cover image The Maine Summers Cookbook

The Maine Summers Cookbook

Linda and Martha Greenlaw. Viking/Studio, $30 (224p) ISBN 978-0-670-02285-4

In this cookbook that evokes summers of pig roasts for 250, rafting up ("a floating, clam-digging, fishing picnic"), and outdoor dinner parties, this mother-and-daughter team offer recipes from Isle au Haut, Maine. The Greenlaws (Linda is the author of The Hungry Ocean and Seaworthy) divide the book into such chapters as "Cocktails, Snacks, and Sunsets," "Light Lunches and Suppers for Lazy Summer Days," and "Feasts with Family and Friends." Recipes showcase seasonal Maine treasures, such as blueberries (martinis with mixed berry simple syrup, chilled berry soup, ginger-bran blueberry muffins, cinnamon-blueberry ice cream); seafood (beer-steamed clams, stuffed lazy lobster, blackened swordfish); and plenty of garden vegetables. Dishes are geared toward entertaining, with Maine shrimp gazpacho, mushroom and radish carpaccio with shaved manchego and creamy lemon-pepper drizzle, and cucumbers with green sour cream%E2%80%93cumin dressing; abundant, too, are grilled dishes like blue cheese burgers with bourbon%E2%80%93black tea ketchup, swordfish kebabs with peanut-ginger dipping sauce, and spareribs with Dr Pepper glaze. Essays on rafting up, the annual pig roast, and cooking aboard ship during a monthlong swordfishing expedition further personalize the book. (July)