The Cape Cod Table (ISBN 081183512X)

A celebration of seafood:
A book for those who like to cook, Brody's latest, organized by course, features lots of seafood. There are traditional dishes from chowders (without thickener!) to Bacalhou (Portuguese Salt Cod) to instructions for a real on-the-beach Clambake, as well as an indoor version. The gorgeous color photos are still-lifes with food, or neighborhood scenes or boats. There are Mussels Steamed with Wine and Garlic, Bonfire Mussels and Grilled Mussels, Steamed Clams and Fried Clams and Baked Stuffed Clams and Clam Fritters as well as White Clam Pizza and Spaghetti with White Clam Sauce. There's a chapter on breakfast which features one of the few restaurant recipes, Cottage Street Bakery Dirt Bombs, luscious heavy donut-like balls, as well as Oatmeal Brulée, and Strawberries and Cream French Toast. Appetizers range from Classic Deviled Eggs to Boiled shrimp to Smoked Salmon Cheesecake. Among the soups are Oyster Stew and Bread Bowl Salmon Chowder. Mac's Calamari Salad comes from Mac's Seafood in Wellfleet and Sunset Slaw features beets, red cabbage and pickled cocktail onions. Main courses range from New England Boiled Dinner, made with Stout, to Cranberry Orange Turkey Breast, Grilled Bluefish with Mustard and Lime, Sea Bass Poached in Ginger Fish Broth with Cilantro Pesto, Baked Stuffed Lobster (Ritz crackers and Maine crabmeat), and Grilled Sea Scallops (kabobs). Desserts range from kid-oriented (Chocolate-Covered Cape Cod Potato Chips, Mint Chip Brownie Ice Cream Sundae) to the Lavender Crème Brulee from Provincetown's Chester Restaurant, and Cranberry-Pear Linzertorte. Final chapters include drinks (Chatham's Candy Manor Hot Chocolate, Cranberry Martini) and condiments (Fish Stock, Beach Plum Jam, Pumpkin Cranberry Chutney). Brody, the author of 22 cookbooks, lives on the Cape half the year and imparts a lot of Cape atmosphere and enthusiasm with the recipes. Recipe notes include background, cooking tips and variations (including a comprehensive lobster how-to). The lay-out is attractive and easy to read and the photographs are luscious. Brody has another winner.

Fiddling with the classics:
As an old Bostonian and Cape Codder I bought this book for the sumptious cover photograph. Sadly Ms Broder suffers from the common cookbook author disease of clever fiddling with classic recipes. New England Boiled Dinner with stout, brown sugar and molasses! Made a sickly sweet mess. And my favorite, Fried Clams, made with Japanese Panko crumbs! You get the idea. Photos are great though.