Pearl Onion

Brushing the underside of the dough with egg wash for this pot pie recipe creates an airtight seal so that steam will push the pastry lids into a dramatic dome during baking.

These bright zesty pickles are equally at home in a cocktail as they are in a salad, with pâté, or as part of a cured meats and cheese board.

You know how sometimes the meat is dry and there's not enough gravy? We fixed that by braising dark meat in a robust pan sauce. Ta-da!

Sweet, tender pearl onions are the star of this reimagined classic, which gets an elegant update with fennel, citrus, and Parm.

This black bean spread gets a hint of unexpected sweetness from the ground fennel seeds. Traditional Mexican dishes often use dried avocado leaf, which has a similar flavor. Try the spread as a base for tostadas or nachos, or serve with chips for dipping.

Aromatic spices and tangy yogurt give great flavor to this quick riff on the Indian classic.

An easy fancy meal with a bonus: Mushrooms and tomato may fight cancer.

This is a winning-contestant recipe from Season Four of FOX's MasterChef.

Whoever believes that bread-based stuffing is the only one worth eating hasn’t tried this wild rice version. Alongside perfectly cooked poultry, its blend of sweet and savory stands out as a great-tasting, healthier alternative to plain old stuffing. Pearl onions are sweeter than their larger cousins and they add a nice visual touch, so seek them out in the market’s frozen section. And to fortify nutrients, substitute with brown rice, which requires a little more cooking time than white.

This recipe is part of the Epicurious Online Cooking School, in partnership with the Culinary Institute of America. To watch it being made, and to learn how to make other Mediterranean classics, check out the video classes.

Okay, rabbit is a traditional meat and curry is a classic sauce, but who knew they went together? Of course, in curry-crazy Britain, you shouldn't be surprised. Traditionally, this dish is called a Scottish curry, but it's really just a British rabbit stew with curry added.

We used frozen pearl onions, but you could use fresh instead. To peel, place them in boiling water for 1 minute, and then let them cool slightly before slipping off their papery skins.

You can substitute frozen pearl onions for fresh, if you like, and skip step 1.

This recipe uses the shredded meat and tomato pieces left over from making the beef stock (recipe follows). Serve over egg noodles or rice.

When it comes to pork loins, I am very much in favor of brining. You do have to start a day ahead, but the end result is succulent and juicy.

A recipe that beautifully demonstrates the affinity that beef and cinnamon have for each other. If you use fresh pearl onions, parboil them for about 30 seconds to loosen the skins, which will make peeling far easier (or use frozen pearl onions; they’re quite good). Serve this over rice or broad buttered noodles. Other cuts of meat you can use here: lamb, pork, or veal shoulder, all of which will cook a little more quickly; boneless chicken thighs, which will cook much more quickly; lamb shanks or short ribs, which will require much longer cooking time.

Like coq au vin, this is a slow recipe that takes careful attention to a couple of ingredients: the bacon must be good slab bacon, nice and smoky and not too lean, and the wine should be fruity and worthy of drinking (there are Burgundies and American Pinot Noirs that meet this requirement and cost around ten bucks a bottle). By all means make this a day or two in advance if you like, then refrigerate and skim the fat if that’s your preference. Reheating will take only about 15 minutes. New potatoes, roasted in olive oil or butter, are terrific alongside this stew, but so is crusty bread. Round things out with a steamed vegetable or salad.