Stone Fruit

Here's a very simple salad that's loaded with Southeast Asian flavor.

Mangoes are used two ways in this Indian dish — grilled with the chicken and tossed into rice.

Editor's note: The recipe and introductory text below are from Fonda San Miguel: Thirty Years of Food and Art, by Tom Gilliland, Miguel Ravago, and Virginia B. Wood. . This traditional wine punch presents the opportunity to turn robust jug wine and fresh seasonal fruits into a festive party drink. The recipe includes a mix of firm fruits (such as seedless grapes, apple slices, pear slices) and soft fruits (like strawberries, peaches, and kiwi). The soft fruits are added to the glasses at serving time.

The light and clean Asian combination of shrimp and mango is treated to a touch of heat from a bit of fresh chile.

In this simple recipe, salty, smoked ham is paired with sweet mango and onion. The fruit and vegetables are cooked alongside the ham in the covered roasting pan, leaving them meltingly tender. To ensure even cooking, leave the ham out at room temperature for an hour before baking.

Semolina flour gives extra texture to the crust.

This over-the-top cake has impressive looks and moistness. Start the cherries ahead: They soak in brandy for a week and then in syrup for at least two days.

Toast St. Patrick's Day with our drink that combines the quintessential Irish spirit with a classic American cocktail. Serve it on the rocks to better balance the Irish whiskey's peaty note. If you prefer it a bit drier, make the vermouth portion half sweet and half dry.

This dessert needs some last-minute assembly, so appoint a helper or line up the components to make it all go smoothly.

Guava and sautéed mango add subtle sweetness to this elegant dish. What to drink: A crisp, dry white wine with tropical fruit notes, like Pinot Gris.

East meets West in this dessert version of the spring roll.

Kutia This lightly sweetened pudding is the first of 12 traditional dishes served on Christmas Eve in Eastern Europe. Countries such as the Ukraine, Poland, and Lithuania each have their own version, sometimes chilled, sometimes served as a warm porridge. (The dish used to be a tradition in Russia as well, but because of the communist Soviet Union's official atheism, it has become extinct there.) Our version is based on the baked Ukrainian style, which is traditionally made with wheat berries, which require overnight soaking and long cooking. For convenience, we've substituted quick-cooking barley, which packs the same nutty-chewy punch. For the best results, prepare the pudding a day ahead: Let it cool, cover it, and chill it overnight to let the flavors meld. Serve it chilled, plain or sprinkled with cinnamon-sugar.

Because fresh fruit was once scarce in Sweden during the winter, compotes stewed from dried fruits (mixed with a little alcohol to take the nip off the cold) are traditional at Christmas julbord. Here, dried cherries simmered with red wine and Port are subtly spiced with cinnamon and black pepper. This compote partners beautifully with cheese, which is how Magnus Ek serves it; we've also found that it complements the rice pudding in place of warm milk and sugar.

This refreshing treat, from Mridula Baljekar, author of Indian Cooking Without Fat (Metro Books), is a cool finish to spicy dishes.

Maneet Chauhan, chef at Vermilion in Chicago, uses nonfat yogurt to reduce calories but not taste.

Get two of your daily fruit servings with this diet-friendly dessert from Annie Clemmons, pastry chef at Cyrus in Healdsburg, California.

Tasha Garcia and Julie Taras of Little Giant serve these peaches with their Lemon-Spice Bread Pudding . They would also taste great as a topping for pancakes or waffles.