Accents of the Orient, Eastern Influence on Western Cooking

Features recipes combining ingredients from both Western and Eastern cuisines such as fettuccine with oriental mushrooms, sesame carrots, grilled salmon with miso and veal with ginger

Recounts Grodnick ( The Four Seasons Spa Cuisine ), "One day as I was rummaging through my cabinets looking for ingredients for a lamb marinade, I came across a jar of sambal oelek," a hot Indonesian relish. "I used it instead of pepper, and the lamb was a big hit." Serendipity may have inspired her first attempts to apply Asian spices to American standbys, but Grodnik's persistence made the most of that first impulsive choice. The results: savory dishes mingling ingredients from North America, South America and Europe with others from China, Japan, Indonesia, Vietnam, Korea and the Philippines in recipes such as grilled salmon with miso; fettuccine with spicy peanut sauce; stir-fried chicken enchiladas; and Oriental bouillabaisse. The author's ample coaching in preparation, her clarity and her extensive list of ingredients critical to Asian cuisine (from the familiar soy sauce to galangal, a ginger-like root) stand us in good stead. Also provided is a helpful mail-order source for those whose local corner groceries don't include hijiki ("sea vegetation with a licorice-like flavor") and such.
Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Fascinated by the versatility of Oriental foods, Grodnick has incorporated Asian ingredients and techniques into all sorts of Western dishes. Purists may blanch at first look but most of her fresh, new recipes make sense and are appealing as well: Duck Breasts with Black Bean Sauce, Lotus Root Remoulade, Ginger Rice Pudding. Like Hugh Carpenter and Teri Sandison's Pacific Flavors (LJ 4/15/88), Grodnick's book offers a different approach to the Asian ingredients so widely available now.-- JS
Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc.