Real Cajun | Clarkson Potter, 2009 | Serves 12 to 16

Remember when you were a little kid and you would wake up early on Christmas morning feeling super-excited? That’s how I feel on Super Bowl Sunday. I jump out of bed, start my day with a cold beer, and begin making this seafood gumbo recipe. This particular gumbo, brimming with Louisiana bounty, is my favorite dish to make. In fact, you might say that this gumbo was the dish that made me want to become a chef. My mother always made seafood gumbo on Super Bowl Sunday, and I started doing the same when I moved out, going to Chinatown to shop for my ingredients.

 Spare no expense for this recipe. Get the freshest seafood you can find, and plenty of it, to extract all the sweet, briny flavors. The stock is key—it should be rich and full of flavor. (For an even richer stock, double the amount of shrimp shells, or add 3 to 4 pounds of fish bones. If you use fish bones, add them after you toast the shrimp shells.)–Donald Link

Author’s Reflections on Making Roux Note: According to author and Cajun cook Donald Link, the process of making roux can be hypnotic. It takes about an hour, and you can’t stop stirring or walk away from it. Watching the oil and flour mixture slowly change color and begin to take on its unique aroma gives you plenty of time to be alone with your thoughts. My roux is made with vegetable oil, not butter, because its neutral flavor really lets the seafood shine. Once the roux has reached its proper color, the chopped vegetables are added, which creates a near volcanic reaction of bubbling, steaming, and sizzling. The roux at this point is around 400°F (204°C) and the addition of cold vegetables causes an explosion of flavors and smells. Once I had to run to the store right after making roux and the lady at the checkout said, “Wow, something sure smells good.” I replied, “That would be me.” She laughed and I said, “No, really, I’ve been making seafood gumbo—it’s me you’re smelling.” “You’re right,” she said. “It is gumbo I smell.” That’s how powerful the aroma is.

Active time: 1 hour, 45 minutes | Total time: 5 hours, 15 minutes

Seafood Gumbo Recipe

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The Silver Spoon | Phaidon, 2011 | Serves 4

These mollusks have several different names in Italian–cozze, muscoli, peoci, and mitili. Nowadays, most commercially available mussles are farmed, which guarantees a high level of cleanliness. However, they should still be thoroughly scrubbed under cold, running water, but not left to soak in water. Pull off the beards with the healp of a short, sharp knife and knock off any barnacles from the shells with the knife handle. Discard any mussels with broken shells or those that do not shut immediately when sharply tapped. Their tender, tasty flesh is very easy to digest and their cooking juices are a delicious addition to soups, sauces, and risottos.–Editors of The Silver Spoon

LC What Else is for Supper, Honey? Note: Uh, we can think of nothing else we need for this mussels marinara recipe aside from a generous pour of a crisp Sauvignon Blanc or, when we’re in the mood to go all Belgian, a white ale and a heaping mound of quick frites.

Active time: 5 minutes | Total time: 25 minutes.

Mussels Marinara Recipe

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Barton Seaver | For Cod and Country | Sterling Epicure, 2011 | Serves 4 as a canapé or light appetizer

This French dish is ususally made with salt cod, but sablefish (also sold as black cod) is a much more environmentally sustainable choice. You often can find smoked sablefish in Jewish delis, and many upscale grocery stores carry it as well. Because the sablefish is smoked and then cooked again, its final texture ends up resembling that of reconstituted salt cod. –Barton Seaver

LC What We Really Mean By “Whitefish” Note: While it’s true that sablefish is an inspired ingredient in this brandade, bringing a rich smokiness to the garlicky potato purée, just about any salted or smoked fish with a whitish cast will work. We’ve also taken this recipe for a whirl with the traditional salt cod as well as with smoked herring–though not together–and not had any regrets. None at all. Set it out to enjoy at breakfast, lunch, dinner, supper, or as a midnight snack.

Active time: 20 minutes | Total time: 35 minutes.

Smoked Whitefish Brandade Recipe

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The Lee Bros. Simple Fresh Southern | Clarkson Potter, 2009 | Serves 4 to 8

Smoking shrimp with a stovetop smoker creates a thrillingly addictive, fun-to-eat cocktail-hour food that’s also a great appetizer.

“Wait! What?”

Yes, there is such a thing as a stovetop smoker. If you don’t already own one (Athena, Camerons, and Nordic Ware are top brands), you can make one in a pinch as long as you have a stainless steel or aluminum roasting pan and a flat wire roasting rack that fits inside it. The smoking chips that you use in a stovetop smoker are like coarse sawdust. They’re made from a variety of hardwoods—apple, cherry, and hickory are common—and you can buy them at stores such as Target or from cookware retailers such as Williams-Sonoma. Learning your way around a stovetop smoker (see Notes on Successful Stovetop Smoking, below) adds a new vector of creative exploration to your repertoire.

