Seafood

Serve with rice for an easy party dish.

Can be prepared in 45 minutes or less.

This recipe can be prepared in 45 minutes or less but requires additional sitting time.

Janet and Travis Kuhl of Cranford, New Jersey, writes: "We recently went to chef Ming Tsai's Blue Ginger restaurant in Wellesley, Massachusetts. Our entire meal was top-notch, but the shrimp cocktail was our favorite." Poured carefully side by side into a cocktail glass, tomato puree and avocado puree make a colorful dip for the lightly battered and quickly deep-fried shrimp.

This delicious salad is from Johannes.

A Syracusan recipe adapted from Mary Taylor Simeti's book Pomp and Sustenance.

Hangtown Fry This omelet hails from Hangtown, a town northeast of Sacramento that was named for the notorious hangings once held there (it's now called Placerville). The dish seems to have come into existence during the Gold Rush, as the high-priced breakfast of a lucky miner, and later became a specialty at San Francisco's Tadich Grill. It is traditionally served with bacon.

Complete this one with cherry tomatoes, potato chips, and lemonade.

Though the truffles lend a wonderfully rich flavor to the shrimp, they are fairly costly, so you might want to save this dish for special occasions.

This dish is a wonderful combination of French and Indian flavors. Basmati rice and a green salad would round out the meal.

The signature dish at Américas in Houston. Achiote paste adds earthy flavor and deep red color to the shrimp.