Lemon Juice

In India, tandoori (pronounced than-DOOR-ee) is a popular style of grilling. The tall, cylindrical oven made of brick or clay is used to cook breads, such as light and puffy naan, as well as meats that cook over flames in excess of 500 degrees. This Grilled Tandoori-Style Steak With Summer Lentil Pilaf has something for meat eaters and vegetarians. Meat eaters can enjoy beef marinated in a tangy yogurt sauce, while vegetarians will appreciate the flavorful lentils, another Indian staple that is high in fiber.

Planning a backyard party in the warm days ahead? Take your cues from cultures that have summer entertaining down cold. From the Mediterranean to Southeast Asia, room-temperature buffets are mainstays for celebrations on the terrace, the beach, the patio or the town square. Putting a few cold dishes on the menu works, too, if you know some simple tricks for keeping them chilled.The beauty of such an outdoor buffet is that most of the work can be done in advance; the only last-minute task is arranging an attractive spread of food.

If you're looking for a meaty fish dinner, nothing compares with a thick fish steak. A generously cut fish steak can be cooked on the grill, in the broiler or on top of the stove.Fish steaks offer the satisfying mouth-feel of beef at a fraction of the calories and fat. But even within the fish category, you'll see a wide range in fat content. Albacore tuna is highest, and halibut is lowest among the popular fish choices for steak cuts. You'll notice the difference when you take a bite.Tuna, salmon and swordfish have a sweet taste that does have a hint of fish oil in it. (Relax.

Abundant flavor in a naturally beautiful, aromatic package makes apricots, peaches, nectarines, plums, early apples and pears some of summer's most welcome gifts.For peak appearance, flavor and nutrition, choose fruit that is in season and that has been handled and stored properly.To gauge the softness of an apricot, peach, nectarine or plum without bruising it, cradle the fruit in your palm and close your fingers around it, applying gentle pressure. Ripe fruit will yield slightly.Ripe fruit is highly perishable; purchase relatively small amounts frequently rather than attempting to stock up.In the first recipe, fruit gives natural sweetness to a breakfast or post-workout smoothie.

A member of the cruciferous family, kohlrabi has a flavor reminiscent of both cabbage and turnips.Like the turnip, both its purple-tinged, white, bulblike stem and its greens are edible. Kohlrabi is slightly sweet and juicy and can be used raw as part of a crudite tray or steamed and tossed with a light mix of lemon and butter.Purists point out it is not, strictly speaking, a root but a swollen stem growing just above the ground. The bulb can be pale green or pale purple outside; both varieties are white inside.

Three berries team up for a spring sweetHere's a spring dessert that takes about 20 minutes to prepare.6 frozen puff pastry shells, such as Pepperidge Farm's1/2 cup seedless raspberry jam1 teaspoon lemon juice3 cups mixed blueberries, raspberries, sliced strawberriessweetened whipped creamBake and cool shells according to package directions. Melt jam over low heat, stir in lemon juice and berries. Spoon into shells. Top with whipped cream.Veggie sprayFor the paranoid - and I admit I'm getting to be one of them - a new, naturally derived spray to clean fruits and vegetables is now on supermarket shelves.

Here's a way to get some extra mileage from your next smoking session.While the smoker is fired up, smoke some trout, then use the fish to make an intense spread.Cookbook authors Bill and Cheryl Alters Jamison include the recipe in their book "Sublime Smoke" (Harvard Common Press, $16.95).A whole trout smokes in about 30 minutes. You can put the fish on when you finish smoking the main course. Make the spread and refrigerate it to serve the next day.Because fish tends to dry out in a smoker, the Jamisons recommend covering the fish with a paste, in this case, lemon juice and horseradish.

I have never been a talented gardener; a small plot of herbs is all I can lay claim to in my back yard. Fortunately, many of my friends have green thumbs, and I am often a lucky recipient of their harvests. Plump, juicy tomatoes, long, slender cucumbers and tender salad greens are typical gifts that generous friends bring to our house. The quintessential summer vegetable - the one local gardeners seem to grow with abandon - is zucchini. I routinely receive a large basket or two of this squash once the crop is in.This year I have a new recipe for delicious Provencal Zucchini Soup.

No matter how many times "natural" appears on the carton or how pricey the product, commercially manufactured frozen desserts can't compete with homemade - especially homemade fresh fruit sorbets.Sorbetlike concoctions of flavored ice and snow were first introduced to Europe from China, India and Arabia as early as the Crusades. Imported to the American Colonies just before the War of Independence, sorbet has never fallen far out of fashion.It's now enjoying a revival, thanks to the clamor for healthful, fat-free treats and design innovations in ice cream machines that don't rely on rock salt and ice.It's possible to make a sorbet of sorts from nothing more than unsweetened fruit, although adding simple sugar syrup both sweetens and refines the texture of the finished product.

Though I agree in principle with that upbeat axiom of the self-help pundits, "When life hands you lemons, make lemonade," as a cook, I find it a bit too narrow in scope.After all, to truly embrace the spirit of that sentiment and make the most of what we have, we would certainly do more than just squeeze the juice for lemonade. We would grate the zest because there is flavor to spare in the lemon's outer skin. We would sweeten those lemons and spin them into a beautiful tart, perhaps, or a pudding cake.

