cover image Salt & Pepper: 135 Perfectly Seasoned Recipes

Salt & Pepper: 135 Perfectly Seasoned Recipes

Michele Anna Jordan. Broadway Books, $25 (256pp) ISBN 978-0-7679-0027-0

Early in what she calls her ""love letter"" to salt and pepper, Jordan exclaims: ""Salt tap dances naked on your table, makes you blush with delight. Pepper taps you on the shoulder and invites you behind closed doors."" It's hard to resist such unbridled enthusiasm, and it's easy to succumb to the spicy mix of history, folklore and recipes that Jordan serves up. A fascinating if lengthy introduction leads to a carefully honed selection of dishes arranged by courses--with a side trip through condiments. Not just used for its flavor, salt is sometimes part of the actual cooking method (Shrimp Roasted on Rock Salt, for example); it also creates a suavely unusual Halibut Gravlax and tangy Preserved Lemons, which can be served as an appetizer or included in a stew. Pepper, in all its forms, works its magic on everything from Spaghetti Carbonara to Walnut Pfeffern sse cookies. Teacher, caterer and prolific author Jordan (Polenta; California Home Cooking) proves that man's oldest spices need not be treated as old hat. Though she may infuriate the dietetically correct with her breezy use of bacon fat, raw eggs and all that salt, she will delight fellow hedonists with her insistence on the freshest ingredients and the boldest flavors. (Apr.)