Julie Biuso’s Never-ending Summer
Julie Biuso
New Holland- $45

Julie Biuso's new cookbook offers more than 100 stunning recipes to be relished in your favourite places whenever the mood grabs you. If the sun’s out, simply fire up the barbecue, but if the weather is unfriendly you’ll also find instructions for cooking conventionally inside. It’s food for cooking all year round – irresistible dishes that are simply too good-looking to ignore.

Open the cover for food to whet all appetites – light snacks and stacks for an easy brunch; sizzling satays and stir-fries to pique the senses; food over flames, seared to perfection; smart salads and seductive sauces; sweet endings to round things off beautifully.

As well as her marvellous recipes, Julie shares dozens of culinary tips and gives generous notes on ingredients honed from years of experience as a leading food writer. Selected recipes also contain links to her website, www.juliebiuso.com, where you can watch her prepare them, and where you’ll also find an extended glossary and further information on everything to do with barbecuing.

The Bookman was immediately tempted by a number of the salads with delicious names. (and beautiful photographs to match by food photographer extraorinaire Aaron McLean), such as lamb & aubergine salad with chickpeas and roasted tomatoes, seared vine tomatoes with feta, pork chops with lychees and micro salad, but in the end decided on vietnamese herb salad with fish - and it was divine! And easy to prepare and cook.
The publishers have kindly agreed to me sharing this recipe with you:

vietnamese herb salad with fish
Serves 4

Time to prep 25 minutes
Time to cook 7 minutes
Lovely clean flavours make this dish ideal for summer dining and it’s even better if you have caught the fish yourself! If you want to make the dish lighter, steam the fish instead of barbecuing it.

½ large telegraph cucumber
1 bunch spring onions
¹⁄³ cup small mint leaves (if large, tear into small pieces)
½ cup coriander leaves
500g skinned and boned white fish fillets (gurnard, snapper, red mullet or bream)
canola or peanut oil for hot plate
salt
¼ cup dry-roasted peanuts, chopped, optional

Dressing
3 Tbsp fish sauce
5 Tbsp lime juice
2 Tbsp sugar
1 fresh hot red chilli, finely chopped
1 large clove garlic, peeled and finely chopped
1 Tbsp peeled and finely grated ginger

1
Peel cucumber, cut in half lengthways, scoop out seeds with a pointy teaspoon and cut flesh into half moon shapes. Trim spring onions, discarding most of the greenery and cut into long, thin strips. Put spring onions in a bowl with cucumber, mint and coriander. Cover and chill.
2
To make the dressing, whisk everything together in a small bowl. Cover
and chill.
3
Rinse fish and pat dry with paper towels. Cook fish on a preheated oiled barbecue hot plate over medium heat until golden. Flip fish over and cook the second side briefly, just to seal. Alternatively, cook fish in a little oil in a large frying pan until lightly browned and barely cooked through or steam it. Transfer to a platter as it is done, cool for 5 minutes, then pour off liquid. When all the fish is ready, season lightly with salt and transfer to bowls for serving.
4
Mix salad and dressing together and arrange on top of the fish in the bowls. Sprinkle peanuts on top, if using, and serve immediately.

From - Julie Biuso's Never-ending Summer: Stunning barbecue dishes to tempt you all year round, photography by Aaron McLean, New Holland Publishers, RRP $45.00

About the author:
Julie Biuso has had a long and successful career in food journalism and on radio and television. She is currently Food Editor of Taste and Your Home & Garden magazines, runs a successful website www.juliebiuso.com and is a regular on Radio New Zealand National.

Julie has an impressive list of credits to her name. Her books have received a Montana Book Award and seven Gourmand World Cookbook Awards, all for previous titles published by New Holland. (Sizzle, her last book, was awarded Best Barbecue Cookbook in the History of the Awards in 2008.)
She has also been awarded the University of Canterbury Food Journalism Award and a Gold Ladle in the World Media Awards, and been elected the NZ Guild of Foodwriters’ Feature Writer and the Montana Food & Wine Writer of the Year.

In 2007 she was given a Special Award of the Jury at the Gourmand World Cookbook Awards.
Her focus is on fresh seasonal food, and her commitment is to provide well-tested recipes which are easy to prepare and cook with the aim of keeping families cooking and eating together.

Other titles from Julie Biuso and New Holland:

Viva L’Italia
Fresh
Take a Vine-ripened Tomato
Hot Nights, Cool Days
Sizzle

About the photographer:
Aaron Mclean is one of New Zealand’s leading food and lifestyle photographers. He contributes regularly to a number of quality magazines including Cuisine, Taste, Dish and Life & Leisure. This is Aaron’s twelfth book.