Sunset January 2015 Recipe Collection

Flavorful, non-wheat flours can be tricky to work with, as master baker Alice Medrich learned while developing recipes for her book Flavor Flours (Artisan Books). They each need to be approached on their own terms, and one usually can't be substituted for the other. The tasty exceptions: Any kind of new-to-you flour can be given a test-drive in pancakes, waffles, and crêpes. Here's Medrich's basic pancake recipe, a delicious template for experimentation.

Earthy buckwheat is blended with ginger, spices, molasses, and toasty-tasting brown rice flour to make an unexpectedly light muffin that's great with sour cream or butter. Be scrupulous in your timing with the food processor; "overprocessing buckwheat flour can make the muffins mushy," Medrich says. For more on the ingredients, see "Power Flours," below.

These jewel-like citrus curls are delicious on their own and add flair to desserts such as Medrich's Corn Flour and Orange Blossom Chiffon Cake.

This bright and earthy braise, adapted from Paula Wolfert's The Food of Morocco (Ecco, 2011; $45), is a regular on the cafe menu at Chez Panisse, in Berkeley. The restaurant cures its lemons the traditional way; for our shortcut, see "Speedy Preserved Meyer Lemons."

"I grew up with this recipe in northeast Brazil," says Perlla Fonvielle. These days, she makes it with wild Oregon shrimp.

"If cornbread were transformed into a sweet, moist, fluffy golden cake, this would be it," says Medrich. She tops it here with whipped cream and crème fraîche, and curls of candied orange zest, but she likes it plain too. You'll need a 10-in. (10 to 12 cup) tube pan with removable bottom for this recipe. For more about corn flour and rice flour, see "Power Flours," below.

West Coast Dungeness crab and Meyer lemons, both in season now, come together deliciously in this special-occasion pasta. At A16 Rockridge, chef Rocky Maselli made it with housemade squid-ink tonnarelli; we opted for fettuccine since it's easier to find.

Inspired by the explosion of pre-popped popcorn on the market, we came up with some fresh and easy snacks of our own. The key to flavorful popcorn is to toss it very well with the butter first, then with the seasonings.

Grilling the kale leaves whole makes them slightly crunchy and smoky tasting. Just make sure they're completely dry or else they'll steam and wilt.

In winter, when most of the country hunkers down under gray skies, Suzanne Goin serves sunny Meyer lemon salads like this one at Lucques in West Hollywood. To enjoy the whole lemon slices, cut them very thinly; if your knife skills aren't restaurant-ready, use a handheld slicer.

A polenta cake from pastry chef Hannah Buoye, of A16 Rockridge in Oakland, was the model for this dense, moist dessert. As the sliced lemons bake under the cake and absorb butter and brown sugar, they take on a marmalade-like quality. Be sure the cake is fully baked before you remove it from the oven (see step 6), or it may sink.

This addictive recipe by Gayle Pirie and John Clark of San Francisco's Foreign Cinema is integral to their Scrambled Eggs with Meyer Lemon Salsa Verde. But it makes enough that you'll have some left over for grilled bread, steaks, or sardines; roast chicken or vegetables; or sandwiches.

These delicate French-style butter cookies melt in your mouth--a surprise, given oat's reputation for sturdiness. For more about the ingredients, see "Power Flours," below.

Adding a bit of the cooking water at the end melts the cheeses into a creamy sauce that lightly coats the pasta.

Savoy cabbage is mild and tender even when raw, making it ideal for this light accompaniment to rich sablefish. The recipe is also excellent with 4 boned trout fillets, and the slaw tastes good with chicken or pork too.

Think mac 'n' cheese--but with vegetables instead of noodles. This gratin is a warming winter side dish, though it's so good you might be tempted to call it dinner.

Bite-size meatballs and tender vegetables make this soup satisfying; the touch of cream and nutmeg stirred in at the end rounds out the flavors. Homemade broth will add depth, but store-bought works fine.

The combination of a vibrant Italian-style sauce and three robust cheeses makes these scrambled eggs nothing short of spectacular. The recipe comes from chef-owners Gayle Pirie and John Clark of Foreign Cinema in San Francisco.

Inspired by the explosion of pre-popped popcorn on the market, we came up with some fresh and easy snacks of our own. The key to flavorful popcorn is to toss it very well with the butter first, then with the seasonings.

Lamb makes for an interesting flavor break from beef. If you prefer less spice, just reduce the amount of chipotle powder.

Crème fraiche adds a subtle tang to ordinary whipped cream.