Graduation Party

By Food & Wine
Updated May 17, 2017
Con Poulos
These festive recipes include a six-layer coconut cake and luxe lobster rolls.
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Deluxe Lobster and Potato Chip Rolls

PHOTO © JOHN KERNICK
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"Putting potato chips inside sandwiches has always been a favorite trick of ours," says chef Jon Shook. He and co-chef Vinny Dotolo serve chips on Tabasco-spiked lobster salad tucked into buttery toasted buns.

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Grilled Skirt Steak with Green Sriracha

DAVE LAURIDSEN
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“So many cultures have some version of a pesto or chimichurri,” says Susan Feniger, who uses southeast Asian coconut, chiles and kaffir lime leaves to create a green Sriracha, a Thai-style hot sauce.

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Mango-Peach Sangria

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John Besh serves this lightly sweet, fruity white-wine sangria over plenty of ice cubes. "Use Viognier—it has a nice balance of fruit and acidity," he says.

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Tomato Tartlets

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These luscious little tarts are filled with fresh ricotta. The trick to making the cheese silky is to puree it before spreading it on the flaky pastry and topping it with oven-roasted tomatoes.

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Crispy Pork, Shrimp and Cabbage Imperial Rolls

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To make the perfect roll, Valerie Luu and Katie Kwan cook the filling ahead of time and wet the rice paper with their palms. The results: “Crispy, chewy and snowy white rolls!”

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Tunisian Chicken Kebabs with Currants and Olives

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Susan Feniger’s sweet-and-tangy marinated chicken skewers are adapted from her new book, Street Food. They are flavorful enough to eat on their own, but they’re even better with the chunky currant-and-olive relish.

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Cold Soba Salad with Dried Shiitake Dressing

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This sweet and savory Japanese-style cold noodle salad is an easy dish to serve to a crowd, since it's delicious chilled or at room temperature. Use preshredded carrots in place of julienned to make it even more quickly.

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Coffee-Cured Pulled Pork

John Kernick
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Linton Hopkins turns this slow-roasted pork shoulder into sliders. "Why are we so obsessed with the 30-minute meal?" he says. "I want to create a TV show called The 36-Hour Meal. The best things take a little bit of time."

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Moroccan Carrot Salad with Spicy Lemon Dressing

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Susan Feniger likes to make this salad early in the day, so the carrots marinate a bit in the dressing. Harissa, the North African chile paste, adds fiery heat.

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10 of 15

Coconut-Curry Grilled Chicken

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11 of 15

Charred Corn Salad with Mint, Parsley and Cilantro

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Yotam Ottolenghi loves mixing unorthodox ingredients, like lime juice, jalapeño and maple syrup, into his Middle Eastern food.

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Feta-and-Radish Toasts

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Steven Satterfield serves some combination of feta and radishes almost every day. He says you can use any assortment of radishes for these toasts, like watermelon, pink beauty, cherry belle or d'Avignon. If you slice the radishes ahead of time, keep them in a bowl of ice water, which makes them extra cold and crispy.

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13 of 15

Minted Watermelon Popsicles

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These popsicles are a great fat-free snack, made with lots of naturally sweet watermelon and only a little sugar. They can be frozen in special popsicle molds or in standard ice cube trays (three cubes equals one serving). Joy Manning has them whenever she feels the temptation to visit the new gelato shop around the corner from her apartment.

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Chocolate Cupcakes with Caramel Ganache and Coconut

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It’s hard to eat just one of these cupcakes, which combine moist, light chocolate cake with rich, chocolate-caramel frosting and flaky coconut.

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Six–Layer Coconut Cake with Passion Fruit Filling

Con Poulos
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This towering dessert is made up of layers of super-moist, almost puddinglike coconut cake spread with tangy passion fruit curd, then topped with whipped cream and crispy flakes of toasted coconut. The recipe is from pastry chef Cynthia Wong. The cake may look intimidating, but it's easy to make: "Just pop the layers out of the baking pans and slap them together," Wong says.

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