Shellfish

This recipe can be prepared in 45 minutes or less. Start with a romaine salad tossed with Dijon vinaigrette, and pass rolls for dipping into the mussel broth. Lemon tarts from the bakery would be a nice finale.

This recipe can be prepared in 45 minutes or less. Traditional New England side dishes like boiled potatoes, corn on the cob and coleslaw are just right with this festive dish. If it's more convenient, thaw two frozen uncooked lobster tails (skip the parboiling). The Goober Ice Cream Sandwiches are perfect to wrap it up.

A narrow strip of land at the southwestern tip of India, the state of Kerala is interlaced with a network of lagoons, canals, lakes, and rivers. Peddlers sell fish from these waters and other food by boat along the canals. This curry is styled after the ones these boatmen cook for themselves. It incorporates many ingredients of the Kerala kitchen: black peppercorns, fiery red chiles, mustard seeds, and the ubiquitous coconut. In India they toss about 20 fresh curry leaves into the kettle along with the onion, garlic, gingerroot, chiles, and peppercorns. These aromatic leaves can be difficult to find in the U.S., but if you locate some, by all means use them.

A delicious soup from Tágide.

Can be prepared in 45 minutes or less.

Here's a terrific salad with the bold tastes of cilantro and cumin. Cold beer is the ideal beverage go-with.

The original recipe for oysters Rockefeller, created at the New Orleans restaurant Antoine's in 1899, remains a secret to this day. The appetizer, oysters topped with a mixture of finely chopped greens and copious amounts of butter and then baked in their shells, was considered so rich that it had to be named after the richest man of the day, John D. Rockefeller. A few years later, no self-respecting restaurateur would be without his own version on the menu. This lighter take features spinach, watercress, green onions and grated Parmesan.

This recipe can be prepared in 45 minutes or less.

Nixon's re-establishment of relations with China led Americans to discover, among other things, that there was more to Chinese cooking than the Cantonese dishes we had all grown up with.

This recipe can be prepared in 45 minutes or less. We were intrigued by the flavored cooking oil, ginger soy sauce and curry paste we found in the Asian foods section of the market last year, and used them to lend flair to this quick dish. Steamed white rice is the ideal side. Use a melon baller to scoop papaya, mango and passion-fruit sorbets into pretty cups, and garnish with crisp ginger cookies.

Miso soup — a fermented-soybean broth — is not difficult to make at home. Freeze the ginger and thaw it before squeezing; that way, extracting the juice will be easy. Chilled sake goes well with the meal.

Chef Jody Adams of Rialto at The Charles Hotel in Cambridge is famous for this type of rustic dish. At the restaurant she serves the stew on mashed potatoes.