Dried Fruit

This quick-to-make Sicilian side dish can accompany chicken, fish or meats.

Wonton wrappers are used for these samosas instead of traditional pastry dough. Betelnut Pejiu Wu in San Francisco serves them with a tropical chutney.

These caramel-dipped fruits look like jewels and add another layer of elegance to the gingerbread roulade.

This poultry dish features many of the flavors of the classic Moroccan dish b'stilla but is much easier to make.

Can be prepared in 45 minutes or less.

Kind of a cross between a steamed pudding and a brownie, this rich-tasting dessert has only 1 tablespoon of added fat.

An inspired cherry-chocolate dessert.

This dressing is best cooked in a dish of its own, which also allows the top layer of bread to brown to an appealing crisp.

Rightfully this cake belongs in the chapter with the other cakes that contain dried fruit, but to me it is the quintessential coffee cake. It is a quick and easy version of a cake that I remember from my childhood, made by the mother of my school friend, the late Noel Giles. Noel and I consumed about a ton of this cake per year between the ages of twelve and eighteen — a taste of it still makes me feel like a teenager.

The tea adds an elegant complexity to the sauce for the pears, dried apricots, and cherries. Using dried tart cherries instead of Bing cherries helps balance the sweetness.