Fire Smoke Green: Vegetarian Barbecue, Smoking and Grilling Recipes

A former creative director for Ikea Food, Martin Nordin has an imaginative and appealing take on grilling, smoking, and otherwise cooking vegetables by wood-fired methods. The recipes in this zippy book are fresh and attractive. And while they are for the most part easily executed at home, they’re a trove of ideas for restaurant folks looking to perk up their vegetable offerings.

Nordin’s ideas don’t necessarily stay neatly within traditional cultural lines. Grilled asparagus with burrata, egg yolk and kumquat sauce isn’t the sort of dish that anyone’s grandmother is likely to have made 40 years ago. Nor are turnip skewers with grilled collard greens and fermented yellow tomato sauce. And while it’s possible to imagine Nanny happily sipping a mezcal cocktail garnished with a wedge of grilled grapefruit, Nordin’s roasted and smoked potatoes with beer-caramelized onions probably would have been a revelation.

Chapters offer recipes for barbecuing straight on the grill, using cast iron and clay pots right in the fire, cooking by indirect heat, cooking directly on charcoal, and using a wood-fired oven. There are also chapters on sides and condiments and preserved staples.

Hardcover. Color photographs throughout.