Cool Off With Chilled Cucumber and Orange Juice

With Morocco (Chronicle, June), author Jeff Koehler has produced a cookbook that’s almost too pretty to sully with crumbs. Almost. If only the recipes here, spanning iconic dishes to street foods, weren’t so darned appealing. The cucumber orange juice he describes as a cross between a salad and a dessert, seems especially appropriate for summer, what with its minimal preparation and reliance on fresh produce. Hard to go wrong here, though a high-speed blender will produce best results. Failing that, a run through a fine-mesh sieve can make the final product smoother, for those less pulp-inclined. In the end, the juice is a gorgeous green color, nicely balancing crisp and sweet flavors, with a shake of dried oregano adding just a hint of a floral accent. Pure refreshment.

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