Dinner After Dark

All Books are second hand
Colin Cowie
9780609609750

Dinner After Dark is much more than a collection of great recipes: It's a recipe for a great party, featuring stylish cocktails, stunning interiors, creative tabletops (hint: almost no cut flowers), and even advice on music, place cards, and the art of being a gracious host and guest. This is mostly cookbook, but also part decorating, part bartending, part etiquette, and part plain old bon-vivant-ism.

The recipes are drawn from Colin Cowie's sophisticated international palate, focusing on the exotic. The Peri-Peri dinner offers Saketinis to start, then moves on to Curried Mussels in Coconut-Milk Broth, red-hot Peri-Peri Chicken with green olives and preserved lemons, and a luscious Orange Custard Tart. The Cuba Libre cocktail party features Escabeche of Swordfish, Picadillo in a Lettuce Cup with Fresh Tomato Salsa, Plantain Chips, and Arroz con Camarones, all washed down with Mojitos and Cuba Libres. And the intriguing Bombay Soirée includes an appetizer of Stir-Fried Shrimp with Lemon and Scallions and an entrée of Chicken Curry and Peas, served with three different cooling raitas, Mango Chutney, Pappadams, and Aromatic Basmati Rice.