Middle Eastern

This treat is a holiday or wedding dessert, but delicious any time. It is a dense sponge cake soaked in syrup.

Especially in northern Turkey where the climate approximates northern coastal United States, pumpkins and pumpkin-like sweet winter squash are grown. Hazelnuts are also grown there, along the Black Sea. They combine well in this dessert.

A take on muhammara, a Turkish and Syrian red pepper spread thickened with bread crumbs and walnuts, this sunset-hued condiment comes together in minutes and does double duty as an accompaniment to both the kebabs and the grilled pita.

Shawarma is the Middle Eastern version of a large vertical shish kebab known as doner kebab in Turkey and gyro in Greece. It's made by impaling layers of meat on an oversize spit with a flat base and roasting the meat in an upright rotisserie. There are at least three advantages to this singular method of cooking. The dripping fat bastes the meat below it; the meat is sliced to order (at least it should be) from the outside, which gives every customer a crusty end cut; and because the crusty meat slices are piled on pita bread with fresh vegetables, pickles, and tahini sauce, you get a whole meal—and a healthful one—in a single sandwich. Traditionally, shawarma was made with lamb, but more and more Israeli grill masters use thinly sliced chicken or turkey. Shawarma is easy to prepare if you have a vertical rotisserie, and somewhat more challenging to adapt to the home grill. But direct-grilling the turkey slices does give you a close approximation of the taste and texture of classic shawarma.

Musa Dagdeviren is the go-to guy if you want to know about Turkish barbecue. Spend a couple of hours with him in the open kitchen of one of his Çiya restaurants (in Istanbul), and you'll wonder if there's anything he doesn't know about Turkish cuisine, let alone grilling. He'll start with chicken thighs marinated in creamy Turkish yogurt, chile paste, and garlic—to be grilled on skewers over charcoal. Before you know it, he's grilling meatballs, quinces, shallots, even bread dough loaded with ground beef. Here’s one of the "simpler" dishes in Musa's repertoire—if simple means merely marinated, spice-crusted, and grilled—and the combination of creamy yogurt, pungent garlic, and smoky pepper flakes produces the sort of chicken that has made the Turks the Near East's undisputed grill masters for centuries.

This recipe originally accompanied Turkey Shawarma .

The slightly sweet, almost flowery flavor of marjoram adds a delicate note to this Middle Eastern—inspired salad, though oregano is also fine. To be sure the eggplant is tender, slice into it before taking it off the grill—when properly done, it will be moist all the way through.

The mild heat and deep flavor of Maras and Urfa peppers are wonderful not just in kebabs but also in soups and stews.

Chef Lynne Gigliotti adapted this Gourmet magazine recipe and added two ingredients often found in traditional versions: saffron for color and yogurt to make the tah-dig (which Gourmet defines as "the crunchy crust of rice on the bottom of the pot") extra crispy and flavorful. The tah-dig is the defining characteristic of Persian rice, a crisp, golden disk that is served atop the fragrant, steaming dish.

Chef Michael Skibitcky tweaked this Joan Nathan recipe , deleting the cilantro and adding ground coriander. For an authentic Israeli presentation, load the just-fried balls into pita bread and top them with chopped veggies, pickles, harissa hot sauce, and piquant tahini sauce.

Honey provides the sweet, and lemon juice the sour, in the Passover dish known as apio, which has origins in Turkey (the Ottoman Empire became a haven for Jews fleeing the Spanish Inquisition in 1492). As the celery cooks, it soaks up the braising liquid and becomes silky.

The color yellow symbolized joy for medieval Arabs, who were cultivating saffron in Spain by 960 c.e. Sephardic Jews were equally inspired by the coveted spice, and golden rice became a holiday and Sabbath tradition. This version, made with basmati rice, is punctuated by caramelized onion, currants, and fried almonds.

Saffron gives the couscous a gorgeous yellow color.

Inspired by the Persian fried-turnover cookies called ghotab, food editor Shelley Wiseman used a simple dough to enfold fragrant candied orange peel and pistachios. Her method for candying the peel is very straightforward, and the results—tender and fresh-tasting—are so much better than the store-bought stuff. The flaky baked pastry, generously coated with confectioners sugar, pairs nicely with the chewy-crunchy filling within.

In Turkish cookery there's a distinctive group of dishes known as güveç, which take their name from the earthenware pot in which they are cooked—in the same way that the tagine does in Morocco. In rural Anatolia the cooking pots may be sealed and buried in the ashes of a fire to cook slowly overnight—or, only slightly less romantically, in the local baker's oven. If you don't have a clay pot, a heavy-based cast-iron casserole dish will serve almost as well. Güveç dishes encompass all sorts of meat or poultry cooked with legumes, vegetables and fruits. My addition of star anise is not remotely Turkish, but it adds a wonderful layer of aniseed flavor. This güveç is spicy with a lingering sweetness, so serve it with a light salad or braised wild greens. A dollop of yogurt would also be delicious. Sucuk is a spicy Turkish sausage and can be found in Turkish or Middle Eastern butchers and some specialist delis.

Za’atar is a Middle Eastern spice mix that includes sesame seeds, sumac, dried thyme, and dried marjoram. It’s available at specialty foods stores and Middle Eastern markets and from adrianascaravan.com.

Köfte are a street-food favorite in the Middle East. The warm, irresistible flavor of this version comes from a combination of allspice, cinnamon, clove, and Aleppo pepper, a Syrian chile with a mild kick.

Serve this yogurt-based Greek staple as a first-course accompaniment to pitas and other breads, or as a light but creamy sauce drizzled over spiced roasted meats.

Food editor Melissa Roberts drew on the influences of her husband's Lebanese heritage when she created this dish, rich with the spices and textures of the Middle East. Each bite of chicken combines crisp skin with moist meat and is savory with a hint of sweetness. Pistachios and raisins pump up the "chew" factor.