Scallop

Round out your dinner: Add 1/2 cup cooked wild rice, 1/2 cup steamed spinach; 3/4 cup cream of carrot soup.

Editor's note: This recipe is excerpted from Harumi's Japanese Cooking , by Harumi Kurihara. Hotate no Sauté Miso Sauce These scallops make a good starter or they can be served as part of larger Japanese-style meal. I think that the combination of Japanese flavors, such as miso, and the western flavor of Parmesan cheese makes for a delicious and exciting dish.

If you can't get Nantucket bay scallops, you can use other bay scallops or sea scallops (cut lengthwise into thirds).

A nice brunch dish as well as a light supper. What to drink: New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc.

Editor's note: This recipe is excerpted from Eric Ripert and Michael Ruhlman's book the A Return To Cooking. To read more about Ripert, click here. This is a hugely luxurious dish, with the sweet flesh of the scallops enhanced by a sauce flavored and thickened with caviar. The dish is rich and creamy, sweet and salty. And it's very easy to make. The sauce base is clam juice, cream, and butter. The scallops are poached for just a minute or two, and caviar is added to the sauce just before serving. That is the only tricky and critical part of this dish: You must be careful to heat the sauce gently once the caviar has been added, bringing it just up to heat without letting it boil. It is, after all, an egg-thickened sauce, and you must be careful of overcooking eggs in this sauce or the caviar will turn hard and white. Treat it as the delicate product it is. Or, as Eric would put it, "Don't whisk it like an idiot. You must be extremely gentle."

This recipe makes more smoked-tomato butter than you need for the scallops — use the leftover butter on steak or fish.

This variation on paella uses Israeli couscous in place of rice.

This tomato-based chowder tastes a bit like Creole jambalaya. Because the broth can be prepared one day ahead, the recipe is especially convenient for dinner parties.

Can be prepared in 45 minutes or less.

Can be prepared in 45 minutes or less.

Active time: 20 min Start to finish: 20 min

Can be prepared in 45 minutes or less.

Can be prepared in 45 minutes or less but requires additional unattended time.

Active time: 25 min Start to finish: 45 min