Dairy

Can be prepared in 45 minutes or less.

Active time: 45 min Start to finish: 45 min

The yogurt in this recipe adds lightness and a mild tangy flavor.

Can be made in 45 minutes or less.

Can be prepared in 45 minutes or less.

Editor's note: The recipe and introductory text below are excerpted from chef Neil Perry's book Rockpool. Neil also shared some helpful cooking tips exclusively with Epicurious, which we've added at the bottom of the page. For your convenience, we've converted the measures — with as much accuracy as possible — from Australian to American. For those who have metric equipment and wish to follow Neil's recipe to the milliliter, we've included the original measures too. To read more about Neil and Australian cuisine, click here. In this dish, the combination of pastry, fish, sauce, yoghurt and spinach makes a complete dish. The cardamom and tomato are a perfect match, and the fish steams gently inside as the outside of the pastry crisps up. This dish also works beautifully with the flat fish of Europe and America. It is important that the vegetables are well-seasoned and cooked until they caramelise to impart their flavour to the sauce. The depth of flavour of aromatics is so often lost when they are not allowed to do their job properly. The Tomato and Cardamom Sauce goes nicely with all seafood; its deep, rich flavour enlivens the taste buds. The tomatoes are cut up, skin, seeds and all. Slice into thin rounds, then into julienne and chop the julienne to give a uniform dice. Don't chop them as if cutting for concassé, they lose too much juice that way.

We used grocery rotisserie chickens for this recipe, but leftover turkey from the holiday table works equally well.

Can be prepared in 45 minutes or less.

To many people living in the middle of the country, celebration cakes must be chocolate cakes — especially German chocolate cakes. This one embellishes the tradition, using unsweetened chocolate instead of sweet chocolate, a luscious caramel-coconut filling between the layers and lots of creamy chocolate frosting. (By the way, German chocolate cakes have nothing to do with the immigrants who settled in the heartland; the name actually comes from the fact that the cakes were first made with Baker's brand German's sweet baking chocolate.)

There is hardly a wedding or garden party in the Lowcountry without these yeast biscuits. They are small, only about an inch in diameter, and they are split to hold slivers of salty country ham tempered with dollops of chutney or mustard. One ham provides enough meat for 200 to 250 biscuits. These doubly lightened breads — really yeast rolls — are also called "angel biscuits" and "bride's biscuits." Bill Neal has suggested that the "bride" is the inexperienced cook who needs the insurance policy of the double leavening.

In Sweden various combinations of matjes herring — a type of herring cured in a spiced sweet-and-sour brine — are eaten with the first tender white potatoes of the season. Can be prepared in 45 minutes or less.

A delicious take on lasagne, made with tube-shaped pasta instead of long noodles.

Hearty accompaniments would be grilled or broiled bell peppers and portobello mushrooms and a basket of crusty wheat rolls. In the Italian tradition, offer grapes, biscotti and espresso afterward. Can be prepared in 45 minutes or less.