Dried Currant

With glacéed fruit, spices, and no small amount of rum, this elegant fruitcake recipe is no joke.

These fruit-laden muffins smell exactly like hot cross buns as they bake and taste just as satisfying, but with a fraction of the effort.

Crystallized ginger adds spice to this brunch staple.

Mince pies, basically rich tarts filled with dried fruits and spices soaked in alcohol, were once a status symbol because only the rich could afford these delicacies. The combination of fruits and spices is often diverse, but raisins, currants, and candied lemon, citron, and/or orange peel are standard. Some old recipes also contain prunes, dates, figs, or candied ginger. Spices are usually cinnamon, cloves, mace, and nutmeg. There is always grated apple or pear and sometimes also lemon or orang.…

This super-flavorful dish spins the flavors of shish barak—lamb and pine nut dumplings from the Levant—in a pasta direction.

Bound together with honey and nut butter, these just-sweet-enough bars are sturdy enough to throw in a beach bag and substantial enough to power you through til sunset.

While brandy is the traditional partner for fruit cake, you could also try using a dessert sherry such as Pedro Ximénez. It’s an intensely sweet, dark sherry made from the Spanish grape variety of the same name. Perfect in festive cakes, puddings and custards, you can find it in liquor stores.

It’s hard to know if a parsnip will have a woody core, but generally speaking, small ones are tender throughout. Worst case scenario? Trim the tough centers before cooking.

Make a hearty, vegetarian, tagine-inspired dinner in just 20 minutes with only pantry ingredients.

Berbere, the Ethiopian chile-based spice blend, punches up these baked meatballs while a quick sauté of radishes, garlic, and wilted kale rounds things out.

Nduja is traditionally made with pork, but because salmon is a fatty fish, it works well too.

Mimicking traditional semolina pasta, cauliflower "rice" takes on fragrant Persian spices in this grain-free take on couscous.

When you peel the kabocha squash for this recipe, use a vegetable peeler—not a knife. (Better to dull a $4 tool than your best kitchen blade.)

I love the taste and color of sweet potatoes and yams. They are packed with vitamins and minerals and are delicious to boot! This bread is sweet enough for dessert and savory enough for dinner.

This couscous salad is just right for a late summer barbecue.

Here, dried currants, walnuts, and matzo meal combine to make a rich, savory stuffing for the Passover roast chicken.

Coming up with a scrumptious, satisfying vegetarian main dish for the holidays can be tricky. Search no more! This stuffed squash is loaded with classic fall flavors, and thanks in part to the Vitamix wet-chop, the prep for this dish is relatively simple.

The usual slaw suspects get a modern upgrade thanks to a salty-cheesy walnut pesto.

The Zuni roast chicken depends on three things, beginning with the small size of the bird. Don't substitute a jumbo roaster—it will be too lean and won't tolerate high heat, which is the second requirement of the method. Small chickens, 2-3/4 to 3-1/2 pounds, flourish at high heat, roasting quickly and evenly, and, with lots of skin per ounce of meat, they are virtually designed to stay succulent. Your store may not promote this size for roasting, but let them know you'd like it. I used to ask for a whole fryer, but since many people don't want to cut up their own chickens for frying (or anything else), those smaller birds rarely make it to the display case intact; most are sacrificed to the "parts" market. But it is no secret that a whole fryer makes a great roaster—it's the size of bird favored for popular spit-roasted chickens to-go. It ought to return to retail cases. The third requirement is salting the bird at least 24 hours in advance. This improves flavor, keeps it moist, and makes it tender. We don't bother trussing the chicken—I want as much skin as possible to blister and color. And we don't rub the chicken with extra fat, trusting its own skin to provide enough. But if the chicken is about method, the bread salad is more about recipe. Sort of a scrappy extramural stuffing, it is a warm mix of crispy, tender, and chewy chunks of bread, a little slivered garlic and scallion, a scatter of currants and pine nuts, and a handful of greens, all moistened with vinaigrette and chicken drippings.