Ramadan

In Ethiopia, the preparation of berbere takes days—chilies are dried in the sun for three days, then ground in a mortar and pestle, mixed with ground spices, and set in the sun to dry again—and it is usually made in huge amounts. Each Ethiopian family has its own recipe for this universal seasoning, with varying degrees of heat and spiciness. Traditionally, berbere is used to flavor Ethiopian stews, but I also like to use it as a rub for beef and lamb.

Shawarma is the Middle Eastern version of a large vertical shish kebab known as doner kebab in Turkey and gyro in Greece. It's made by impaling layers of meat on an oversize spit with a flat base and roasting the meat in an upright rotisserie. There are at least three advantages to this singular method of cooking. The dripping fat bastes the meat below it; the meat is sliced to order (at least it should be) from the outside, which gives every customer a crusty end cut; and because the crusty meat slices are piled on pita bread with fresh vegetables, pickles, and tahini sauce, you get a whole meal—and a healthful one—in a single sandwich. Traditionally, shawarma was made with lamb, but more and more Israeli grill masters use thinly sliced chicken or turkey. Shawarma is easy to prepare if you have a vertical rotisserie, and somewhat more challenging to adapt to the home grill. But direct-grilling the turkey slices does give you a close approximation of the taste and texture of classic shawarma.

This recipe originally accompanied Turkey Shawarma .

Musa Dagdeviren is the go-to guy if you want to know about Turkish barbecue. Spend a couple of hours with him in the open kitchen of one of his Çiya restaurants (in Istanbul), and you'll wonder if there's anything he doesn't know about Turkish cuisine, let alone grilling. He'll start with chicken thighs marinated in creamy Turkish yogurt, chile paste, and garlic—to be grilled on skewers over charcoal. Before you know it, he's grilling meatballs, quinces, shallots, even bread dough loaded with ground beef. Here’s one of the "simpler" dishes in Musa's repertoire—if simple means merely marinated, spice-crusted, and grilled—and the combination of creamy yogurt, pungent garlic, and smoky pepper flakes produces the sort of chicken that has made the Turks the Near East's undisputed grill masters for centuries.

The yogurt in this lightly spiced marinade results in extremely tender lamb, chicken, or shrimp.

The traditional Egyptian breakfast of dried fava beans is also the national dish, eaten at all times of the day, in the fields, in village mud-houses, and in the cities. Restaurants serve it as a mezze, and it is sold in the streets. Vendors put the beans in large, round, narrow-necked vessels, which they bury through the night in the dying embers of the public baths. Ful medames is pre-Ottoman and pre-Islamic. It is probably as old as the Pharaohs. According to an Arab saying: “Beans have satisfied even the Pharaohs.” Egyptians gleefully tell you that the little brown beans have been found in pharaonic tombs and have been made to germinate. There are fields of them, and promotional explanations on fake papyrus by the Ministry of Agriculture. Of course, they could have been put there by tomb robbers. There are many types of dried fava beans—small, middle-sized, and large, all of which can be used—and there are very good-quality canned ones. Most expatriates are happy with canned ones, which they improve on with flavorings and trimmings. These need to be turned into a pan with their juice and cooked for 15 minutes.

Chef Lynne Gigliotti adapted this Gourmet magazine recipe and added two ingredients often found in traditional versions: saffron for color and yogurt to make the tah-dig (which Gourmet defines as "the crunchy crust of rice on the bottom of the pot") extra crispy and flavorful. The tah-dig is the defining characteristic of Persian rice, a crisp, golden disk that is served atop the fragrant, steaming dish.

Buttermilk and cake flour are the secrets to the incredibly light texture of this sophisticated cake with its gooey caramel topping. It's baked in a cake pan on a baking sheet to prevent the dates from getting tough.

Gajar halva is a luxurious Indian dessert made from carrots slowly cooked down with sweetened milk and spices. This version is fast enough for weeknights and brings the warmth of the Indian sun to mind.

The North African hot sauce called harissa lends this soup its beautiful brick-red color, as well as a deep, spicy warmth that isn’t the least bit aggressive. For a supper that’s both robust and rejuvenating, chard, chickpeas, and noodles go into the pot, too.

These muffins are inspired by a favorite dessert: sticky toffee pudding. But they are revamped for breakfast and renamed with hope that as you present your beloved with a plate of these, you'll be invited to open your Filofax and check on next Friday night.

In Turkish cookery there's a distinctive group of dishes known as güveç, which take their name from the earthenware pot in which they are cooked—in the same way that the tagine does in Morocco. In rural Anatolia the cooking pots may be sealed and buried in the ashes of a fire to cook slowly overnight—or, only slightly less romantically, in the local baker's oven. If you don't have a clay pot, a heavy-based cast-iron casserole dish will serve almost as well. Güveç dishes encompass all sorts of meat or poultry cooked with legumes, vegetables and fruits. My addition of star anise is not remotely Turkish, but it adds a wonderful layer of aniseed flavor. This güveç is spicy with a lingering sweetness, so serve it with a light salad or braised wild greens. A dollop of yogurt would also be delicious. Sucuk is a spicy Turkish sausage and can be found in Turkish or Middle Eastern butchers and some specialist delis.

Jasmine rice is native to Southeast Asia. When cooked, its long grains become soft, seductively aromatic, and nutty in flavor.

They look like sticky buns, but these sweet, gooey treats are actually made from biscuit batter. They're great with brunch.

Satay is an Indonesian-style kebab served with a spicy peanut sauce. Here, we've amped up the sauce's flavor with some sweet peach nectar.

Honey and dates make this dessert perfectly sweet (but not too sweet) and sticky. Pecans add a nutty crunch.

"Anyone who has spent time in any North African country has stories about mint tea so sweet that the glass sticks to their lips," says Zadi. His version, though a strong tea, is light on the sweetening.

Editor's note: The recipe and introductory text below are from Mark Bittman's book How to Cook Everything Vegetarian. Pita makes a wonderful crust for this stuck-pot recipe, but you can use tortillas or lavash instead (see the Stuck-Pot Rice and Beans with Tortilla Crust variation). This dish is quite complex in both flavor and texture, and the earthy lentils with lightly caramelized onions and sweet bits of dates or raisins are delicious. Use oil, and this becomes vegan.