Guides take mystery out of cooking any vegetable

CONCORD, N.H. -- Ever wonder what to do with a yuca? How about corn smut? And if they popped up in your local produce section, would you be able to pick them out from the tongue of fire beans and the chicken of the woods?

Perhaps not a challenge for serious vegephiles, but even longtime vegetarians can be baffled by the diversity of international produce appearing on grocers' shelves.

As world markets overlap and ethnic foods lose their foreign feel, once unusual items are finding their way into mainstream markets. But to embrace them, people need to know what they are and how to cook them.

For easy help, turn to two new books by veteran food writers.

First, Elizabeth Schneider's "Vegetables from Amaranth to Zucchini" (William Morrow, 2001), an 800-page encyclopedia of nearly all that is vegetable. For serious cooks it is worth every penny of its $60 price.

Organized alphabetically, the book exhaustively covers hundreds of vegetables from the usual to the unheard of. Winter squashes alone get 32 pages, 27 photographs and more than 20 recipes.

Authoritative entries

Schneider apparently spared no effort researching this book, as evidenced by the numerous chefs, scientists, scholars and farmers she consulted.

That is where the book gets its strength. Each entry feels authoritative: a brief history of the vegetable is followed by tips on selection, basic preparation techniques, storage and recipes.

Readers learn that chicken of the woods is a mushroom with three distinct parts that call for different preparations; that yuca is a buttery, potato-like vegetable that can be served mashed; and corn smut (literally corn infected with a fungus) is great in Mexican food.

One drawback is that despite offering 275 photographs, not one is of any of the 500 recipes. For a book of such breadth and high-quality photography, this would have been a nice touch.

By the way, this book prefers to deal with the lesser known. Schneider doesn't cover some of the most common vegetables, such as tomatoes and spinach. Other writers have said enough about those items, she explains.

Clifford Wright is happy to give those and many others, including fruits and legumes, the Mediterranean treatment in his recent book, "Mediterranean Vegetables" (Harvard Common Press, 2001, $29.95).

Where Schneider's book can have an academic (but never uninteresting) tone, Wright gives his subject a more down-to-earth touch, even advising how to forage for vegetables in the wild, as well as grow them in the backyard.

First and foremost, this is a guide to buying, preparing and eating the produce that defines the Mediterranean diet. For Wright, each entry is a passage to a culinary adventure.

"The delight of Mediterranean vegetable cookery is found in the combination of ingredients that have given birth to a surprising treasure of delicious and thoroughly new tastes for Americans," he writes.

He also has a feel for how far the average home cook is likely to go. He offers just a paragraph about angelica, a celery-like green, and saves room for the more popular artichoke, to which he gives 22 pages.

One complaint: no photographs, which would be especially helpful for identifying some of the more unusual items.

For an unusual twist on an everyday vegetable, try Wright's batter-fried carrots with yogurt sauce, a Turkish-Greek treat that can be whipped up in little time.

For a dairy-free version, substitute an equal amount of soy yogurt, preferably vanilla. Vanilla soy products tend to taste richer and creamier than plain versions.

Batter-Fried Carrots With Yogurt Sauce

(Preparation about 20 minutes)

1 1/2 cups beer

1 1/2 cups all-purpose unbleached flour

1 tablespoon tomato juice

Salt, to taste

6 cups vegetable oil, for frying

6 large carrots (about 3 pounds), peeled and cut into thin, lengthwise slices

2 cups plain yogurt

2 garlic cloves, mashed with a bit of salt

In a large bowl, stir together the beer, flour, tomato juice and salt until they form a smooth, crepe-like batter. Preheat the oil to 375 F in a deep fryer or 8-inch stock pot fitted with a basket insert. Preheat oven to warm, or 150 F.

Dip the carrot slices in the batter and allow the excess to drip off. Deep-fry the carrots in batches until golden brown, about 4 minutes. Salt the carrots as soon as they come out of the oil, then place on a baking sheet lined with paper towels. While frying additional batches, keep the finished carrots warm in the oven.

Stir together the yogurt and mashed garlic. Transfer the carrots to a serving platter and serve with yogurt on top or the side.