Luscious Lemon Desserts or Spice

Luscious Lemon Desserts

Author: Lori Longbotham

Lemon sweets are the divas of desserts. Assertive and bold, lemons can be flamboyant, tart, and tangy as in the Lemon Granita or sweet, mellow, and velvety like the creamy Lemon Panna Cotta. Over 70 recipes—from the classics to lip-smacking new favorites—are all enticingly presented in Luscious Lemon Desserts. These recipes vary from the simple to the sublime, from the quick and easy to the most elaborate showstoppers. Author Lori Longbotham provides great tips on buying, storing, and using this most popular fruit. Whether it's a fast and fabulous lemon pudding or a Mile-High Lemon Angel Food Cake, the name says it all: Luscious Lemon Desserts. Yum!

Publishers Weekly

"Lemon" especially when applied to cars is often used as a term of derogation. But Lori Longbotham, former Gourmet magazine editor, has better ideas about this beautiful fruit, and her Luscious Lemon Desserts explores lemon cakes, pies, puddings, custards, cookies, ice creams, shortcakes, cr pes, truffles, peels, curds, popsicles, confections and sauces with panache and, well, zest. Over 70 recipes for decadent treats Profiteroles, Chilled Lemon Souffle, Chocolate Ganache Tart with Lots of Lemon, Luscious Lemon and Blueberry Tiramisu, Lemon Cr me Br l e, Lemon Mascarpone-Clementine Gratins and Lemon Sorbet-Filled Lemons accompanied by mesmerizing color photos, convincingly make Longbotham's point that "lemons are the divas of desserts." This book offers some of the same tips on buying and zesting lemons as Lemon Zest, but otherwise there's impressively little overlap between the two. Anyone craving summer desserts will find these recipes mouthwateringly irresistible. ( July 1) Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information.

Library Journal

The former food editor for Gourmet and author of Better by Microwave gives lemon lovers what they have been looking for in this first-ever cookbook dedicated exclusively to lemon desserts. She presents over 70 recipes for cakes, pies, tarts, puddings, custards, cookies, ice cream, and sorbets. Included in this appealing volume are classics such as Lemon Squares and the Ultimate Lemon Pound Cake, as well as new treats like Ethereal Lemon Angel Pie, Lemon Meringue Ice-Cream Cake, and Luscious Lemon and Blueberry Tiramisu. Recipes range from simple to complex and include suggestions for advance preparation and serving. There are also tips on buying, storing, and using lemons and baking tips and techniques. Dozens of vibrant and tempting color photographs illustrate the finished recipes and an attractive design makes this book a pleasure to read and use. Highly recommended. Pauline Baughman, Multnomah Cty. Lib., Portland, OR Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information.

Table of Contents:

	Introduction	6
	Lemon Aid--Lemon Dessert Basics	9
	Let Them Eat Lemon Cake	19
	Tart Pies and Tangy Tarts	36
	Puddings, Custards, and a Souffle	62
	Special Favorites	83
	Cookies	97
	Frozen Lemon Desserts	112
	Confections and Sauces	129
	Index	141
	Table of Equivalents	144

Book review:

Spice: Flavors of the Eastern Mediterranean

Author: Ana Sortun

On a trip to Turkey as a young woman, chef Ana Sortun fell in love with the food and learned the traditions of Turkish cooking from local women. Inspired beyond measure, Sortun opened her own restaurant in Cambridge, Massachusetts, the award-winning Oleana, where she creates her own interpretations of dishes incorporating the incredible array of delicious spices and herbs used in eastern regions of the Mediterranean.

In this gorgeously photographed book, Sortun shows readers how to use this philosophy of spice to create wonderful dishes in their own homes. She reveals how the artful use of spices and herbs rather than fat and cream is key to the full, rich flavors of Mediterranean cuisine -- and the way it leaves you feeling satisfied afterward. The book is organized by spice, detailing the ways certain spices complement one another and how they flavor other foods and creating in home cooks a kind of sense-memory that allows for a more intuitive use of spice in their own dishes. The more than one hundred tantalizing spice categories and recipes include: 

• Beef Shish Kabobs with Sumac Onions and Parsley Butter
• Chickpea and Potato Terrine Stuffed with Pine Nuts, Spinach, Onion, and Tahini
• Crispy Lemon Chicken with Za'atar
• Golden Gazpacho with Condiments
• Fried Haloumi Cheese with Pear and Spiced Dates

Absolutely alive with spices and herbs, Ana Sortun's recipes will intrigue and inspire readers everywhere.

Library Journal

Kurihari is wildly popular in Japan, where she has a cooking magazine, a line of housewares, and several best-selling cookbooks in print. She has sometimes been called Japan's Martha Stewart, but, as evidenced by her first book to be published here, she has a more down-to-earth, straightforward style. True, she does have a large collection of serving dishes and plates, but that is in large part a reflection of the Japanese aesthetic sense--the emphasis on "variety, seasonality, and presentation" that, Harumi believes, is what makes the cuisine unique. She presents both classic Japanese dishes and more contemporary recipes, often influenced by other cuisines, from Japanese Pepper Steak with Ginger Mashed Potatoes to Tofu with Basil and Gorgonzola Dressing. She also includes a mini-tutorial on sushi, illustrated with step-by-step photographs, and there are color photographs, many full-page, of all the recipes. An unintimidating, informed, and quite engaging introduction to a cuisine few Americans cook at home, this this book is recommended for most collections. Copyright 2006 Reed Business Information.