Nadine Taylor of Ellicott City lost one of her favorite recipes for making grilled or roasted chicken gremolata. She took the recipe card with her to the grocery store and left it in her cart by mistake. She says she has been unable to re-create the chicken dish that was so well liked by her family and friends. Carol Anne Cassady of Bel Air e-mailed me a recipe she had from Gourmet magazine for lemon pepper chicken with thyme gremolata that she has used for years. A gremolata is a classic Italian garnish most commonly made with minced parsley or thyme, lemon peel and garlic.

Karen Kaiser of Columbia was looking for a recipe for a lemon meringue pie similar to one she liked very much and lost. It came from a summertime issue of a popular women's magazine in the 1970s. The pie was made from scratch and was on the tart side. Gloria Trainor of Knoxville, Tenn., sent in a pie recipe from the September 1972 issue of Family Circle magazine. She thought it might be the one that Kaiser was looking for. The recipe suggests using a piecrust mix. If you are a purist, you can make the crust from scratch; but, to save time, I opted to use the Pillsbury refrigerator crust, which I prefer to crust made from a mix. This pie has a smooth, fresh-lemon flavor with a cloudlike meringue topping and just the right balance of tart to sweet.

Ann Mitchell of Pittsfield, Mass., was looking for a recipe for a lemon cake similar to the one that someone brought to a party some years ago. It was made with pieces of angel food cake, lemon pudding and whipped cream layered in a springform pan and chilled. Helen Kimpel, also from Pittsfield, thought she had the recipe. She found it in a magazine a long time ago and it continues to be the dessert most asked for in her family. She says that over the years she has made some changes to the original recipe and now makes it in a cut-glass bowl instead of putting it in a mold.

Gluten-Free Girl How I Found the Food That Loves Me Back ... & How You Can Too Gluten-Free, Wheat-Free & Dairy-Free Recipes More Than 100 Mouth-Watering Recipes for the Whole Family By Grace Cheetham Duncan Baird / 2007 / $19.95 Perhaps nothing shouts "special diet" as much as the title of this book. But Grace Cheetham's collection has range and depth. I wanted to try her prosciutto and arugula pizza with dairy-free cheese, but I couldn't find gram flour at the market. Luckily, her cakes without milk, cream and butter piqued my curiosity, too. I baked two - a classic flourless chocolate cake and a more original lemon polenta cake.

On a recent episode of Charlie Rose, chef Thomas Keller waxed poetic about roasted chicken. It has "reference points," he said. A big browned bird signals the arrival of the holidays, or a relaxed supper after a lazy Sunday. A whole roasted chicken, crisp-skinned and juicy and aromatic, resonates with deliciousness. But even when deconstructed to its humble parts, they too can hit all the same notes. Achieve them with a pan or in the oven, with a few easy techniques - the right ones for the right cut. Chicken breasts are succulent and tender when pounded thin and quickly sauteed until golden brown, then finished in a rustic Basque-style sauce.

One of my brothers-in-law lives in Louisiana, where shrimp is easily come by and no budget-breaker. That's where I first ate this wonderful dish, universally referred to throughout the Deep South as Barbecued Shrimp, even though a grill doesn't come within a mile of the meal. This recipe is among the few shrimp dishes that doesn't mind if the shrimp came from the freezer. It's a great casual dish. Eating with your hands - peeling the shrimp, dunking the bread in the pan juices - helps everybody relax and have fun. Robin Mather Jenkins writes for the Chicago Tribune, which provided the recipe analysis.

In India, tandoori (pronounced than-DOOR-ee) is a popular style of grilling. The tall, cylindrical oven made of brick or clay is used to cook breads, such as light and puffy naan, as well as meats that cook over flames in excess of 500 degrees. This Grilled Tandoori-Style Steak With Summer Lentil Pilaf has something for meat eaters and vegetarians. Meat eaters can enjoy beef marinated in a tangy yogurt sauce, while vegetarians will appreciate the flavorful lentils, another Indian staple that is high in fiber.

300 Best Stir-Fry Recipes By Nancie McDermott The About.Com Guide to Shortcut Cooking By Linda Larsen F+W Publications Inc. / 2007 / $17.95 Although this book features 225 different shortcut recipes, the focus is mostly on entrees. The recipe I tried was too much of a shortcut. When I finished making the Beef and Nectarine Stir-Fry, the beef was overdone and tough. The directions should have been clearer. The book says to slice along the grain when the beef is frozen, but it does not describe the width of each slice.

The Summer Shack Cookbook The Complete Guide to Shore Food The New York Times Country Weekend Cookbook Edited by Linda Amster St. Martin's Press / 2007 / $32 If Jasper White's guide to summer eating is like a classic lobster roll from a roadside stand, this compilation from the august newspaper of record brings to mind a wine-and-cheese picnic for a New York Philharmonic concert on Central Park's Great Lawn. Cleanly designed, filled with urbane but easy recipes, the book is a conglomeration of finds from Times' food writers and some of the nation's best chefs.

Quinlan Cummings of Greenville, N.C., was looking for a recipe for a Lemon Chess Pie. Ruth Ann Barker of Fayetteville, N.C., sent in a recipe for the pie from the Farm Journal Complete Pie Cookbook published in 1965. She says this is a recipe she has enjoyed over the years. The recipe notes say that the filling can be baked in a traditional unbaked pie shell or that a graham-cracker or vanilla-wafer crumb crust can be substituted. I tested it in the traditional pastry crust. The finished pie was a beautiful lemon-yellow color inside and nut brown on top; it had a fine balance of tart and sweet.