Epicurious

Let the supermarket do the roasting; mayonnaise and tarragon are the secret to great flavor here. Serve with: Marinated grilled vegetables and French-style potato salad. Dessert: Fresh raspberries with whipped cream and sugar cookies.

Boiling crawfish is an art — something that quickly becomes apparent to anyone who's watched a cook prepare the cooking liquid. This recipe has been modified for ease of preparation at home. Most Cajuns have a strong opinion about what should or should not go into the pot. Use this recipe as a guide and modify it to your own tastes — more vegetables or less, spicier or not. And remember, when live crawfish in the shell are not in season, you may simply substitute shrimp.

Shop for smaller parsnips, which are more tender.

The origin of this dish is unknown, but it's a common menu feature of many Italo-American restaurants of the red-sauce variety. In kitchen lingo, a shoemaker is a shortcutting, skillful hack; a shoemaker cobbles things, a meal, together from the meager things on hand. In Italian, scarpa translates as "shoe" and scarpariella is slang for shoemaker. The actual name for one who plies this trade is calzolaio. In Chicken Scarpariella, a spring chicken is "hacked" up in to small pieces and quickly cooked with a few common ingredients.

This old favorite is a delicious way to use up cold turkey.

In my family's house, turkey croquettes were a revered delicacy had only after Thanksgiving and Christmas (it took a lot of work, we were often told). It wasn't until I was in college that I learned "croquette" meant a solution to leftovers. But I still think of this recipe, passed down from my father's mother to my mother to me and my sister, as special. Yes, it is a lot of work. But the soul-warming richness — and guaranteed compliments — make it worth the effort.

Grated black radish salad is exquisite too. Try it with the most common black radish in the U.S. (Raphanus sativus), which is round and has a similar flavor and texture to Raphanus sativus niger.

The stock recipe yields 8 cups; there will be about 1 1/2 cups left over after you make the mushroom soup. To prepare the mushrooms for this soup, wipe them clean with a damp paper towel. Be sure to cut off the stems from fresh shiitakes. If using morels, rinse quickly to dislodge any dirt from crevices.

(Chile Verde Con Carne or "Caldillo")