Beef flap meat is inexpensive and full of flavor, with a coarse grain that absorbs marinades well. Marinate it for 24 hours and pound it with a meat mallet for the juiciest, most tender kebabs.

A long-simmering curry becomes a quick one when you substitute a tender cut of beef sirloin and stir-fry it till medium-rare. Serve the curry with steamed rice or potatoes.

Stir-fry the sirloin, watercress, and egg while the rice cooks so that you'll be ready to assemble the dish at the last moment. Soy sauce and a drizzle of sesame oil flavor the combination perfectly.

Dipping warm corn tortillas in freshly made red chile sauce infuses each rolled enchilada with the smoky-sweet flavor of New Mexico chiles. The hearty cumin scented beef-and-cheese filling stands up well to the bold sauce; for a quicker vegetarian version, fill the tortillas with 1 ounce of melty cheese, like queso Oaxaca or Monterey Jack. Sommelier Liz Martinez of the Daxton Hotel in Detroit, who provided the inspiration for this dish, suggests pairing red chile enchiladas with a Syrah, such as Cattleya The Initiation Syrah. "A super fruity red wine with darker flavors works as a cooling agent for the red spice," she says. "With its brooding fruit and floral aromatics, Syrah is a great match."

No, you don’t need to worry about peeling or coring the apple. The skin crisps beautifully and adds a lovely color, and most of the seeds will fall out during slicing with a mandoline or while cooking.

Great for a weekday meal, this quick, delicious stir-fry combines thinly sliced beef with tender bok choy and a rich oyster sauce.

"I made up this dish to have one thing on my menu that wasn't spicy," says Chris Yeo. He marinates cubes of beef tenderloin in a sesame-oil mixture so it's even more tender, then adds flavor to the mild beef by searing the pieces in shallot-infused oil. The crispy shallots fried beforehand in the oil make a terrific garnish for the beef.

This rich, long-simmered beef bone broth is terrific when used as stock in recipes, but is just as satisfying and delicious enough when enjoyed straight from a mug, gently warmed and topped with a bit of freshly ground pepper. You'll want to make a trip to the butcher to find your soup bones, since they'll need to be halved by the butcher with a bandsaw for maximum flavor in the broth.

Cooked until fluffy and dry like couscous, fonio, a West African staple grain, keeps the meatballs tender while imparting a mildly nutty, earthy flavor.