Caviar

This is what I like to call a fancy schmancy dish, but it’s so easy to do and you can make it a day ahead. You will need a springform pan.

I thrive on discovering new flavor combinations, and Sea is a great example of a totally thrown together idea that worked out beautifully. That day I was really in the mood for some crab salad, but I wanted to do something untraditional. One of my purveyors had sent me some Tuscan cantaloupe to try, so I first made a melon emulsion. Then I tossed the crabmeat with my Colvin Vinaigrette (which is basically good on anything). I thought that avocado would be great with the melon, so I started with a little melon on the plate, then I layered sliced ripe avocado and the crab mixture with a huge quenelle of caviar I had on hand to top it all off. Honestly, it was like heaven. I had so much crab that I made two mini ones for my two friends downstairs, and they were like, "What the hell is this flavor combination? This is amazing!" Give it a try—it's elegant and just incredibly good.

In this sophisticated appetizer, the blinis are topped with American caviar, a delicious alternative to the pricey imported stuff.

Laden with suitcases full of caviar, a thank-you gift from the Shah of Iran for cooking at his palace in 1978, Louis Outhier returned to France in need of a recipe that called for such extravagance. Oeufs au caviar was the result, and Jean-Georges Vongerichten, Outhier's young protégé at the time, still serves the dish at his namesake New York City restaurant. Layered inside an eggshell, warm scrambled eggs and cold cream are accented with a regal dollop of caviar.

Crêpe Bundles with Caviar and Sour Cream Innovative and self-taught, Barry Wine redefined American haute cuisine at New York City's Quilted Giraffe in the 1980s. His iconic—and most copied—dish was the bite-size beggars’ purse, a chive-tied crêpe bundle filled with caviar and crème fraîche. We've turned it into a first course and added chives and brown butter to the crêpe batter.

With sustainability in mind, we taste-tested a variety of domestic caviars. Trout roe had the pop and brininess we were looking for—and it was especially pretty.

Russian blinis traditionally call for yeast, but our mini-pancake version is blissfully easy. Use as much or as little caviar as you like, depending on how indulgent you're feeling.

Tarama (or taramasalata) is a Greek spread traditionally made with carp roe, breadcrumbs, lemon juice, milk, olive oil, and seasonings. Here, smoked salmon adds an extra dose of flavor.

Improv: Top with smoked salmon instead of caviar.

Editor's note: This recipe was created by Erika Lenkert, author of the book, The Last-Minute Party Girl: Fashionable, Fearless, and Foolishly Simple Entertaining. For Lenkert's tips on throwing a last-minute New Year's Eve party, click here. When it comes to entertaining I'm a selective cheapskate. I thrive on figuring out how to get the most bang out of minimal bucks for things like decor, so that I can splurge on a few fantastic ingredients, like high-quality American caviar for this dish. When throwing a party I love doing something really easy that looks and tastes fabulous. This is one such example — a hearty scoop of American caviar atop a bite of petite potato salad inside a shot or martini glass. If using shot glasses, serve it with mini plastic spoons, which can be found at ice cream stores. For martini glasses, go with teaspoons or demitasse spoons.

Serve a chilled crisp California Chardonnay throughout the meal.

Now that imported caviar is no longer available, the domestic stuff is all the rage. Paired with lemon oil (sold at many markets), it's the ultimate garnish.

Moderately priced avruga caviar (smoked herring roe from Spain) gives cooks a chance to throw caution to the wind and experiment. Stephen Harris purées it into a slate-gray emulsion, bringing visual drama and a smoky flavor to delicate salmon. Fleur de sel is a good substitute for his house-made sea salt.

Preserved lemon, an essential ingredient in Moroccan cooking, is made by pickling lemons in salt, lemon juice, and olive oil. Here, preserving just the peel (begin at least a day ahead) is an easy way to add an exciting note to the crème fraäche.

Hard-boiled eggs, sour cream, and onion are traditional accompaniments for caviar. In this longtime staple of community cookbooks, they are turned into a shallow cake and spread with caviar. We used supermarket lumpfish caviar, but if you're feeling flush, use the good stuff, or even Japanese tobiko (flying-fish roe).

Editor's note: This recipe is excerpted from Eric Ripert and Michael Ruhlman's book the A Return To Cooking. To read more about Ripert, click here. This is a hugely luxurious dish, with the sweet flesh of the scallops enhanced by a sauce flavored and thickened with caviar. The dish is rich and creamy, sweet and salty. And it's very easy to make. The sauce base is clam juice, cream, and butter. The scallops are poached for just a minute or two, and caviar is added to the sauce just before serving. That is the only tricky and critical part of this dish: You must be careful to heat the sauce gently once the caviar has been added, bringing it just up to heat without letting it boil. It is, after all, an egg-thickened sauce, and you must be careful of overcooking eggs in this sauce or the caviar will turn hard and white. Treat it as the delicate product it is. Or, as Eric would put it, "Don't whisk it like an idiot. You must be extremely gentle."

Can be prepared in 45 minutes or less, but requires additional unattended time.