Recipe Sifter

Cajun crawfish fettuccine in a rich cream sauce with onion, celery, scallions, and a kick of cayenne. A Louisiana-style pasta dinner ready in 25 minutes.

Boston brown bread steamed in coffee cans with cornmeal, rye flour, whole wheat, buttermilk, molasses, and raisins. Dense, moist, and slightly sweet with no oven required.

Fruit cocktail cake with a moist sour cream batter spiced with cinnamon, nutmeg, and clove, studded with canned fruit cocktail. The retro pantry-staple cake from a 1960s Sunday-supper card.

Tiny cookie cups filled with a rich pecan-Kahlua topping.

Moist wholemeal zucchini cake topped with sliced apple, crunchy walnuts, and warm allspice. Baked in a ring tin, this one's brilliant warm or cold with a cuppa.

Mexican cebiche with mackerel fillets cured in fresh lime juice for five hours with serrano chiles, tomatoes, olive oil, and oregano. A no-cook seafood dish that lets citric acid do the cooking.

Quick Italian tuna spaghetti in a savory tomato sauce with green peppers, onions, and oregano. A pantry-friendly pasta dinner on the table in just 25 minutes.

Savory whole wheat paratha spiced with garlic, ginger, green chili, turmeric, and cumin. Griddle-cooked and dry-fried for golden, flaky layers without deep frying.

Rich, deeply roasted brown veal stock simmered for 12 hours with carrots, onions, celery, garlic, and bay leaves. This restaurant-quality base stock is the backbone of French sauces, braises, and soups.

Old-fashioned date and pecan cake baked low and slow in a tube pan. More fruit and nuts than batter, with a dense, rich texture similar to fruitcake.

Greek-style baked shrimp with feta (shrimp saganaki style): jumbo shrimp baked under crumbled feta and breadcrumbs, drenched in a garlic-rosemary-oregano scampi butter. Served over pasta or rice.

Loaded oatmeal cookies packed with chocolate chips, butterscotch chips, raisins, and walnuts in a brown sugar and cinnamon dough. Chewy, chunky, and stuffed with mix-ins.

Festive lebkuchen cookies made with honey, brown sugar, allspice, and lemon. A traditional German Christmas cookie decorated with white icing.

Chestnut-stuffed mushrooms on buttery whole-wheat croûtes: pan-fried mushroom caps filled with a chunky chestnut, onion, and nutmeg stuffing, grilled until bubbling. A festive vegetarian starter.

An old-school New England clam chowder built on rendered salt pork, a quart of chopped clams, cubed potatoes, and whole milk finished with butter. No flour, no cream, just pure Yankee tradition.

Maple butterscotch brownies (blondies) packed with brown sugar, walnuts, and warm maple flavor. Chewy New England-style bar cookie with a caramel-rich crumb and dense, fudgy center.