Fruit

Fresh green peas and their curlicue shoots are one of the first signs of spring at my local farmer’s markets, and I can never resist combining the two in these refreshing and delicately flavored toasts or Meyer Lemonade. Shake it up with a MEYER LEMONADE (see page 27)

Gravlax is surprisingly easy to make at home, and you can vary the herbs or add spices to suit your taste. Once you become comfortable with the process, you’ll want to have this around for easy lunches and snacks.

Watch out for these—they go down easy!

When I first got Rick Bayless’s Mexican Kitchen, I was so inspired by the recipes that I invited people over and made brunch for the first time in years. It was a warm, sunny New Orleans winter day, and I picked satsumas from my backyard tree and made these margaritas to welcome everyone.

A few years ago Chip and I took a trip to Peru. We started in Lima and then traveled on to Cuzco and Machu Picchu, one of the most beautiful places on earth. While in Lima, we stopped at an outdoor bar in the Barranco neighborhood, an artists’ and musicians’ enclave rather like a Peruvian French Quarter. We met a salty old bartender who made us these delicious frothy drinks that reminded me somewhat of a gin fizz, but after two, our heads were spinning. Pisco is a spirit made from grapes, and it is quite strong, so beware!

Moist, spicy gingerbread is one of those simple desserts that people tend to associate fondly with childhood holidays. For me, it harks back to the Christmas seasons that I spent as a kid in Europe where gingerbread is particularly popular. Blending a mixture of baking soda and boiling water into molasses has a magical transforming effect in the oven. The light brown batter becomes very dark, rich, and deeply flavored when baked. Fragrant with warm, fresh ginger, this gingerbread is very moist, simple to make, and irresistible. Lime Cream is an unexpected—but perfect—partner. The recipe makes enough cream for one gingerbread cake. Any leftover cream is delicious slathered over toasted pound cake, buttermilk biscuits, or brioche. Don’t reserve this recipe just for holiday baking—it will make your family sublimely happy all year long.

This is sinfully rich and creamy, just the way a cream pie should be. It is best made several hours in advance, so that the coconut flavor has a chance to bloom in the filling. The crust is a classic pâte brisée, the rich, flaky French pastry used for both sweet and savory tarts (try it with your favorite quiche recipe). Don’t expect leftovers!

This is a fluffy eggless rice pudding scented with sherry and almonds. My mom usually serves it with fresh raspberries, which is the perfect choice when they’re in season. But I like it all year round, so I like to make a sauce with dried cherries, which have a similar sweet-tart quality. It is lovely served in elegant stemmed glasses with the sauce spooned over the top. My mom still makes this pudding every year for my birthday. Thanks, Mom!

These seem to cry, “Brunch! Brunch!” Take the time to make someone special a Sunday morning treat with a big cup of café au lait, and you won’t regret it. These fritters, a take on beignets, the French Quarter’s most famous doughnut, are a snap to make.

My Bayona staff served this dessert at the Taste of the NFL, a huge hunger-relief fund-raiser that we have participated in for over fifteen years. It takes place the night before the Super Bowl in the host city and is attended by more than 2,000 people, dining on food donated and prepared by chefs representing each NFL team. In seventeen years we have raised over $5 million for food banks and relief agencies all over the country. Now that’s a party with a purpose!

I never thought I liked lemon desserts. Then one summer, while visiting friends in the little French village of Hyères, I experienced the most sublime marriage of lemon and butter, in the form of a humble lemon tart. It came from a pastry shop called Le Pâtisserie des Artisans, and I was too shy to ask them for the recipe. So I vowed to myself that I would research every lemon tart recipe I could get my hands on until I found one that came close. Finally, I found this version in an old cookbook called (roughly translated) Secrets of the Best Restaurants of France. It is different from any other I’ve tried, and captures the sunny flavors I can still taste in my memory. I’ve since returned to Hyères and tried to find that pastry shop (I remember it was near the outdoor market), but I think it closed. Too bad—I would have liked to tell them about my epiphany.

Next to ice cream (which I consider its own food group), pies are my favorite dessert. This one is an adult version of banana cream pie, with real scotch in the butterscotch (use a blended scotch whiskey, not a single malt). The amount of gelatin is just enough to set the filling, without making it rubbery. For the best texture, be sure to let the pie chill at least 3 hours before serving.