Ramadan

This chiffon cake filled with rose-scented whipped cream is inspired by the aromatics found in Persian, Turkish, and Indian confections. Cardamom seeds have more flavor than the ground powder and are like little explosions of spice in the cake.

These can be prepared a number of different ways. Pick one flavoring, then roll them in the coatings of your choice.

Ras-el-hanout, meaning "head of the shop," is a complex North African spice mixture that imparts a blend of aromatic, spicy, and earthy flavors.

Serve this fragrant, Indian-inspired side dish with all things chicken.

This coconut curry adds a tangy note to a South Indian menu. This recipe is part of our menu for Sadhya, a South Indian feast.

Erisheris are thick curries traditionally made with yams or pumpkin, toasted coconut, and whole kidney beans. They are hearty and earthy, with a tropical twist of coconut and curry leaves. My variation, made with sweet potatoes, crosses over beautifully to a fall or winter menu; I've even served it for Thanksgiving. This recipe is part of our menu for Sadhya, a South Indian feast.

This North African stew is named for the traditional dish it is cooked in. A tagine is a clay pot that consists of a shallow round base and a cone-shaped lid designed to allow all the moisture to flow back down into the base during cooking. The stews known as tagines are often thickened (and flavored) with dried fruits; the recipe here contains dried apricots, but prunes, raisins, and dates are also common. In France, tagines are often accompanied by couscous; while flatbread is more typical in Morocco. This is a nonbrowned stew, similar to the veal stew on page 205, though far simpler to prepare.

Curry paste, the flavor base for many Indian stews, often begins with a puree of onion, garlic, and ginger, which is sautéed with spice blends (masalas) until golden brown and caramelized. There are countless varieties of curry pastes in Indian cooking, and the one in this recipe is among the most basic and traditional. The spice blends used in Indian curries are first either toasted in a dry pan or sautéed in oil; in both methods, the heat stimulates the oils in the spices—you’ll know they are ready when they are fragrant (keep a very close eye on them, to prevent burning). Once you’ve mastered the technique, you can make a variety of curries using fish, shrimp, beef, lamb, goat, or one or more vegetables, such as cauliflower or peas and potatoes.

When you’ve worked with food as long as I have, and have come up with as many desserts as I have, you get to a certain point where many of the dishes you construct are compilations of things you’ve done previously. When we opened Mozza, I had done a cream-filled date tart that I really loved, so I urged Dahlia to rearrange some of its components, and to her credit she came up with this sophisticated rendition of pumpkin pie. We serve it with walnut cookies that are a twist on a Greek walnut cookie that I included in a previous book. Pumpkin purée is one of the few canned items that I endorse, the reason being that it is totally pure—there are no weird ingredients in it, just pumpkin. Also, from my experience, roasting a pumpkin and puréeing it myself doesn’t yield more delicious results than canned. You will need an 11-inch flan ring (a straight-sided bottomless tart ring) to make this.

Dates stuffed with marzipan are an exotic confection of Middle Eastern origin. They are a snap to prepare.

Dried apricots and dates are mixed with honey, shaped into balls, and rolled in coconut to make a chewy, delectable confection.

Steel-cut oats (also called Irish or Scottish oats) take longer to cook than rolled oats but are creamier and chewier.

You can use a blender or a food processor to grind the rolled oats; 1 1/4 cups rolled oats yields 1 cup ground.