Recipe Sifter

Chilled creamy avocado soup pureed with chicken broth, heavy cream, cognac, and sherry. A no-cook dinner-party starter served in frozen avocado shells.

Oven-baked monkfish in a ginger cream sauce made with white wine, fish stock, and heavy cream. Includes a from-scratch fish stock recipe. Restaurant-quality seafood entree.

Raspberry chocolate truffle pie layers whipped chocolate ganache spiked with raspberry liqueur over a flaky crust, finished with cream and a strained berry sauce. A bistro-quality dessert.

No-bake orange upside-down cheesecake with fresh orange segments set in gelatin, a cream cheese and whipped cream filling, and a vanilla wafer cinnamon crust.

Crawfish Kowalski tosses wagon wheel pasta with crawfish tails, kielbasa, and a beer-spiked cream sauce with cayenne. A bold Cajun-Polish mashup ready in 40 minutes.

Raspberry sorbet spiked with Beaujolais wine, lemon juice, and a touch of cream. A jewel-toned grown-up dessert with a smooth, scoopable texture. No ice cream maker required.

Mouclade, the classic French Bordeaux mussel dish steamed with shallots, white wine, saffron, and cream. Like moules marière's richer, golden cousin.

Light and airy no-bake watermelon chiffon pie in a buttery graham cracker crust. Pureed watermelon, whipped cream, and fluffy egg whites create a cloud-like filling that chills to set.

Southern blackberry jam cake with allspice, cinnamon, raisins, and chopped nuts in a buttermilk batter, frosted with cooked caramel icing and pecan halves. A three-layer heritage cake.

Chocolate truffle cake à la Café de Paris: layered chocolate cake split and filled with a glossy chocolate-fondant-cream ganache, chilled overnight for clean truffle slices.

Stilton mille-feuille layers crisp puff pastry rounds with whipped blue cheese mousse, port-soaked golden raisins, and warm walnuts. An elegant dinner-party first course or cheese-course dessert.

Oyster and spinach soup with pureed oysters, spinach, milk, and half-and-half, finished with broiled whipped cream on top. A rich, velvety bisque-style soup with a golden cream cap.

Lindy's-style New York cheesecake with a buttery shortbread crust, 40 ounces of cream cheese, lemon and orange zest, and a sour cream top. Classic three-temperature bake for silk-smooth texture.

Linguine with white clam sauce keeps it simple: heavy cream, chopped clams with their briny juice, thyme, and onion salt tossed with hot pasta. A 20-minute weeknight Italian classic.

Here's a cake for praline lovers that can be prepared as a layer or sheet cake.

Chilled avocado curry soup blends ripe avocados with chicken broth, curry powder, and cream into a velvety cold soup. No cooking needed, just 10 minutes and a food processor.