The Winterlake Lodge Cookbook or Enlightened Kitchen

The Winterlake Lodge Cookbook: Culinary Adventures in the Wilderness

Author: Kirsten Dixon

Chef Kirsten Dixon has successfully built her culinary reputation on the coupling of two themes: world-class cuisine and America's Last Frontier. Hailed by Bon Appetit, the James Beard House, Food Illustrated, the House of Blues, and Esquire, among many reviewers, Kirsten Dixon's elegant regional cuisine continues to excite international enthusiasm. Winterlake is one of three remote Alaska lodges operated by Kirsten and her husband; Carl. Nestled along the Iditarod Trail in the Alaska Range, Winterlake is accessible only by small plane, dog team, or snowmobile. Visitors are invariably gratified to sample her stylish fare along with log-cabin hospitality. In THE WINTERLAKE LODGE COOKBOOK, Kirsten divides the year into seasons, then commingles memoir and cooking lessons, inviting readers into this adventurous life. Lavishly illustrated with images of food, wildlife, and unsurpassable landscapes, this long-awaited sequel to Kirsten's RIVERSONG LODGE COOKBOOK (page 54) is as visually sumptuous as are her inspired recipes.

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Enlightened Kitchen: Fresh Vegetable Dishes from the Temples of Japan

Author: Mari Fujii

While Japanese cuisine has become popular in the West, far less is known about the traditional fare originating from Japan's Buddhist temples. Natural and healthy, temple food is based on fresh seasonal vegetables, and staples such as grains and tofu. For centuries, these dishes have been a way of life-and a refreshing change of pace-for monks whose days are spent in rigorous self-discipline.

Married to a Buddhist monk, author Mari Fujii has taught temple cuisine for over twenty years. In these pages, she presents sixty heartwarming recipes, many adapted for the Western kitchen but all true to their roots. Her Carrot and Mushroom Soymilk Soup combines traditional sensibilities with modern taste requirements. The Ginger Rice lends a welcome flair to a common staple, and Banana Tempura is a light, fruity variation of this worldwide favorite.

Mari Fujii's offerings are wide-ranging. The Enlightened Kitchen opens with soups and salads, then sweeps into tofu, beans, vegetables, rice and desserts. A well-considered appendix explains the finer points of cooking rice and making stock, and a detailed glossary provides valuable tips on selecting, using, and storing ingredients.

In Japan, as people seek more ways to improve their diets, temple cuisine is gaining a new generation of followers. Mari Fujii delivers simple, seasonal foods with love and care. She teaches the importance of drawing out the natural flavors of ingredients rather than smothering with heavy sauces or spices. Whether soup, salad, or tofu, these wholesome dishes, based on ancient Japanese traditions, are sure to become firm favorites in modern households. Any way you look at it, The Enlightened Kitchen is a nourishing experience for both body and soul.

Publishers Weekly

Vegetarians, vegans and even lovers of steak teriyaki will find much to savor in this introduction to the quiet wonders of Buddhist temple cuisine, or shojin ryori. Fujii draws upon 20 years of experience as an author and teacher in her native Japan-as well as kitchen secrets learned from her husband, a Buddhist monk-to explore a tradition that depends solely on seasonal vegetables, prepared in a spiritual way. She introduces the temple repertoire, from simple salads to vegetable soups and stews. Tae Hamamura's color photographs are mouth-watering, whether depicting Kenchin Style Vegetable Soup or a simple bowl of Ginger Rice. However, although Fujii is eloquent when she explains each dish's philosophy, she falls short on introducing Westerners to the cooking principles that underlie the tradition. Preparation techniques for basics like rice and stock are relegated, along with a crucial glossary of ingredients, to the back of the book, where they are dealt with perfunctorily. If Fujii had taken more trouble to introduce Americans to the foundations of temple cuisine-methods, tastes, ingredients-she would have better empowered them to make it their own and feed the stomach as well as the soul. (Jan.) Copyright 2005 Reed Business Information.