Amber & rye A Baltic food journey : Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania

Zak, whose debut, Polska, focused on new Polish cooking, brings the same light touch and modern sensibility to the cuisines of Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania in this heartfelt collection. Fruit helps balance a section of hearty breakfast options like fragrant elderflower and peach breakfast buns. A chapter of appetizers and snacks runs the gamut from frozen fish with quick-pickled radishes to wild mushroom and pumpkin terrine, while fermented gooseberries star in a roundup of ferments and pickles. Seeds of all sorts dot the food landscape; there are bean and flax burgers, poppy seed pastries, caraway seeds in a surprising rye bread and chocolate mousse, and a fiery red cabbage slaw that calls for a handful of unhulled hemp seeds. A standout selection of soups, meanwhile, features salmon or halibut in a creamy fish soup with parsley dumplings. Some dishes are temptingly exotic, such as a turnip gratin with Latvian green cheese (instructions are provided for an "approximation" of the dried curd cheese that one can make at home) and the tangy vegan sauerkraut soup. In brief travelogues that separate chapters, Zak combines memoir with history in exploring such locales as Latvia's capital city of Riga, and the bohemian town of Kaunas in Lithuania, with its "street-art murals... etched like tattoos into the very fabric of the city." This culinary jaunt across Eastern Europe is full of inventive twists and adventurous turns. (Sept.)