When we want to add luscious, sweet-tart flavor to marinades, salads, soups, desserts, and even drinks, we often reach for the pomegranate molasses. This jewel-toned condiment can be found at Middle Eastern markets, but we usually go the DIY route and make it at home. More

Good old mustard. It's so essential to a good deli sandwich or a stand-out vinaigrette, and yet rarely gets the recognition it deserves. Here are a few ways to bring that jar out more often. More

In this week's recipe for bibimbap, I mentioned gochujang, the brick-red Korean condiment rich with spicy, umami flavor. A jar or tub of gochujang is well worth having around, and not just for cooking traditional Korean dishes. More

A few months ago I visited the kitchen of a reader, Lilian, and shot this kitchen tour. Lilian served me a really fabulous vegetable-centric lunch, including a salad with a perfectly balanced balsamic vinaigrette. I mentioned at the time that it was turning into a favorite salad dressing, but I just had to report back and say: It still is a favorite, and I keep a big jar of it around all the time now. It's my favorite balsamic vinaigrette, and here's why. More

Looking to do more recipe-free cooking but wondering where to start? Try experimenting with vinaigrettes.

A basic vinaigrette is a reliable kitchen workhorse, dressing salads, marinating tofu, brightening up a bowl of grains or a salad of smoked fish. But that doesn't mean it has to be boring. Once you have mastered the basic recipe, vinaigrettes are a flexible, inexpensive way to play around with bold flavors. Fresh herbs, grilled citrus, garlic confit and bacon are just a few of the add-ins found in the recipes below. More

Q: I bought Thai chili garlic sauce because I needed a teaspoon of it for one recipe. Now I have the whole jar left.

What else can I use it for?

Sent by Ashley More

The heaviest, most awkwardly wrapped and cautiously placed gift under my Christmas tree this year was a bowl full of homegrown Meyer lemons. While here in New York we're fully ensconced in cellared vegetable season (turnips! beets! potatoes!) my family in California is kicking off citrus season, so I was lucky to have some beautiful Meyers brought straight from Los Angeles.

We blew through a few of them right away — squirted into cocktails and squeezed over ricotta pancakes — but to clear out the rest, I needed a quick solution, ideally one that would keep well and get me through the rough patches of an east coast winter.

More

Home cooks have to be a careful when it comes to a cookbook written by a restaurant chef. There often can be a disconnect between what it takes to get restaurant food onto our home tables when we don't have exotic ingredients flown to our doors and a dozen employees to prep them, not to mention years of professional training and the extraordinarily high btu's of a huge, multi-burner professional stove. So when I picked up San Francisco chef Mitch Rosenthal's new cookbook Cooking My Way Back Home, I'll admit I was a little cautious. Was this going to be one of those books that frustrated me with hours of prep work, and too many ingredients and complicated techniques? Read on for what I discovered. More

When it comes to sweets, one flavor I cannot resist is golden, nutty toasted coconut, so when I spotted a jar of toasted coconut sugar for sale at a local shop, I knew I had to experiment with making my own. Stored in a pretty jar, it looks special, yet the two-ingredient recipe is a snap to make. More

I love making homemade condiments, but not everyone has the time or inclination to make their own ketchup, mustard or hot sauce from scratch. That's why whipping up a big batch of your favorite condiment and bottling it to give as hostess gifts is a gesture that's sure to be appreciated. My pick? Garlicky, spicy and bright Thai sweet chili sauce. More