5 Ingredients or Fewer

There is a tradition in Crete of gathering wild greens and using them not only in vegetable or salad dishes but also as stuffings for savory turnovers. Cretans make use of tiny leeks, wild fennel, purslane, and milkwort, as well as the more familiar greens. We have substituted a mixture of the varieties of tender greens available at most supermarkets. You can even use prepackaged mixes, such as baby Asian salad or baby braising mix.

This salad has changed the minds of many who previously found beets overpowering. The Sherry vinegar provides a nice accent, though balsamic vinegar also will work. The walnuts may be replaced with pine nuts, pecans, or slivered almonds.

Active time: 10 min Start to finish: 10 min

Nuoc Tuong Pha This vegetarian dipping sauce can be made with any soy sauce, including the Japanese-style Kikkoman, although the Vietnamese prefer the lighter-bodied Chinese-style products marketed under the brands Kim Lan, Bo De, and Pearl River Bridge. Like dipping sauces made with fish sauce, you can embellish this with different aromatics such as ginger and cilantro.

The Ginger Fried Rice with Shiitake Mushrooms is a perfect side dish for this salmon.

Cooking doesn't get much easier than this, but it still took me a while to catch on. Being a northerner, I didn't realize that everyone south of Baltimore knows spiced shrimp like New Englanders know maple syrup. I tried spicing up my shrimp and crabs with a spice mix called "Shrimp and Crab Boil." I took the cue from the name and added the spices to boiling water to boil the shellfish. Not until I moved to Maryland crab country did I find that you douse the shellfish with spices and steam them over boiling water. Perhaps someone should market a spice mix called "Shrimp and Crab Steam" for us literalists. The shrimp are cooked with their shells on, so provide lots of napkins for spice-coated hands and beer or lemonade for spice-coated throats.

A charming alchemy takes place when you "quick-pickle" red onions. They act very sweetly with a wide range of birds, meat, and fish, and I also use them in Papas a la Huancaina and Conch Salad.

This recipe calls for a standard glass baking dish, but any oven-to-table dish can be used.

This is creamy corn with no cream at all. Our trick? The juice of freshly cut corn thickened with cornstarch.

If you're making these potatoes to serve with the roast goose , the optimal time to begin boiling them is immediately after the oven temperature is reduced on the roasting bird. As soon as the goose is removed from the oven, increase the oven temperature and roast the potatoes while making the sauce for the goose. If you're not roasting a goose but would like to make the potatoes anyway, you can use store-bought duck fat instead of goose fat.

Fluffy potatoes and fruity olive oil are a perfect match; the better the oil, the better the flavor.

Active time: 15 min Start to finish: 1 1/2 hr

(Thon Poêlé et "Mariné," Vinaigrette d'Olives Noires) A sophisticated starter from chef Guy Savoy.

Active time: 10 min Start to finish: 15 min

Cooking chicken breasts on the bone keeps them exceptionally juicy.