Yogurt

The foods from North Africa and the Middle East truly have some of the deepest flavors I’ve ever tasted. Don’t be daunted by the length of the recipe: This dish is not at all difficult to throw down, and the results are well worth the long shopping list. The Harissa sauce can be made a day ahead and the caponata is also good by itself or as a side dish.

For me, commercially produced curry power tastes just that: commercial. You would never find prepared curry powder in an Indian restaurant, and because the spices are combined fresh, the flavors are robust and explosive. If you like a light curry flavor, use half the spice mix. If you like a spicy curry—use it all. I won’t be mad at ya. Serve the lamb curry with Perfect Steamed Jasmine Rice (page 240) or basmati rice. This is Bombay the right way.

Tandoori Chicken is a classic northern Indian dish. The word “tandoori” comes from the Hindi word “tandoor,” a tall, cylindrical clay oven originally used in northern India to cook meat dishes and bread. Here, we use a tandoori spice mixture as a marinade for salmon. Traditionalists might balk, but when I’m in a hurry, I use a store-bought tandoori spice mixture. In the convection oven, the salmon cooks quickly and is moist and mildly fragrant. A minty cucumber-yogurt sauce adds an authentic flavor.

Spread this creamy, smoky spread on toasted pumpernickel, flatbread, or bagel chips.

Skip the bottled ranch; make this dressing all winter long to add a tangy kick to salads and crudités.

Frozen yogurt! I mean let's face it: Everybody loves a good frozen yogurt. Adults, tweens, teens, kids, whoever. You've seen it a hundred times at your local ice cream parlor on Sunday in the summer: 9:00 p.m. and the place is packed! A line around the corner, kids playing, everybody's happy; it's the sweet life. For a diabetic, that could go two ways: One way is horribly wrong, and that's if there're no sugar-free items on the board. Or, totally great because they do offer some special items for people with some sort of dietary restriction. Or there's Plan C, which is that you make a batch of this silky, creamy, coconut yogurt at home and relax with the fam on Sunday night. Let the others rush to the corner store and wait in line; your only fear will be whether or not your family leaves you any.

Thick and creamy vanilla bean-infused Greek yogurt replaces the usual dollop of whipped cream for a delicious and low-fat dessert.

Unlock the cure for the common roast turkey with New York City chef Heather Carlucci-Rodriguez's ingenious techniques: First, toast and grind whole spices to coax out their essential oils. Next, marinate the turkey with the spices and yogurt in an oven roasting bag overnight. Then roast the turkey in the bag to lock in flavors and keep the meat ultra juicy. You'll have plenty of richly spiced gravy to pass around the table.

There's a special place in the lexicon of American layer cakes for the classic yellow cake with chocolate frosting. It's practically the standard for birthdays and anniversaries, so it was my top choice when creating a cake to celebrate the first year of publication of Gourmet Live. And if ever there was a version that will elicit either a string of excited OMG's or the low-humming purr of rapturous mmmm's, this is it. Tender, buttery cake layers sandwich a creamy frosting so light and airy it's as if you're nibbling a chocolate cloud. (No offense to dense, fudgy ganache-style icings—of which I'm also very fond—but they don't lend themselves to the kind of exuberant flourishes and swirls of frosting that convey the excitement of a first birthday.) Even a strong-willed soul won't be able to resist a second slice.

Inspired by a recipe from chef Kaori Endo of Nanashi in Paris, this smart, easy dessert shows how well matcha plays with creamy yogurt and fruit.

Use a whipped-cream dispenser to portion the mousse à la minute, or double the ingredients and whip to stiff peaks in a bowl with an electric mixer.

Condiments deliver flavor but often a lot of calories. A light yogurt sauce supplies healthy zip.

Bengali Dahi Maach Tender pieces of tilapia are marinated with caraway seeds, turmeric, and cayenne pepper and then pan-fried until crisp and golden brown. The dish is finished with a yogurt curry enhanced by the spicy flavor of mustard seeds. The result is a great mixture of flavors and textures, and a simple way to prepare versatile tilapia.

"At home I don't even want to use a knife and fork," says Nick Johnson of 43 North in Madison, WI. This sandwich, with store-bought rotisserie chicken, obliges.

When the nights turn blustery and the temperature drops, I know that roasted vegetable season has arrived, and I embrace it with reckless abandon. I'll roast any kind of sturdy vegetable that I can cut up and fit into my oven, but one of my favorites is cauliflower, preferably tossed with whole cumin seeds. Not only does the cumin act as a natural remedy to help reduce the dreaded intestinal gas factor (or so I've been told), but it also adds a pleasant earthy flavor to balance the assertive tang of the vegetable. Roasted cauliflower with cumin makes a nice and simple side dish. Even Dahlia will eat it if she's distracted enough. But recently I made it into lunch. I roasted up a head all for myself, and added a topping of salted yogurt (which is simply a good, full-fat yogurt with a little kosher salt mixed in), a few leftover pomegranate seeds (which I can buy at my local market already picked out of the husk), and a smattering of bright green chopped fresh mint. It was a perfect light lunch. It could even be dinner, served over brown rice, bulgur, or some other filling, toasty grain, for a warming meal to start out roasting season right.

When it comes to nutrition, cherries don't bomb. They're rich in anthocyanins, which can jump-start your immune system and mop up free radicals.

These flavorful frites are not only a clever riff on a fried standard, they're also lamb's best friend. The Middle Eastern accents in the za'atar spice blend pair well with the gamey meat and intensify the eggplant’s flavor. After many experiments, Terzo Piano chef Meg Colleran Sahs discovered that a rice-flour coating resulted in the highest crunch factor.

"This is a play on English cucumber finger sandwiches," says Kinch, who roasts the cucumbers to deepen their flavor. "It also works fantastically on the grill." Use any cucumber, such as Japanese, Persian, or English hothouse, available at supermarkets and farmers' markets.