Steam

Active time: 45 min Start to finish: 45 min Servings: Serves 12 (as part of aïoli menu).

Matt McMillan, Big Bowl's executive chef, threw together these items for his lunch one day. We ran it as a special the next week. It's simple and delicious.

Begin making the coleslaw two days ahead and the whitefish one day ahead. Pour a Chardonnay or Pinot Noir with dinner.

These beets would be a great way to liven up simple roasted meats such as pork and chicken.

Oyster-roast masters like Louis Osteen, who have been doing this for years, use huge pits or grills that are large enough to cook sausages, oysters, and clams all at the same time. We recommend using whatever type of oyster is locally available to you. Examine them carefully—discard any that smell bad. If any are cracked or open, and don't close when tapped, discard those as well. When roasting oysters, it's important to keep them moist enough to create steam (hence the soaked burlap or water in the roasting pan). If roasted dry, they can explode. To make this menu simpler, you could skip making the clams; there will still be plenty of food for everyone.

"I got the inspiration for this recipe from a dish we made in a cooking class I took recently," says Tracy McGillis of San Francisco, California. "I added a few twists and came up with my own tasty version."

Potatoes are tossed with a rich mustard dressing and served atop a bed of crisp lettuce in this unusual and delicious salad.

Dijon mustard and dry white wine add French flair to this longtime favorite.

This dish is sensational with barbecued pork or grilled sausages or salmon. A spicy honey-mustard dressing is the salad's perfect finishing touch.

Shao mai are classic Chinese steamed dumplings. They make a nice starter or an innovative addition to a buffet.

Can be prepared in 45 minutes or less.

You will need three pots for this recipe.

Active time: 40 min Start to finish: 4 hr In China, northern China in particular, pork belly — fresh (unsmoked) bacon with skin and bones — is cooked just like the rest of the pig. Chef Susur Lee simmers it, then steams it until its fall-off-the-bone-tender. Pork belly is available at Chinese meat markets and some butcher shops.

Ken Haedrich, cookbook author, says, "Since moving to New England nearly twenty years ago, I've heated the house with wood-burning stoves. And because our big Thanksgiving gatherings put oven space at a premium, I've often pressed those stoves into backup duty. That's how steamed breads—which can be cooked on top of the stoves — came to be a regular part of our feast. This steamed pumpkin bread provides another way to bring good pumpkin flavor to the meal, too. I also serve my special crescent rolls on the big day. One year, my kids let it be known that they wanted croissants on Thanksgiving, but that seemed like a bit more work than I could handle. Instead, I came up with these sesame crescents—croissant-like rolls with savory onion filling. I guess they did the trick, because nobody says much about croissants anymore. Plus, I can make the crescent rolls two weeks ahead and freeze them. That way, they don't take up any of that precious oven space." Note that this bread needs to cook in an empty 28-ounce food can (such as the kind used to hold whole tomatoes).

The dumplings can be assembled and chilled up to eight hours before steaming.