Cajun & Creole

If you can't find one type of the greens for this recipe, you can either increase the other two kinds proportionally or substitute kale and/or chard.

These crab cakes are flavored with the "holy trinity" of Cajun cooking: onion, green bell pepper, and celery. Serve them with a helping of coleslaw or a green salad.

The following recipe calls for filé powder, a spice made from the dried, ground leaves of the sassafras tree. Although often added as a thickener to gumbos while they cook, filé powder can also serve purely as a seasoning. As in this recipe, it is then sprinkled over the gumbo at the penultimate moment.

A refined version of a New Orleans classic. Ask the butcher to remove the backbone and quarter the duck.

Serve this zesty Cajun-flavored hash with a big salad (like a romaine mix with herb croutons) and a New Orleans-inspired dessert such as broiled bananas with butter pecan ice cream.

Garlic bread is perfect on the side. You can find Creole or Cajun seasoning in the spice section of most supermarkets.

Here is a terrific lower-fat version of the classic New Orleans dish.

Tangy beer makes a good match with sweet, briny mussels. Here the brew is seasoned with a spice mixture akin to that used in a Louisiana-style crab boil. Can be prepared in 45 minutes or less.

A delicious dessert version of a favorite New Orleans breakfast dish. Pain perdu translates as "lost bread," but you'll find that this is simply a type of French toast.

Chef Tory McPhail writes: "I was 19 years old and just out of culinary school when I first started at Commander's Palace. Despite my training, nothing prepared me for the pressures of working in a fast-paced kitchen, or in a restaurant of such high quality. I think my success came down to sheer effort and a lifelong passion for cooking. Even as a kid I loved playing with cookie and pie dough. "After a seven-year absence, which I spent working abroad and opening a new Commander's Palace restaurant in Las Vegas, I came back to New Orleans last year. Since returning I've enjoyed cooking for my friends. On the weekends we'll go fishing, and then I'll grill our catch and serve it along with a fresh salad. That meal combines the two best things about living in the South — lots of fishing and great fresh produce." Serve these creamy grits with fried eggs for a southern-style breakfast. Andouille, a spicy pork sausage, is available at specialty foods stores and some supermarkets.

A high-flavor, low-fat entrée. Serve it over rice to catch all the juices.