MEMORIES OF A CUBAN KITCHEN

Randelman emigrated to the US at age ten in 1957—and still rhapsodizes over the paradise she knew as a privileged child in pre-Castro Cuba. Her recipes, though, confirm (as she acknowledges) that Cuban cuisine is essentially a peasant one, robust in flavor and tasty with such elements as lime juice, Seville orange juice, olives, pimento, and cumin. (Randelman is also partial to dollops of sherry.) Distinctive dishes from yuca shavings and yuca fritters to roast suckling pig and baked whole marinated snapper with sofrito, along with whole chapters of rice, beans, and sugary desserts, make this a good resource for newcomers to an approachable and increasingly popular cuisine. This has many parallels with Linette Creen's book on Miami Cuban cooking, A Taste of Cuba (1991); but where Creen's book has an audience, this second take should also. (Eight-page color insert and 30 halftones—not seen.)