Summer

Colorful salsas and relishes made with fresh fruits, vegetables and herbs became popular in this decade of diets. The toppings are light and fresh and packed with flavor-just right with grilled low-fat fish.

Here's a nice summer dessert from the Fore Street restaurant.

Probably named for the Russian royal family, this dish gained popularity at San Francisco's Palace Hotel.

This recipe can be prepared in 45 minutes or less.

Serve this with sweetened whipped cream.

The nutty, crunchy topping makes a nice contrast to the juicy peach filling.

Pork fillet, or tenderloin, contains about as little fat and cholesterol as chicken. Available now in most supermarkets, it is tender and moist. In this recipe, the pork is marinated in honey, jalapeño peppers, and nuoc mam, the fish sauce of the Vietnamese, then grilled.

For this fabulous salad we used red onions, beets, zucchini, eggplant, and bell peppers, but any mix of summer vegetables would work. The salad gets served with grilled bread and is nice with a white wine, like Sauvignon Blanc.

Not to worry: There's just enough bacon in the snappy dressing to add flavor but not much fat to this colorful salad. Serve it alongside grilled chicken or fish for a healthful summer dinner.

The streusel topping adds nice crunch.

One hundred and fifty years ago, home cooks and commercial food processors relied on brining (along with salting and smoking) to prevent meats, fish, and vegetables from spoiling. Today, brining is making a comeback. Brined chicken and pork dishes appear on upscale restaurant menus. Cooks are rediscovering that brining is a simple way of improving texture and flavor. Since brining causes meat to absorb liquid, a seasoned brining solution makes meat juicier and tastier than it would be otherwise, a godsend for ultra-lean American pork and even for turkey. My friend Nancy Oakes, chef-owner of the San Francisco restaurant Boulevard, gave me her recipe for brining , which I've adapted for this easy dish. I like to serve these pork chops with Versatile Buttermilk Mashed Potatoes and Fiery Garlicky Greens. If there are leftovers, cooked chops will keep for several days in the refrigerator. Their low fat content makes it too easy to dry them out during reheating, so I prefer to use them cold. Trim the meat off the bone, remove any fat remaining along the outer edge, and then slice the meat as thin as possible. Use in a sandwich or a salad, or as part of a cold meat plate, with Roasted Pear Chutney or Herbal Mayonnaise. (All these recipes mentioned can be found in the book). Twelve hours is the optimal time for brining the chops, so plan on making the brine and marinating the chops the night before you intend to grill them. Brining them for slightly less time is fine, but longer than 12 hours, and the chops will start to take on the texture and flavor of ham. Once brined, however, they can be refrigerated for several days before cooking.

Andrew Engle is the chef at The Laundry in East Hampton, N.Y. This eatery has been a Long Island classic for years. How great that striped bass is available year-round! "If the fish is thinner than 3/4 inch, do not turn it," Andrew says. "Just cook it skin-side down."

Grilling the salmon with the skin on protects the delicate flesh.

A lovely summer dish. Be sure to make the oil several hours ahead.

A handsomely arranged combination salad can be the solution for what to serve at an informal spur-of-the-moment meal. The trick is to toss all of the elements separately in vinaigrette, letting some marinate for 10 to 20 minutes if they need to take on flavor. Then when you arrange your work of art, each part of it is perfectly seasoned. Here is a hearty meatless combination.

Sautéed vegetables are piled atop a creamy goat cheese-custard filling.

I know of no better way with strawberries than this quick and simple method. You don't need an ice cream machine to make this sorbet, just a little sugar, water, and a food processor.