Tropical Fruit Cookbook

Although this reads rather like a textbook, Harris has assembled an excellent compendium of recipes for common and not-so-common tropical fruits. The book is divided in half: the first half deals with more commonly found fruits like avocados, coconuts and pomegranates, while the second half deals with what Harris calls new-market fruits, meaning fruit that is not well-known outside its growing area, such as jackfruit, sapote and longan. Each chapter starts with a brief history of the fruit, its uses and when it first appeared in Hawaii. Harris's recipes are thorough and well organized. There is a very useful glossary of basic fruit-cooking terms. She allows for canned or frozen fruit when the fresh is unobtainable. This is another single-subject cookbook that can provide a complete menu. Waikiki duck with lychee champagne punch, and macadamia salad dressing, are but a few of the recipes Harris provides. Frozen yogurt guava pops is another good one. Most of these fruits, Harris writes, appeared in Hawaii after Captain Cook's voyage. Some, like the pineapple, became an economic staple in the islands. Others became a part of history--namely, the breadfruit, which played a role in the 1788 mutiny on board the Bounty. (Aug.)