Shellfish

The terms spring onions and green onions aren't synonymous, but the two vegetables are often interchangeable. Spring onions have a larger, rounder bulb end, and they’re slightly stronger in flavor. Look for them at farmers' markets and specialty foods stores.

Dotted with bits of vegetables and seafood or meat, savory pancakes are both a popular side dish on the Korean dinner table and a beloved street-food snack. To make them more elegant, we’ve kept these crisp, colorful pancakes on the small side so they can be easily picked up with chopsticks and eaten in a few bites.

At his restaurant, Ford's Filling Station, in Culver City, California, Ben Ford says he strives to serve "things that you don't necessarily identify with traditional comfort food but that give all the [same] nourishment." This signature recipe for flatbread—a very thin "pizza" with sweet shrimp, white bean hummus, melted leeks, caramelized onions, and a scattering of sharp cheese—is comforting and satisfying yet anything but bland or conventional.

Homemade stock will make any risotto fabulous. Here, the delicate, springlike combination of leeks and peas is given texture and heft with the addition of calamari, turning it into a main course.

This dish can pack a lot of heat—or not. If you like a lot of spice, feel free to up the amount of fiery bird's-eye chiles. If you prefer a slightly milder dish, you can remove the seeds from the chiles.

This Lowcountry-style dinner—shrimp with saucy black-eyed peas and smoky bacon—is worthy of a glass of sweet tea.

Shrimp and andouille sausage give these pot pies a Cajun flair. To keep the pastry crisp, the dough is baked separately from the filling.

Much of gumbo's complex richness comes from the very dark roux (a cooked mixture of flour and, in this case, oil) that thickens the soup. The longer the roux cooks, the darker and more flavorful it—and the finished dish—will become. This recipe calls for cooking the roux for about 15 minutes, but for an even stronger flavor, it can be cooked for up to 30 minutes over low heat, stirring frequently to prevent burning. Filé powder, an iconic ingredient in Cajun and Creole cooking, is made from ground sassafras leaves. It's available in the baking aisle of some supermarkets and at specialty foods stores. It should be added to each individual portion just before serving, or the gumbo will become stringy.

Octopus comes with its own braising liquid: just put it in a pot on the stove top, turn on the heat, and a couple of inches of water will soon appear at the bottom of the pot. It is a great little secret that this dish is actually quite simple. Of course, any Neapolitan will tell you that the only octopus worth eating come from the Tyrrhenian Sea, and finding a Tyrrhenian octopus in California is a tall order. But we do have access to fresh octopus from the Pacific, which are a treat. If you cannot find fresh octopus, frozen ones are more widely available. Sometimes you will see frozen cooked octopus for sale, which are not the best option for this soup, though they will do. If you do use precooked octopus, decrease the braising time to 30 minutes and add about 2 cups water to the pot (the cooked octopus won't release sufficient liquid). And if you buy only octopus tentacles, you will also probably need to add water to the pot. Finally, I make this soup with the 4-pound specimens we get at A16, so if you can only find 2-pound octopus, you will need to buy a pair of them. Don't worry if they look large. They will shrink up as they release their water.

"It's time for a little history lesson. Listen well. Some say that the word jambalaya came from the French word jambon for ham, the African ya meaning rice, and the Acadian phrase à la. And you must understand that there are brown jambalaya's, made by caramelizing and browning the onions and meats, and red ones, made by adding tomatoes. There are as many recipes for jambalaya as there are for gumbos in Louisiana. Personally, I like a bit of tomatoes in mine; I think it gives it a nice flavor. But I'll let you taste, and then you can make up your own mind," Eula Mae says. Jambalaya is also one of those popular Louisiana dishes that are very apropros for dining on the water. It's a one-pot meal, but you can serve it with a nice green salad and French bread. When you're browning the chicken and ham, scrape the browned bits from the bottom of the pan. That gives the jambalaya a good flavor.

Editor's note: Oysters Bienville is usually served as an appetizer. Created at Antoine's Restaurant in New Orleans, it is also found on many menus throughout the city and there are several versions. This one by the late Leon E. Soniat, Jr., is easy to prepare and quite authentic.

Here is a Cajun-style gumbo, a one-pot dish made with chicken and andouille from the farm, with the addition of salty oysters from the bays along the Gulf of Mexico. It is usually served with baked sweet potatoes or potato salad.

This recipe is one of the simplest and most delectable recipes in the book. The flavor of the mussels pairs beautifully with the unique flavor that the saffron imparts to the broth. You will find yourself making this recipe again and again.

Most recipes for steamed mussels call for crusty bread on the side. Here, slices of bread are baked right on top of the mussels. To be sure everyone can enjoy the delicious juices in the bottom of the pans, serve this entrée straight from the cast-iron skillets (use trivets to protect the table).

A fragrant and exotic dish.

In this rustic marriage of land and sea, red-pepper flakes add just the right amount of heat to hearty potatoes and wonderfully tender octopus (from a can!)