Note: When you're confronted with a bin of cabbages, you'll notice that some are quite light, whereas others have the heft of bowling balls. Choose the lightest ones for stuffing; their leaves peel off much more easily.

Blood orange juice gives the dressing great flavor and color. If you can't find it, use 1/2 cup pomegranate juice mixed with 1/4 cup regular orange juice.

This dish is the vegetable incarnation of mulled wine—the cabbage and onions soak up all the flavor of the red wine and spices, becoming incredibly aromatic.

Make this filling ahead of time; it freezes well and you'll have enough to create four batches of Alan Tardi's delicate <epi:recipe link="" id="235965">agnolotti</epi:recipe>.

Bayerischer Würsteltopf Germans like to layer meats and vegetables in a pot and leave them to cook. Not all their hot pots are all-day affairs, however. This one, a hearty main dish, is ready to serve in half an hour. Most of its liquid cooks away, so this is actually a mélange of broth-poached vegetables and sausage.

To make the prep easier, buy pre-sliced meat and vegetables; they're sold at some Asian markets. If you can't find pre-sliced meat, ask your butcher to slice it for you. Improv: Substitute bok choy for the cabbage, and onions for the leeks.

The richness of pork is lightened with tangy cabbage for a hearty German-style meal that seems made for autumn.

If you haven't thought of duck as comfort food before, this will change your mind. Pasta, confit duck, and Savoy cabbage become the perfect cool-weather dinner—rich and succulent without seeming heavy. If you haven't had confit duck before, trust us: It's just as good as you would imagine duck cooked in rendered fat would be.

Mild fillets get zing from a coating of wasabi mayonnaise.

With two hues of cabbage and two kinds of apples, as well as carrots and yams, this multi-colored slaw will look gorgeous on a picnic or buffet table.

Ellen Chao from Manhattan Beach, CA, writes: "I make this salad when I entertain guests. It looks impressive and tastes delicious. My kids love it, too — especially with the fried wonton skins." When chicken Caesar loses appeal, this salad, with its soy dressing and fried wontons, is a substitute worth the betrayal.

With authentic Asian flavor, this soup is a perfect light supper.

Sugar snap peas add a fresh crispness to this slaw; buttermilk dressing keeps it tangy and light and contrasts nicely with the other dishes on this menu. And it's so easy to make. We bet that, after a taste, you'll never rely on that mayonnaisey deli slaw again.

Baechu Kimchi _ Editor's note: The recipe and introductory text below are excerpted from Eating Korean by Cecilia Hae-Jin Lee and are part of our story on Lunar New Year. This is the mother of all kimchi. When Koreans say "kimchi," this is the kind that comes to everyone's minds. Good either fresh or fermented, it goes with everything from meats to noodles. You will need a one-gallon glass jar or four 1-quart jars. _

Editor's Note: This recipe was originally part of a menu by Bobby Flay for a backyard barbecue. For the complete menu and Flay's tips on throwing a party, click here. I'm always on the lookout for food that can satisfy my need for CRUNCH! Jicama (pronounced HEE-kah-mah), a root vegetable, was one of my favorite discoveries on my first trip to the American Southwest; it arrived there via Mexico. Now you can buy it in many supermarkets across the country; a jicama is about the size of a grapefruit and has a thin brown skin. Crisp as a Granny Smith apple, freshly cut jicama makes perfect slaw.