Saute

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

Apricots and Spanish chorizo sausage can provide elegance at less than $2 per person!

An impressively elegant dinner for two that comes together in about half an hour. Serve with buttery Yukon Gold mashed potatoes.

Rutabaga adds an appealing, slightly sweet flavor to the potatoes.

The classic Kentucky cocktail is the inspiration for this light and lovely dish—which has just a hint of bourbon.

Sizzling with fresh ingredients, this lively Asian stir-fry keeps prep time to a bare minimum without sacrificing flavor.

The word "meunière" is a reference to the miller of wheat, whose wife (acccording to French lore) cooked everything coated with flour. The original French style of trout meunière, then, was seasoned and floured, sautéd in butter, and then topped with the browned butter from the pan. This is still more or less how the dish is done in some restaurants—notably Galatoire's. There is a New Orleans twist on this, however, and I think it's better than the French classic. It was invented by "Count" Arnaud, who, while trying to standardize and stabilize the sauce so the fish could be fried instead of sautéd, added a bit of stock and roux to the butter and lemon. At its best, this sauce is incredibly good and works not just on trout but also on other fried seafood, notably oysters.

Sweet-and-spicy hoisin sauce is available in the Asian foods section of many supermarkets and at Asian markets.

Who needs meat? The cumin-scented black bean filling is hearty, satisfying, and incredibly easy to prepare. Round out the meal—and get a complete protein—by adding Mexican rice.

Be sure to use wild smoked salmon, preferably from Alaska.

Despite her pride in her cultural heritage, Miraglia Eriquez says: "I gotta be honest, some Italians are known for cooking vegetables to death, and I like to keep my greens green." So she boils chicory for only a few minutes to tame its bitterness, then sautés it briefly, keeping the leaves fresh and slightly crisp. This simple, light side dish is great with the hearty ragù -coated pasta.

Hake, like cod, is mild in flavor yet meaty in texture. Here, it embraces the crunch of sautéed hazelnuts, whose richness is offset by fresh parsley and briny capers.

These hand-formed sausage patties, seasoned with holiday spices, might just be the beginning of a new tradition at your house.

Quickly braised cabbage adds subtle crunch to scallops infused with a combination of warm, aromatic spices.

Rich and crunchy, these almonds are prepared like Spain’s Marcona variety: cooked in oil and generously salted.

A vegetarian spin on rillettes, the rich, creamy pàté traditionally made with duck or pork.

These come out extra-crispy when you use a pizza stone. If you don’t have one, a heavy-duty rimmed baking sheet works well; invert it so that you can remove the pizza easily.