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Here the panoply ranges from cottage-plain to Maxim's-fancy, blue-jeans casual to black-tie serious. A brunch solution is smoked haddock pate with gingered tomato relish. For a hot-weather surprise, there is a chicken in lemon aspic; for a winter warmer, a classic French country pate. There are individual hot pates in pastry, one made with crab, another with carrots, and a tricolor fish terrine. Since most main-course pátés are served cold, they demand a reordering of menus, which Cutler does imaginatively. Indeed, the supporting dishes she suggests are often as tempting as the main event. They include cauliflower with shrimp sauce, pear gratin, mushroom flan, mango sherbet, gratineed blueberries, chocolate omelet, hot banana puffs and icy oranges with hot orange-ginger sauce. One menu, featuring shrimp with Pernod, a grand veal and ham pâté en croute, and honeydew balls in strawberry sauce, would make a fine if unorthodox dinner for Thanksgiving or Christmas.
Indian cuisine, one of the world's richest, is poorly represented in print and on restaurant row. So voyage to India with Madhur Jaffrey and Indian Cooking (Barren's; $7.95). The Delhi-born actress, who won wide acclaim in Britain with a BBC series on which this book is based, traces the varied outside influences—Mogul, Portuguese, British—as well as regional and religious traditions that have formed the subcontinent's unique culinary character. Its only common denominator is the symphonic interweaving of spices, seasonings and flavorings.
Jaffrey observes that many of the techniques used in nouvelle cuisine have been commonplace in India for centuries. The dark sauces, for example, are seldom thickened with flour, but with onions, garlic, ginger, yogurt and tomatoes. Her book lists a subtle series of inviting vegetable preparations that could well accompany Western dishes: mushrooms and potatoes cooked with garlic and ginger, spicy green beans, sweet and sour okra, eggplant "cooked in pickling style." Better yet, serve them with the great main dishes of India. Memorable recipes, including several in which lamb replaces hard-to-find goat, range from Persian-derived shahi korma ("royal" lamb or beef with a creamy almond sauce) to Kashmiri red lamb stew. Other party entrees include Mughlai lamb-and-rice casserole, chicken with almonds and sultanas, and easy-to-make haddock baked in yogurt sauce. Jaffrey describes a technique by which the home cook can simulate the tandoori-style dishes offered by so many Indian restaurants without investing in the expense of a clay oven. And she has the definitive recipe (among dozens) for mulligatawny, the classic Anglo-Indian soup.
Some of the rice dishes in Indian Cooking are irresistible. The toothsome Indian breads are well represented, as are chutneys, relishes and pickles. Interestingly, the word curry—an English coinage—does not occur once in this book.