BasBaas is a spicy Somali sauce served mainly as a condiment to enhance otherwise mild Somali cuisine. In many ways, it is reminiscent of Indian cilantro chutney with a bright zing from lime juice. This is another one of those preparations that can be used as a dip, a condiment or as a traditional sauce on grilled seafood or chicken. We like to use Thai green chilies in our version, but you can use a mix of green chilies that suit your taste. Green habañero peppers make for a spicier sauce while jalapeño peppers are the basis for a somewhat milder sauce.

Lovers of Indian food will recognize this tamarind and date sauce as a popular condiment for fried snacks such as samosas—the vegetable- or meat-stuffed triangular turnover. However, this sauce is also excellent as a dip for fried chicken wings or shrimp kebabs. It can also be spooned over seared chicken breast or filet mignon. Dates provide a sweet counterpoint to extremely sour tamarind paste, but you’ll still need a little tempering in the form of brown sugar. As always, feel free to add more cayenne pepper than is called for in the recipe, if you choose.

This sauce is a great example of how the simplest preparations can offer the most complex tastes. This sauce is usually served as an accompaniment to dim sum in Chinese restaurants, and it is surely addictive. It’s great with dumplings, spring rolls and savory crêpes as well as pan-seared meats or stir-fried vegetables. It’s so good you’ll find yourself looking for things to put it on. Best of all, it’s incredibly easy to prepare.

In this recipe, brown sugar combines with the warmly aromatic flavors of Chinese five-spice powder, which features anise, cinnamon, Sichuan pepper, fennel and cloves and is available in Asian markets. This particular mix is well balanced enough for both sweet and savory uses, but you can increase or decrease the amount of sugar to achieve a more sweet or savory profile to your taste.

This fruit butter is based on the initial steps toward making Black Cake, a Caribbean Christmas cake for which Ramin is famous among our friends and family. The cake calls for dried fruits soaked in rum and puréed then added to a cake batter made with plenty of butter. Normally, the fruits for the cake are soaked for weeks and weeks but we’ve developed a quick method using a microwave to approximate the same flavors. Although it may seem counterintuitive, use a salted butter for this compound butter because the touch of salt enhances the sweet and rummy flavors. This butter is excellent on everything from muffins to waffles and pancakes. It’s even good on toast. Gently toasted nuts mixed with a little bit of this butter, melted, are a delicious topping for Danish and pound cake too.

This elegant sauce came about after experimenting with dried apricots and candied ginger in a bread pudding that was spiced with cardamom and served with a saffron rosewater crème anglaise. The combination of tart, aromatic and astringent flavors was so heavenly it seemed a shame not harness them in a more a versatile form for use with a variety of other desserts. The end result is this syrup, which features apricot brandy as well as apricot preserves. Serve this as a glaze for donuts and fried dough or cakes, as a topping for vanilla ice cream, or brush on custard tarts or cheesecake prior to garnishing with fresh fruit. It’s also excellent on waffles, crêpes and pancakes. Of course, it’s great with bread pudding too!

This vegan caramel sauce is sure to please everyone with its hint of coconut taste and salty notes. We like to use Hawaiian pink sea salt in this sauce, but the more readily available Himalayan pink sea salt works well too. Serve this sauce over angel food cake, pound cake or vanilla ice cream, or use as a drizzle on top of a caramel sundae or whipped cream on a coffee drink or hot cocoa. Coconut sugar is crystallized from boiled coconut nectar in a process similar to extracting sugar crystals from sugar cane juice. Unlike regular sugar, however, coconut sugar has a low glycemic index, which makes it a better choice for those watching their sugar intake. Coconut sugar is available at gourmet and health food markets.

This unusual version of chocolate sauce uses Guinness stout with its caramel and honey notes and underlying toastiness. This sauce is as delicious mixed with milk for chocolate milk as it is over ice cream.

Guava and ginger combine in this glaze for a bright tropical flavor profile that is wonderful for homemade donuts, sweet fritters like beignet or even scones. It is particularly good on banana cake.

You’ll recognize pickled ginger if you’ve ever eaten in a sushi restaurant. It is the pale pink condiment that you see on the side of your plate. With its mix of aromatic heat and sweetness, our version is excellent not just as a side dish to sushi but as a garnishment to desserts, particularly those that have more of an Eastern twist. Younger ginger rhizomes are less woody and more tender, plus only young ginger will have a pink tinge when pickled, so we recommend you try to get those for this recipe.