Fresh and fun ideas fill 'Splendid Table'

"The Splendid Table's How to Eat Supper" is full of instructive recipes such as plumped ginger-caramel shrimp.

I've spent a week trying to figure out why I so like "The Splendid Table's How to Eat Supper," by Lynn Rossetto Kasper and Sally Swift, host and producer, respectively, of the popular National Public Radio show. I keep suspecting it's for the wrong reasons, like the book's typeface, a bouncy mix of quirky-yet-legible fonts; the way the recipes are larded with sidebars, literary quotes, cooking tips; and unpretentious photographs. Not reasons to recommend a cookbook.

By the time I'd gone through the book once, it was bristling with yellow stickies, like a well-read hedgehog. Ingredients are multicultural, but not esoteric - preserved lemon, hoisin sauce, and pumpkin seeds; rather than whole lavender buds or piment d'Espelette. Yet recipes aren't dumbed-down versions of their ethnic originals; they seem completely fresh. One great idea seems to follow another.

Take curry, for example. I always thought the choice was between a dose of bogus curry powder or hours of authentic spice-pounding and simmering. But chicken curry achieves a respectable depth of flavor with a small handful of fresh-ground spices, tomatoes, and yogurt. The same streamlined blend of coriander, cumin, and pepper goes into lamb chops with crossover spice crust, a warm and teasing foil for the luxurious loin cut.

Making plumped ginger-caramel shrimp I learned that brining frozen shrimp for 20 minutes thaws and seasons them at the same time, and that you can melt sugar right over garlic and ginger for an irresistible, savory caramel.

Alas, there were disappointments. In tamarind-glazed pork chops, the authors call the glaze a "marinade" but never marinate the meat. And the tamarind mixture slides off the finished chops without penetrating them. It's possible that grilling instead of searing (both techniques are recommended) would glue on the glaze. Sweet roasted butternut squash and greens over bow-tie pasta sounds fantastic. But by the time the squash achieves the requisite degree of char, the escarole is carbonized to cinders.

I usually find dinners from doctored cans leave some trace of their origins, but not in refried beans with cinnamon and cloves. The cloves hint at a wider spice palate, and a dollop of butter does its trick of sweetening up the tomatoes.

Sides and vegetables strut with strongly defined flavors and practical techniques. An asparagus and scallion salad is quickly roasted and broiled, then dressed up in creamy, mustardy balsamic. Three-pea toss is even more casually elegant than it sounds, finished with sweet mint and salty almonds.

With its pungency mellowed and leaves crisped, fried sage gives a woodsy undertone to sweet wine-braised carrots. Green beans with gremolata begin with a smart saute, follow with a sleepy simmer, and end with a wake-up blast of seasoning, all in the same skillet.

After the drama of the main course, the table gets less splendid with a scant 10 sweets. Rustic jam shortbread tart hits the right buttons - crumbly, buttery, sweet - but is soggy on the bottom.

This volume has the mark of a sure hand, each recipe offering thoughtful, experienced instructions about texture, color, and aroma. It could only have been written by someone who cooks all the time - a guide who knows the roads well enough to take shortcuts and scenic byways without getting lost. For the rest of us, it's a pleasure to go along for the ride.