Onion

Can be prepared in 45 minutes or less.

Look for wild salmon fillets. You can ask the fishmonger to remove the pinbones, or remove them at home with tweezers. Serve with: Alsatian Riesling • sautéed sugar snap peas • rice pilaf with watercress and green onions • white chocolate crème brûlée

Offer this simple, hearty dish with a green salad, crusty garlic bread and a light red wine, like Beaujolais.

Anne Rowland of Cohasset, Massachusetts, writes: "The Quincy Ships Brewing Company, south of Boston, is one of our favorite places. We especially love their citrus salsa, which they serve with chips." The restaurant has closed, but this spicy salsa is as good as ever.

A delicious alternative to gefilte fish. Have the fishmonger fillet the whitefish.

This recipe was created to accompany other canapés: Shrimp Canapés , Pickled Herring Canapés and Cheese Canapés .

Can be prepared in 45 minutes or less.

Three classic heartland ingredients — corn, smoked sausage and wild rice — combine to give this appealing first-course soup its sweet-spicy flavor and interesting texture.

Ground almonds create texture and thicken the sauce of pollo almendrado—our homage to New York's large Mexican and Central American population.

"While my husband and I were vacationing in the Cayman Islands, we had the pleasure of dining at Fidel Murphy's Irish Pub on Grand Cayman," writes Regina Stewart of Acworth, Georgia. "We travel a lot and have enjoyed many good Irish stews, but the pub's rendition is the best ever."

Hold the mayo: This rustic side dish is dressed with a Provence-inspired blend of white wine, Dijon mustard and capers. Be sure the potatoes are still warm when you add them to the dressing; they’ll absorb it better, enhancing the flavor of the dish.

Moroccans call their diminutive kebabs brochettes, in the French manner. The streets of Fez are dotted with little braziers of glowing charcoal over which turn wood or metal skewers heavy with tiny pieces of meat, liver, or kefta, enveloping passersby with their irresistibly enticing aromas. Many spices are used in the kefta, but so discreetly that you can hardly guess what has gone in.

Canapés came into fashion in the cocktail-party era that began in the 1920s. Bottled mayonnaise (which was first produced by Richard Hellmann in 1912 at his New York deli) and canned crabmeat help to make this canapé a model of fast food.