In the past year, I have been inundated with cookbooks dedicated to special diets. Some of these are for people who choose to eat a certain way – like vegetarians and vegans — others for those who must follow a special diet because they get sick if they don’t. Most of the latter variety were not distinguished enough to feature in this column, either because the recipes didn’t seem especially good or required too many oddball ingredients. But legendary food writer Barbara Kafka’s “The Intolerant Gourmet,” takes this genre of cookbook to another level.

A recipient of the James Beard Foundation Lifetime Achievement Award — just one of numerous accolades — Kafka is the author of at least 10 cookbooks and has contributed extensively to The New York Times, Gourmet and other publications. Her latest work is destined to have a profound impact on those who must avoid lactose and gluten, yet want to cook exciting, flavorful, yes, gourmet, meals using healthy, whole foods. Kafka first discovered she was lactose intolerant and celiac (gluten-intolerant), when she was a child. The symptoms lessened over time, and then as she got older, they returned. She explains in the book’s introduction that she thought she might have to simply stop writing about food, since she couldn’t taste so much of it. But friends convinced her that a book focusing on what she could do with lactose- and gluten-free cooking would be a “gift worth giving.”

What Kafka doesn’t do is resort to what she calls “substitutes and eccentricities … ersatz ingredients or expensive bought items, often using a wide range of chemicals.” She is honest about her difficulties searching for good gluten-free pasta – she recommends just one brand — and admits that while her recipe for gluten-free bread makes great toast, it’s too fragile for sandwiches.

The book is divided into chapters in traditional fashion and is comprehensive. It begins with breakfast, which includes a recipe for Kafka’s “light and elegant” waffles; subsequent chapters cover hors d’oeuvres, soups, salads, pastas, fish, chicken, beef, pork, lamb and “other meats” – sweetbreads, calves liver, etc. Because as Kafka points out, Asian dishes do not make great use of dairy or wheat products, many of the recipes have Asian overtones — chicken and vegetable noodle stir-fry; roast duck with forbidden rice; West Indian curry hash. But the French-influenced and classic American dishes that Kafka are known for are featured, as well. Her dessert chapter includes recipes for mocha dacquoise, blackberry Bavarian cream and chestnut doughnut holes.

What will be a gold mine for those using this book as a guide to living gluten-free is the final chapter, entitled “Stiff Upper Lip: The Starches.” It introduces the whole range of grains, flours and beans available to celiacs — how to buy, prepare and serve them.

Celiac disease affects 1 in 133 Americans, according to celiac.com. Lactose intolerance affects two-thirds of the population worldwide, according to centerforfoodallergies.com. Those numbers, plus Kafka’s culinary gravitas, add up to make “The Intolerant Gourmet” an important book. 

POMEGRANATE SHRIMP SAUTÉ WITH FRISEE
From “The Intolerant Gourmet”: The flavor of pomegranate and the beauty of its seeds go well in any part of a meal. The shrimp dish here, a lovely first course, uses plenty of spice, but is not, as one might think, hot. The pomegranate provides color, crispness and fresh flavor.
 
2 tablespoons toasted sesame oil
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
2 tablespoons coriander seeds
2 tablespoons ground cumin
Freshly ground black pepper
1 tablespoon black mustard seeds
2 medium shallots, minced
30 large shrimp (1¼ pounds), peeled and deveined
½ to ¾ cup pomegranate juice
1 tablespoons red wine vinegar
1 teaspoon kosher salt
½  pound light-colored frisee, heavy stems removed, leaf portion torn into 2-inch pieces (2 packed cups)
Seeds from ¼ large or ½ small pomegranate

In a 12-inch skillet, combine 1 tablespoon of the toasted sesame oil with the vegetable oil, coriander seeds, cumin, a couple of grinds of black pepper, and black mustard seeds. Place over medium heat and cook, stirring, for 3 minutes. Stir in the shallots and cook, stirring, for 4 minutes.

Raise the heat to high. Stir in |the shrimp and cook, turning and stirring, for 3 minutes, or until the shrimp are opaque.

Reduce the heat to medium-low. Stir in ½ cup pomegranate juice, vinegar, and salt. Cook, stirring and scraping the bottom of the pan, for 1 minute. Stir in the remaining 1 tablespoon toasted sesame oil and additional pomegranate juice if the sauce seems too thick.

Place ½ cup frisee on each plate. Top with shrimp and drizzle the sauce around the plate. Sprinkle with pomegranate seeds.

Serves: 4 as a first course

Nutrition information per serving: 395 calories (43 percent from fat), 19 grams fat (2 grams saturated, 7 grams monounsaturated), 258 milligrams cholesterol, 38 grams protein, 18 grams carbohydrates, 5 grams fiber, 771 milligrams sodium.

Email: sherrill@northjersey.comBlog: northjersey.com/secondhelpings Twitter: susanlsherrill

SUSAN'S TIPS:

• Toasted sesame oil is darker and more flavorful than regular sesame oil; you should be able to find it in the Asian foods section of your supermarket.
• I located black mustard seeds at my neighborhood Whole Foods, but if you can’t find them, yellow mustard seeds can be substituted.
• It’s very easy to overcook shrimp, making them tough and unappetizing. Watch them carefully and cook them over the high heat just until they are opaque on both sides — they will continue to cook after you add the pomegranate juice and remaining ingredients.
• To extract the seeds from a pomegranate without staining your fingers red, cut it in half, and hold one half cut-side down over a small bowl (a deep one helps keep the juice from splattering). Squeezing the pomegranate slightly, rap the shell sharply with a wooden spoon; the seeds will drop into the bowl.
• This dish is also delicious at room temperature and makes a nice light lunch.

• Toasted sesame oil is darker and more flavorful than regular sesame oil; you should be able to find it in the Asian foods section of your supermarket.
• I located black mustard seeds at my neighborhood Whole Foods, but if you can’t find them, yellow mustard seeds can be substituted.
• It’s very easy to overcook shrimp, making them tough and unappetizing. Watch them carefully and cook them over the high heat just until they are opaque on both sides — they will continue to cook after you add the pomegranate juice and remaining ingredients.
• To extract the seeds from a pomegranate without staining your fingers red, cut it in half, and hold one half cut-side down over a small bowl (a deep one helps keep the juice from splattering). Squeezing the pomegranate slightly, rap the shell sharply with a wooden spoon; the seeds will drop into the bowl.
• This dish is also delicious at room temperature and makes a nice light lunch.