‘Aphrodite’ steams up the kitchen> Cookbook intertwines recipes, sensuality

APHRODITE: A MEMOIR OF THE SENSES, by Isabel Allende, HarperPerennial, New York, 1999, paperback, 315 pages, $16.

To many of us who’ve approached cooking as a dreaded task in our kitchens especially when we’re trying to lose weight, Isabel Allende offers a steamy new outlook on meal preparation with an emphasis on the sensual aspects of food, with no regard for our waistlines.

Sprigs of herbs, bottles of spices, piles of ingredients, wooden spoons, black iron pots and other kitchen tools can be reminders of the torment we feel about whipping up a plate of food for ourselves and hungry loved ones.

But these things may also conjure up memories of our greatest sensory pleasures, which can boost creativity and motivate the cook in us to produce delicious dishes that will throw our dinner guests into frenzies of amorous desires.

Food and eroticism aren’t just for everyday playful lovers, says Allende, the Chilean author of “The House of the Spirits” who makes her home in California. Now available in paperback, Allende’s latest book, “Aphrodite: a Memoir of the Senses,” has readers salivating, lusting and laughing throughout its pages. Anyone can participate in these pleasurable things of life.

Allende, who is well-versed in ancient- to modern-day eating rituals coupled with erotic behaviors, piques readers with sensual descriptions of seemingly unsavory aphrodisiacs used in various cultures such as sheep vulvae, cow udders and glands from lions and ex-bulls. She shares historical anecdotes about the orgy, gigolo and harem, and discusses the benefits of cooking in the nude, using fresh ingredients and not making meal preparation so laborious to the extent of depleting one’s sexual energy.

Finally, she offers aphrodisiac recipes that she claims enlivens the senses. All that’s needed is a kitchen, some key ingredients and preferably, someone with whom you’d like to be intimate. The rest is up to the senses.

By reflecting on her relationship with food and eroticism, Allende’s memoir-cookbook takes the reader on a journey through her sensual memory, where love and appetite are predominant players.

“I repent of my diets, the delicious dishes rejected out of vanity, as much as I lament the opportunities for making love that I let go by because of pressing tasks or puritanical virtue,” she writes. “Walking through the gardens of memory, I discover that my recollections are associated with the senses.”

Aphrodisiac ingredients and recipes are a pungent test to your level of curiosity and perhaps, to your sense of adventure once you learn that food and sensuality are intimately related. Though exotic aphrodisiacs used in some countries — including shark fins, koala paws, baboon testicles and the eye of salamander — are humorously noted, Allende steers away from difficult potions and aspires to ease the preparation of an erotic dish; with all the ingredients available at your local supermarket.

Artist Robert Shekter created the nymphs and satyrs found throughout the pages of “Aphrodite” while Panchita Llona, a food connoisseur and excellent cook who happens to be the author’s mother, came up with many recipes. Even Allende’s Spanish book agent made culinary contribution.

Carmen Balcells, who lives in Barcelona, makes an authentic Catalan soup served at a round table set with antique silver, cut crystal goblets, porcelain china and a starched linen tablecloth embroidered in cloistered convents.

“No one can describe with justice the spectacle of Carmen in her kitchen, wrapped in her apron, a kerchief around her head and a string of curses upon her lips, juggling wooden spoons, black iron pots, mountains of ingredients, bottles of spices, sprigs of herbs and generous dashes of the best brandy,” Allende describes. “It is impossible to describe the aromas issuing from her stock pot, the savor of a broth to raise the dead, the texture of the chunks of blood sausage, chicken and beef that melt in your mouth.”

All the recipes have been tested and assessed for their aphrodisiac powers. Still, Allende encourages engaging in the dining experience without any rules and norms of eating. For example, she instructs, touching food and eating it with your fingers is part of the sensual experience.

“Norms of conduct at the table are basically a series of prohibitions that for an impatient lover may not be erotic but, like the Vatican Index, because of its very strictness can produce the opposite effect.”

Also, Allende breaks down the different senses and how they link to amorous desire. Attraction begins from a distance, through the eyes; smell and other senses come into play at closer contact. Shapes and colors of food can be arousing. Taste matters significantly and touch plays a key part. Soothing music can enhance the experience.

As for the kitchen, herbs and spices are its soul. Basil is associated with passion in some cultures; saffron is thought to be a stimulant in the East. Marine mollusks and crustaceans are believed to have the highest aphrodisiac value, with oysters at the top of the list. Shapes and textures of fruits can be exciting to your guest’s sense of vision and touch.

Hors d’oeuvres have catchy names such as Adam’s Nuts, Salmon Temptation, Frivolous Prunes and Widower’s Figs.

Some delicious appetizers include Artichoke Whisper, Sierra Potatoes and Havana-Style Prawns. Curried Sea Bass, Salmon Neptune, Saffron Shrimp, Champagne Tenderloin, Spicy Rabbit, Asparagus and Caviar Pasta, Risotto Lori and Noodles with Artichoke offer something for vegetarians and nonvegetarians.

Good food that stimulates the senses can be a segue to eroticism. But, Allende adds, the two most important aphrodisiacs are love and variety.

Siobhan McDonough is a free-lance writer who divides her time between Castine and Poughkeepsie, N.Y.