White Wine

For a quick and satisfying after-work supper, team this tasty chicken dish with some cooked noodles that have been tossed with olive oil and freshly grated Parmesan cheese.

Can be prepared in 45 minutes or less.

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

At The Great House at Villa Madeleine in St. Croix, they often use a native fish called wahoo for this interesting dish, but swordfish is another nice choice. They also make the chutney with the very hot Scotch bonnet pepper. A serrano chili produces a slightly milder version.

Crusty French bread, a spinach and mushroom salad and buttered noodles round out the menu, and a rich bakery chocolate cake finishes it in style.

Serve this saucy dish with steamed rice or crusty French bread.

An elegant soup that can be prepared a day ahead. Begin the occasion by passing smoked chicken canapés. To make them, spread mayonnaise over crustless sandwich bread, and top with thinly sliced smoked chicken. Cut the open-face sandwiches into triangles, and garnish each of them with a few onion sprouts.

This recipe is just one of the countless ways to use preserved lemons.

Don’t bother peeling the shrimp for an everyday meal — just team them with cole-slaw and toasted bread (and napkins); follow it all with sliced bananas and pecan cookies. When it’s time for a party, peel the shrimp, and place them on angel hair pasta tossed with a colorful selection of roasted bell peppers. Vanilla bread pudding with brandy sauce is a special finale.

The key to this recipe is cooking the bell peppers until they’re meltingly tender, at least 15 minutes.

Prep: 15 minutes
Cook: 15 minutes A simple ragout of shellfish and sausage, so easy to prepare it's almost a heat-and-serve dish. Cook the shallots and garlic, then the sausage, add the wine and rosemary, then the mussels, which will release their juices into the pan, and finish with the parsley and bread crumbs — a rustic, spicy, brothy dish to be eaten with good crusty bread.

You can make this stock with a variety of fish carcasses (from nonoily fish) or with just one type — whatever your seafood market can give you.

Mix some chilled club soda into the leftover wine marinade for a refreshing drink.

This is the basic method for preparing a chicken sauté to which you can add flavoring variations. You may dredge the chicken with flour if you wish. This gives a browner color but unflavored chicken is more delicate.