Australian

An Australian icon—with coconut, chocolate, and raspberry—streamlined in a standard muffin pan.

Velvety dollops of whipped cream top an extra-crisp, delicate meringue shell for the perfect range of textures.

Packed with oats, coconut, and rich golden syrup, this recipe for the beloved Australian “bikkies” lets you choose your own adventure: chewy or crunchy.

Yellowtail this is not.

Especially jaffles.

Secret ingredient: pickle juice. Its salty edge rounds out the Sherry.

Australian chefs are on the world’s radar in a big way, thanks in no small part to their experimentation with indigenous ingredients.

The secret to a great lamington is to let the cake sit overnight so it will soak up more chocolate. This Australian specialty is then coated with coconut.

A classic Australian sandwich cookie made with two oaty, golden syrup biscuits and a milk chocolate center.

A perfect meringue dessert, with its fissures and epic swirls, also presents a beautiful landscape for garnishes. If you were able to shrink yourself to approximately one inch tall, this dessert would be the gnarliest surf breaks frozen in time.

Steak and chips is an Australian institution, and my take on this classic involves perfectly crisp Jerusalem artichokes sprinkled with a punchy mustard salt. They're the perfect partner for the robust T-bone.

In 2002 I went to Australia and fell in love with their traditional beef pies. In fact, to this day, I would have one for every meal if I had my way. Once I returned to the States, I was determined to come up with my own rendition of this classic dish. Although I created this recipe based on nothing more than my warm memories of this meal, I have nonetheless had many Australians flock to my store to purchase this little taste of home. A true testament.

Meringues are baked on very low heat so they stay perfectly white. It’s a good idea to check them periodically to make sure they don’t take on color. To test if the meringues are done, try lifting one off the parchment—if it comes away easily, it is ready; if not, continue baking, checking every five minutes. Moisture will cause meringues to soften, so avoid making them on particularly humid days.

This classic dessert is a “soft-hard” meringue that needs to dry in the oven rather than actually bake. If it is at all browned, the result is a chewy, not delicate base for fresh strawberries or other soft fruits and berries. The convection oven produces an ideally tender meringue that can be made ahead and stored in an airtight container in a cool place for at least 2 weeks.

I just love cooking these little snacks as a starter. I like to think of them as the grown-up version of potato wedges with sweet chile and sour cream. Whoever came up with that combination deserves a medal. These cakes work well with shrimp, crayfish and even roast chicken but I especially like them with crabmeat. Enjoy!

By its very nature, a Pavlova is a little wild—as proved by these three tiers of airy meringue, which crack and crumble to reveal marshmallowy interiors while the berries' juices puddle all over drifts of whipped cream. And that playful mix of textures and flavors sure tastes delicious. Meringues aren't usually made with moist brown sugar, but here it adds a deeper kind of sweetness. Baking them in cake pans, another unusual technique, helps these meringues crisp up.

An upscale hybrid of antipodean ANZAC biscuits and chocolate digestives from Britain, these crisp cookies are positively elegant. They were an unexpected favorite in our test kitchen, with cooks and editors descending in droves when the cookies’ warm, nutty aroma filled the air.

If you don't have a pastry bag, you can spoon the meringue mixture onto the traced circles. Smooth the top of each circle and, using the back of a spoon, make a depression in the center.

Fresh, simple, and spontaneous, modern Australian cooking doffs its cap to several different cuisines with an ebullience all its own. From Australian cookbook writer Jill Dupleix comes this Mod Oz version of a fish gyro. Rich, earthy beets and parsley add great flavor to this heavenly sandwich. You'll find lots more Mod Oz recipes in the May issue of Bon Appétit.

This classic regional dish is from Ralph Potter, chef at Darley's at Lilianfels in the Blue Ridge Mountains west of Sydney. "Wild mushrooms are so plentiful when the sun has come out after it's been raining for a few days, why not be indulgent and make a special soup out of them to celebrate the season."

This recipe is from chef Matthew Moran of Moran's Restaurant and Cafe in Sydney. He recommends when buying the beef, choose thick sirloin steaks, grain-fed preferably, and that they be brought to room temperature before cooking.

These individual Pavlovas are inspired by the popular Australian dessert (named for the Russian ballerina), which combines crisp meringue with whipped cream and assorted fruit. It's easy to form the cups with a pastry bag, but if you don't have one, try this technique: Drop the meringue by half-cupfuls onto the baking sheets, then use the back of a spoon to create a deep, wide indentation in the center of each.

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. This tart should be to Australians what lemon tart is to the Poms. If one fruit stands out in my mind as Australian it would have to be the passion fruit. Its intensity sets it apart from other fruits and, it is an ideal partner for cream and eggs. We cooked the Roux brothers' luscious lemon tart for many years at Rockpool and this tart draws its inspiration from that. Chris Manfield runs the Paramount Restaurant in Sydney with Margie Harris, and makes a terrific passion fruit tart from a pastry shell filled with passion fruit curd. The food at the Paramount is extremely creative and delicious; Chris cooks in her own unique style and is one of the very best contemporary Australian chefs, but she is at her best and most creative when it comes to desserts. I see no need to serve cream with this tart. You will need a 26 cm (10-inch) tin.