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4. Spoon into the casserole, slide onto the middle oven shelf, and bake uncovered for 40 to 45 minutes or until lightly puffed and tipped with brown.

5. Serve at once, accompanied, if you like, with a tartly dressed green salad.

SHRIMP-STUFFED MIRLITONS

MAKES 4 SERVINGS

Flip through almost any Deep South cookbook—particularly a club or church fund-raiser—and you’re likely to find a recipe for mirlitons (chayotes or vegetable pears) stuffed with a spicy shrimp mixture. Southerners love stuffing vegetables and what better than these pale green, pear-shaped relatives of summer squash? Unlike squash, mirlitons have one large seed—a slim almond-shaped one the color of ivory. Scooping it out leaves hollows just begging to be filled.

2 medium-large mirlitons (about 1½ pounds), scrubbed but not peeled

3 tablespoons butter

6 large scallions, trimmed and thinly sliced (include some green tops)

1 small celery rib, trimmed and finely diced

8 ounces shelled and deveined cooked shrimp, coarsely chopped

2 tablespoons finely chopped Italian parsley

¾ teaspoon salt, or to taste

¼ teaspoon black pepper, or to taste

¼ teaspoon hot red pepper sauce, or to taste

¾ cup moderately fine soft bread crumbs tossed with 1 tablespoon melted butter

½ cup coarsely shredded mild Cheddar cheese

1. Place the mirlitons in a large, heavy saucepan, add just enough cold water to cover them, and bring to a boil over high heat. Adjust the heat so the water bubbles gently, set the lid on askew, and cook for 50 to 60 minutes or until a fork will pierce the mirlitons easily.

2. Meanwhile, melt 2 tablespoons of the butter in a medium-size heavy skillet over moderately high heat, add the scallions and celery, and cook, stirring often, for 4 to 5 minutes or until golden. Add the remaining tablespoon of butter and when it melts, add the shrimp, parsley, salt, black pepper, and red pepper sauce, and cook and stir for 2 to 3 minutes. Set off the heat and reserve.

3. Preheat the oven to 350° F. Drain the mirlitons well, and when cool enough to handle, halve lengthwise. Using a tablespoon, remove the seeds, then scoop out the flesh, leaving shells about 3/8 inch thick. Mash or purée the mirliton flesh and stir into the shrimp mixture. Next mix in ½ cup of the buttered bread crumbs, then the cheese. Taste for salt, black pepper, and red pepper sauce and adjust as needed.

4. Mound the shrimp mixture in the mirliton shells, dividing the total amount evenly. Top with the remaining ¼ cup buttered crumbs, again dividing evenly. Place the stuffed mirlitons, not touching, in an ungreased 13 × 9 × 2-inch baking pan.

5. Slide onto the middle oven shelf and bake uncovered for 25 to 30 minutes or until lightly browned.

6. Serve at once as the main course of a light lunch or supper.

KIM’S SHRIMP AND CRAB CAKES

MAKES 4 SERVINGS

Kim is my brother Bob’s daughter and she’s a whiz of a southern cook because she descends, on her mother’s side, from an extended family of accomplished North Carolina cooks. She makes old family recipes often (see Aunt Bertie’s Crispy Cornmeal Pancakes, Chapter 5), but she’s an innovator, too, improvising with whatever attracts her at the farmer’s market and fish market. This recipe of Kim’s is a winner, especially when served with the tart Tarragon-Mustard Sauce (recipe follows) that her older sister, Linda, created especially for it.

8 ounces raw medium shrimp, shelled, deveined, and cut into ¼-inch dice

8 ounces finely flaked backfin crabmeat, bits of shell and cartilage removed

¼ cup firmly packed mayonnaise (use “light,” if you like)

1 large egg, lightly beaten

3 medium scallions, trimmed and very thinly sliced (include some green tops)

1 large celery rib, trimmed and finely diced

½ medium red bell pepper, cored, seeded, and finely diced

¼ cup fine dry bread crumbs

½ teaspoon salt

¼ teaspoon black pepper

¼ teaspoon hot red pepper sauce

½ cup unsifted stone-ground yellow cornmeal (for dredging)