Cardamom

The semolina bakes into a crunchy layer on the top and bottom but stays moist and delicate within.

When Beatrice Ojakangas published The Great Scandinavian Baking Book in 1988, she won a lot of fans—including Julia Child—who asked Ojakangas to be on her television show. There Ojakangas demonstrated how to make this simplified version of traditional cardamom-scented Danish pastry.

Anybody who knows me knows that I have a soft spot for cupcakes and soy chai lattes, so combining these two creates my own piece of heaven. These cupcakes are moist, tender, and lightly spicy, thanks to the combination of ginger and cardamom. Go ahead and pair with a steaming hot chai latte...you won’t overdo it.

A fragrant butter—infused with cardamom, garlic, and thyme—adds layers of flavor to this stunning steak dinner.

Totally decadent. Naturally gluten-free.

Bring the taste of Persia to your Seder dinner.

Step into January with this healing, brothy Cambodian-inspired soup, perfumed with warming spices, revitalizing ginger, and spicy dried chiles.

A quick marinade infuses the salmon with sweet, herbaceous flavor and transforms it into a stunner of an entrée.

White chocolate gives a rich, creamy finish to these deliciously spiced slice-and-bake cookies.

The warm, sweet spices of masala chai are magic in these homemade doughnuts.

Neither long simmering nor heat-canned, this vibrant, lightly spiced jam couldn't be simpler to prepare. Red-fleshed plums lend a gorgeous garnet color, but any variety works well.

Most people think of ambrosia salad as a cloud of chunky white fruit in a glass bowl with neatly arranged canned mandarins on top. But we've evolved from those dark ages, and it's high time this salad got a makeover. Ambrosia can be reeeaally delicious, if made with the best, freshest ingredients. If you are even thinking about using dried coconut flakes from a bag, don't bother with this. Sweet fresh coconut meat is what makes it a standout. I don't usually go for aperitifs, but a chilled glass of Lillet is perfect with this salad.

Inspired by chile salt-sprinkled mangos, this salad is so deftly seasoned, you won't even notice there's not a drop of oil in the whole dish.

The warming spices of chai flavor this fruity smoothie.

This yogurt mousse is an exercise in nostalgia for me, evocative of two different memories. The first is recent: cold lassi spiked with cardamom, a favorite drink at Indian restaurants. The musky flavor of cardamom just plays well with the tangy, refreshing taste of yogurt. And so does honey, which brings me to my second memory. My mother often served me and my siblings big bowls of plain yogurt with honey swirled in—it was a favorite summer lunch. I remember how the honey laced the yogurt in thick ropes of sweetness. This is a plain yet comforting dish, the two flavors marrying perfectly. I bring these three tastes together here in this dish, and finish it all off with fresh summer apricots. Top the finished mousse with apricot slices, or get fancy and pipe the chilled, set mousse into apricot halves and garnish with mint.