Serve these smoked shrimp with one or all three dipping sauces.–Matt Lee and Ted Lee

LC To Smoke or Not to Smoke Note: As lovely and easy as stovetop smoking is, we feel the real oomph in this starter is the assortment of not one but three (three!) dipping sauces. Don’t get us wrong, the smoking part is nice, though not essential—not by a long shot, not when you have dipping sauces this swell. Instead simply grill or steam your shrimp and set them out with the dipping sauces—whether one, two, or all three.

That said, we love our stovetop smoker and use it for all manner of things. We can tell you from experience that you can also find smokers and their chips online and at hardware stores. Another thing we learned firsthand? A darn good ventilation system is essential unless you want all your worldly belongings to be perfumed with apple, hickory, or oak smoke.

Active time: 30 minutes | Total time: 30 minutes

Shrimp with Three Dipping Sauces Recipe

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Tadashi Ono and Harris Salat | The Japanese Grill | Ten Speed Press, 2011 | Serves 4

Grilled littleneck clams are an iconic Tokyo dish, especially in the old fishermen neighborhoods that ring Tokyo Bay, which was once teeming with shellfish. Called yakihama (from hamaguri, a kind of large clam available in Japan), this cooking tradition reaches back hundreds of years. The littleneck clams that are available here are a good substitute. Mitsuba is a fresh-tasting Japanese herb. If you can’t find it, you can use cilantro or even slivered scallion greens.–Tadashi Ono and Harris Salat

LC Clumsy Around Clams Note: Don’t knock it till you try it. (Though you do need to work quickly and carefully so as not to knock over the sauced clams and tip out their precious liquid.)

Active time: 25 minutes | Total time: 25 minutes.

Grilled Littleneck Clams Recipe

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Judith Jones | The Pleasures of Cooking for One | Knopf, 2009 | Serves 1

This mock bouillabaisse is so scrumptious that you would never know it had anything “left over” in it. You do have to stop and pick up a dozen or so fresh mussels and a few clams the day you’re making it, but otherwise everything else is at hand, and you can put this together in half an hour. I am assuming, of course, that you have a good fish stock in your freezer; if not, plan to make this after you’ve had a lobster or a supper of steamed mussels and have some of that intense lobster or mussel broth left. Otherwise use clam juice, diluted by half with water because it is quite strong.—Judith Jones

LC I Beg Your Pardon, What’s Pistou? Note: Pistou, a term which Ms. Jones bandies about easily but without explanation, means slightly different things to different folks. It came to be in Provence, in the South of France, where basil grows abundantly, its fragrance and flavor a classic and omnipresent accompaniment to almost everything. The condiment is simply basil pounded with garlic and olive oil in a mortar and pestle and served as a dollop on a soup or a spread on bread, although should you not happen to have any basil, Ms. Jones offers an alternate condiment, one that’s pictured above and is equally French. “If you don’t have any pistou on hand or time to make it, try mashing to a paste a small clove of garlic and a little salt, and then mixing that in with a tablespoon of mayonnaise. Whisk in a few pinches of paprika and a dash of hot pepper. Purists would not approve, but you can cheat a little when you’re by yourself. Nobody is looking.” There you have it.

Active time: 10 minutes | Total time: 30 minutes.

New England Bouillabaisse Recipe

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Adapted from Jasper White | The Summer Shack Cookbook | W. W. Norton & Company, 2011 | Serves 4

I’ve made no secret of my absolute addiction to fried clams—especially fried clams with big, luscious, profane bellies. I remember going as a kid to Macray’s, a local clam shack in Westport, MA., several Sundays during the summer. There my parents, grandparents, godparents, cousins, and I dove into pints of deep-fried oceanic goodness. My only regret as I tapped the last bits of crumbs from the greasy red-striped box into my mouth was that we couldn’t make them at home; it’s near impossible to shuck steamer clams. (Trust me, I’ve tried.) That little snag meant this treat would be relegated to the hot, steamy days of a New England summer.

Even after I wrote my paean to the almighty mollusk, I still was stymied: I couldn’t find a source for shucked big-bellied clams. But recently I stumbled upon Digger’s Seafood. It offers all kinds of fresh, never-frozen seafood, including my beloved shucked whole-belly clams.

