cover image The Summer Table: Recipes and Menus for Casual Outdoor Entertaining

The Summer Table: Recipes and Menus for Casual Outdoor Entertaining

Lisa Lemke. Sterling, $24.95 (272p) ISBN 978-1-4549-0438-0

For many, summer is the season to go lighter on food preparation, allowing the fresh flavors to speak for themselves, but this cookbook from a Swedish TV chef promises that laid-back doesn't have to mean pedestrian grilled meats and insipid salads. Among her solutions for meats is a series of creative marinades, rubs, glazes, sauces, and compound butters, some of which evoke her native flavors (elderflower and lemon glaze, for example) and others that combine cross-cultural ingredients (a sticky BBQ marinade with hoisin, red chili, and cherry marmalade). From there Lemke accompanies her reader along a series of well-designed menus for occasions such as a Grand Summer Brunch Buffet (baked eggs with asparagus and bacon; onion mushroom and sage custard tart; carrot and almond scones) and a Chic Cocktail Party in the City (salty-sweet rosemary popcorn; pizza with chanterelles, chorizo, and pecorino). Enthusiastic commentary convincingly urges readers to try gorgonzola in an omelet with grapes, and a chocolate pie mixed with muscovado caramel and currant. Lemke's recipes are colorful and creative. Color photos. (Mar.)