The Pink Adobe Cookbook

This delightful collection aptly demonstrates that restaurant cookery can also be a highly personal cuisine. Murphy, who opened the Pink Adobe restaurant in Santa Fe, N.M., 45 years ago, blends Creole, Hispanic and standard American fare with a dollop of whimsy. Mexican-style offerings include chile rellenos, black-bean soup, turkey mole poblano and sopapillas. Mexican-American cookery yields avocado halves, stuffed with chicken, in chili sauce, potato salad with green chilis, bread pudding with tequila sauce and a meat loaf sporting mandarin-orange segments, pine nuts and chopped jalapeno pepper. Murphy's New Orleans origins surface in such dishes as oysters St. Jacques, carnival okra, shrimp remoulade with Creole mustard and Cajun-style stuffed crabs. Personal tastes and a dash of exuberance produce lasagna monte, a chicken-and-cheese dish flavored with green chilis, sour cream and black olives; steak sauced with herbs, jalapenos and chilis; and flaming ice-cream sundae. This is an updated and expanded version of the self-published Cooking with a Silver Spoon, first issued in 1956.pk (June)