Skeptical, I ordered a one-pound packet that was delivered to my door within 24 hours. What makes Digger’s clams so special is they’re professionally shucked (the emergency-room savings alone is worth the steep price) and shipped to order. When I cracked opened the container, it smelled like a sweet, salty sea breeze. It took all I had not to eat the clams in all their raw, slippery glory.

But, of course, the proof is in the fryer. And these delivered. Mightily. With my near-forty-year search over, I am now able to have fried clams year round, miles from the nearest boardwalk but only a cast-iron pot away from my childhood.—David Leite

LC Tempt Ye Not Note: When I made this recipe, adapted from the great Jasper White, I was tempted to doctor up the coating mix with all kinds of herbs and spices. (Yes, for a moment I thought of myself as the Colonel  Sanders of Seafood.) “The secret to fried clams,” says Chickie Aggelakis, owner of The Clam Box in Ipswich, Mass., “is the flavor of the clams.” The coating and its crunch protect the tender belly meat. Mucking it up with spices—which is hared to resist—should be avoided at all costs.

Active time: 25 minutes Total time: 25 minutes

Special equipment: deep-frying thermometer or an electric deep fryer, a Chinese wire-mesh skimmer or a pasta basket, a pair of tongs

Clam Shack-Style Fried Clams Recipe

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Tadashi Ono & Harris Salat | The Japanese Grill | Ten Speed Press, 2011 | Serves 4

Grilling fish on a cedar plank adds incredible smoky flavor and also means the fish will never stick to the grate. The skin will stick to the plank during grilling, but that’s okay. Just leave it on the plank, and enjoy the rest of the fish. The wasabi and ginger add complexity to this easy-to-prepare dish. Remember that the cedar planks must soak in water overnight before using. You can also use this method with arctic char and trout.–Tadashi Ono & Harris Salat

LC Seafood Counter Insanity Note: We know it’s not exactly easy to understand all those terms scribbled on those maddeningly teensy signs at the seafood counter. Instead of launching into the merits of wild versus farm-raised salmon or deciphering  what exactly “organic” means when it comes to salmon, we’ll simply say that late spring and early summer are still salmon season in the Pacific Northwest. All you really need to know is to look for signs that say “wild” and “Pacific” and “salmon,” bearing in mind that “King” refers to a coveted, mild, idyllic variety and “sockeye” is an über-rich, more robustly colored type.

Active time: 15 minutes | Total time: 40 minutes, plus overnight for soaking the planks.

Cedar Plank-Grilled Salmon Recipe

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José Andres with Richard Wolffe | Made in Spain | Clarkson Potter, 2008 | Serves 2 to 4

Called lubina a la sal, or salt-baked red snapper, there’s no better or simpler technique for cooking fish than this. The snapper baked inside the salt shell is soft and moist, with no hint of saltiness, in spite of what you might expect. You normally see this dish in restaurants, but it’s easy to replicate at home. After you make this dish a few times, you’ll discover the right combination of temperature, cooking time, and the weight of the fish to give you a perfectly cooked fish.—José Andres

LC Subtle, Sweet, Succulent Note: Let’s be clear about one thing. The genius behind salt-baked anything lies not in the technique’s magical ability to impart an overwhelming amount of spice or tang or other flavor to the ingredient. No. That’s not the point. What encapsulating something in salt prior to baking does is coax the item to go-weak-in-the-knees perfection: moist, tender, supple. In the instance of whole fish, we’re talking something subtle, sweet, and succulent. You taste the ingredient. Nothing else. It’s a simple technique that works impeccably. As for those herbs in the recipe below, the effect is mild. They’ll impart a lilt, but not a profound impact. And that’s okay with us.

Active time:20 minutes Total time: 1 hour.

Salt-Baked Red Snapper Recipe

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Rozanne Gold | Radically Simple | Rodale, 2010 | Serves 4

This Moroccan spiced salmon dish is lush with evocative flavors, colors, and textures, all in one, and all in 10 minutes.–Rozanne Gold

LC Side Ways Note: Sure, this spice-rubbed salmon is swell when accompanied by the sweet tang of oranges, the briny-like-the-sea smack of olives, the crisp pungency of thinly sliced red onions, and the virtuousness of a small heap of tender young salad greens, as the author smartly suggests. But if you really want to make that salad sing, rather than dress it with a mere drizzle of olive oil, whisk up a lovely little vinaigrette using the juice of another orange, a few drops of white wine vinegar, and some extra-virgin olive oil, then dribble it over both salmon and salad. We think you’ll like that. We certainly did.

Active time: 15 minutes | Total time: 15 minutes.

Moroccan Spiced Salmon Recipe

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