Raghavan Iyer

Cumin and turmeric give this 30-minute vegetarian stew smoky, warming flavor and vibrant, soul-satisfying color.

When you use a fairly expensive, rich, and well-marbled fish like wild salmon, you want to make sure you don’t clutter it with too many spices or overcook it. Coconut milk maintains that velvety mouthfeel of the fish and provides a stunning backdrop to its orange-pink vibrancy. I serve the salmon with those plump pearls of Israeli couscous that play on your senses with their caviarlike texture.

An Indian-inspired version of the French classic, layered with eye-opening flavors (yes, it hurts so good), this is a great side dish with any of the meat offerings in this book. I love to serve it for Sunday brunch, as a piquant alternative to hash browns.

A pickle-like blend of ingredients called balchao, is crucial to many of Portuguese Goa's meat dishes, and usually incorporates Goa's other passion, feni, a potent alcoholic brew made from either cashew nuts or palm fruit. Also omnipresent in Goan dishes is the highly acidic feni vinegar, which reduces the potency of dried red chiles—as does tart tamarind, another key element in this layered, complex, and fiery-hot paste that peppers its way into many of Goa's curries. Unfortunately, neither the alcohol nor the vinegar is available outside of India (maybe even outside of Goa), and so my offering is devoid of both. Nonetheless, it is very flavorful, with cider or malt vinegar standing in as a perfectly acceptable substitute.