Weeknight Meals

To pit a cherry, place the flat side of a large knife on the cherry; press gently until it splits open, then pull out the pit.

The mildly bitter flavor of yu choy plays nicely against the sweet curry sauce and kabocha squash. Chinese broccoli or broccoli rabe (rapini) can be used instead. Serve with white rice.

Cockles are small mollusks with heart-shaped shells. If you can't find them, substitute small clams.

The ginger sauce is a good staple to keep on hand in the fridge — it's excellent with any fish, whether grilled, pan-seared, or steamed. Serve rice on the side, if you like.

This healthful vegetarian dish would be perfect for a picnic. To speed prep time, use trimmed sugar snap peas with the strings removed (find them in the produce section of many supermarkets).

If you're craving an aromatic Chinatown-style noodle soup, this recipe is a quick fix — especially if you use a roast chicken from the supermarket deli. (For another variation, try using roast duck from a Chinese deli instead.) The chrysanthemum leaves are a beautiful match with the delicate broth redolent of star anise, but watercress can be substituted if you like.

Leigh Vickery of Tyler, Texas, writes: "Even though my weeknights are mostly filled with baseball and soccer practice and helping my kids with their homework, family time at the dinner table is still important to me. To avoid the trap of fast-food restaurants on hectic nights, I keep plenty of recipes on hand that don't take too much time to pull together."

Mahimahi is on of Hawaii's most popular fish; firm-fleshed and mild-flavored, it can be cooked in almost any manner and cloaked in almost any sauce. I like the flavor of citrus with mahimahi, enhanced by some spicy peppercorns. Sweet bananas, a hint of coconut, and macadamia nuts add to the tropical flavors in this light dish.

One of my favorite classic bistro dishes is steak Diane, a paragon of quick cooking that finds steak swathed in a cream sauce mightily seasoned with mustard and enhanced with cognac. The next time you feel yourself feeling those bistro pangs, try my take on steak Diane, made with chicken instead of beef, and my version of the traditional sauce with shallots and mustard. Roasted garlic mashed potatoes is a perfect accompaniment; the potatoes will soak up the sauce. Or serve it with fries and an ice-cold Belgian beer.

Here's a very simple trick for making pasta dishes as delicious as possible: cook them in the classic Italian fashion by adding almost-cooked, drained pasta to the pan or pot with the sauce and let it finish cooking there. Instead of swelling with more salted water during the final minutes, it'll drink in as much flavor as possible, in this case, the potent essence of sautéed mushrooms, red onion, cream, and herbs.

VLC (Very Low Carb)
5.5 grams Carbs that Count Peperonata is a yielding compote of colorful peppers that stew in extra-virgin olive oil and their own sweet juices. Terrific served warm atop juicy swordfish, it is also delicious at room temperature or chilled.

For historic continuity, ferociously loyal community support, and an atmosphere that you could spread with a knife, you can't beat the hamburger joint Louis' Lunch, in New Haven, Connecticut. Since 1898, the Lassen family has been grinding its own beef daily, hand shaping patties to order, and grilling burgers on antique cast-iron broilers in front of live flames. (This answers the question once and for all — the proper way to cook a hamburger is by grilling, not by frying it on a griddle.) And as any regional American culinary landmark should be, Louis' Lunch is sufficiently quirky to allow melted processed cheese but militantly prohibit ketchup and mustard as accompaniments to its signature burgers. Here, then, is the next best thing to elbowing your way up to the counter at Louis'.

Although this recipe is extremely simple, you need to be careful not to overcook the meat.

Luganega, a coiled slender Italian pork sausage sold at Italian markets and some supermarkets, often comes with flavorings such as spices and cheese. If you can't find it, substitute any fresh Italian sausage.

This recipe serves 4 as a main course after you set aside one third of the fish (see cooks' note, below) to make the capellini with salmon and lemon-dill-vodka sauce. Otherwise, it serves 6.