Cookbook may incite West Coast food envy

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THE SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE COOKBOOK VOLUME II, edited by Michael Bauer and Fran Irwin, Chronicle Books, San Francisco, 2001, 470 pages, $22.95.

If you can live with a book that begins by telling you that “The San Francisco Bay area is the epicenter of food trends,” this might just be the cookbook for you. On the other hand, if you exhibit no symptoms of Pacific-coast envy, and if the sentence “Food is more than fuel, it’s a lifestyle” makes you roll your eyes, I’d look elsewhere.

In spite of that unfortunate beginning, however, “The San Francisco Chronicle Cookbook” has much to recommend it, especially if you’re an adventurous cook who’s willing to take a chance on unfamiliar flavors – or whose family and guests are. The recipes in the book appeared originally in the newspaper’s food section. They’re accompanied by sidebars that provide directions for making quick and easy dishes using very few ingredients (such as Grilled Plums with Bacon and Goat Cheese, Mixed Melon Salsa, Chicken Breasts with Pesto, Grilled Winter Squash with Cumin). Also in sidebars are two especially useful features from the Chronicle’s food section – the best of several brands of a specific ingredient from its “Taster’s Choice” professional tasting panel (what is it? how do I get in on it?); and “myriad tips, techniques and tricks for making cooking easier and a lot more fun” from its “Best Way” series.

At the end of the book is a helpful list of online resources for ordering some of the hard to find ingredients in the recipes. Even with that list, however, you’ll find a few items much harder to find in Maine than in San Francisco. The Asian recipes, for example, make frequent use of such staples as Thai basil, kaffir lime leaves, lemon leaves, and galangal. Unfortunately, the editors haven’t included directions on how to substitute for these ingredients, putting the small-town or rural New England cook at something of a disadvantage.

In spite of that, there’s plenty of good, interesting food in the book’s 470 pages. Even the classics are given unusual twists – white bean soup has roasted garlic and pancetta; minestrone is Mexican and uses cilantro; the cream of leek soup calls for two ounces of Stilton cheese.

The salad chapter is particularly imaginative and inclusive, many of the recipes functioning either as side dishes or as main courses. Leafing through the recipes will give you an idea of the eclectic nature of San Francisco cuisine – Southeast Asian Summer Salad of Cellophane Noodles and Herbs, Plaka Greek Salad, Black Bean and Corn Salad, two variations of Cobb Salad, and salads based on couscous, potatoes, rice, and many varieties of meat and fish.

The pasta and grains chapter shows even more clearly the influence of the Asian and Mexican communities on San Francisco’s culture. In addition to spaghetti, there are recipes using every type of Japanese and Chinese noodle; there’s risotto, polenta, pad thai; Mango Rice with Macadamia Nuts, Lamb Ravioli with Yogurt, Garlic and Mint, Whole Wheat Spaghetti with Chard and Jalape?o Macaroni.

The Chronicle cookbook has a chapter that may interest many cooks today – “Meatless Main Courses.” Here we find unusual and, again, eclectic recipes for dishes based on a variety of whole grains (including millet, kasha and others), for vegetable stews, polenta, curries, pizza and another variation on lasagna, this one with lentils, squash, and caramelized onions.

The vegetable chapter is equally broad, making use of commonly available vegetables, but cooking them in creative ways – Mediterranean-Style Marinated Red Beets, for example, or Fennel Choucroute, or Roasted Sweet Potatoes with Red Pepper-Chili-Lime Butter. The editors have provided a full-page guide to Asian vegetables, which appear more and more frequently everywhere in the United States.

Chapters on meat, poultry, fish and shellfish begin with the usual suspects, but browsing through the poultry section can give you an idea of how far afield the newspapers columns ranged – the chicken recipes featured here have their roots in southern France, in Havana, India, Greece, Vietnam and Morocco. Chicken is sauced with vanilla, with lavender, with tangerine and bourbon.

Another unusual chapter, “Morning Repasts,” is clearly for people who brunch (I think that’s part of the lifestyle mentioned in the introduction). On the other hand, if you like breakfast for dinner sometimes, you could do worse – lots of pancakes, waffles, scones, muffins and quick breads; eggs, frittatas and quiches.

The recipes in general are easy to follow and – mostly – successful. Yes, there was a couscous that was much too dry, a stuffed mussel appetizer that was gluey, salty, and otherwise unpalatable (of course, who knows what San Francisco mussels might be like?), but these were the exceptions. The recipe below was perfect in every way.

All in all, “The San Francisco Chronicle Cookbook” may make you wonder if food really is a lifestyle. Then again, maybe not.

Fallen Butternut Squash Gratin

6 medium-size butternut squash

1/2 cup honey

3 tablespoons all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon grated nutmeg

1/4 teaspoon cinnamon

3 eggs, separated

1/4 cup chopped pecans

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Butter a 9-inch diameter gratin dish or baking pan. Line a large baking pan with parchment paper.

Halve the squash and scoop out the seeds. Place the halves cut-side down on the parchment-lined pan and bake for about 30 minutes, or until soft. Let the squash cool. Spoon out the flesh and puree it in a food processor. (You should have about 3 cups squash puree).

Combine the squash puree, honey, flour, salt, nutmeg, cinnamon and egg yolks in a mixing bowl; blend well.

Beat the egg whites to stiff peaks in a bowl. Carefully fold into the squash mixture until no streaks of white remain. Pour the gratin mixture into the prepared pan. Sprinkle the nuts over the top.

Bake for about 45 minutes, or until golden.

Serves 6.