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Rating: Summary: How I discovered brown rice. Review: I first learned of whole grains in 1967. Fresh out of college-and Utah-I'd landed a job in San Francisco, found an apartment near work and then looked out my window. To my horror, I was living in the Height-Ashbury. Quite unsure of myself, almost petrified in fact, I wandered through the streets of flower children, neatly dressed in my homemade business suit. My fear began to fade when I realized that those hippies seemed to be having more fun that I was. Determined to find out more, I mustered up my courage to ask, "How do I get high?" A lanky hippie called Howdy, as in "Howdy, my name's Howdy," told me the trick was to get high and stay high." Innocently I asked, "How?" The answer, "Eat brown rice." I'd never heard of brown rice, but Howdy directed me to a local hole-in-the-wall natural foods store and I bought a pound of brown rice. I went home and proceeded to burn my first pot. Soon hooked on brown rice I went on to learn about all the whole grains. Why do I specify whole grains? The answer is simple. A grain is more delicious when intact, rather than when polished, pearled, degermed, or refined. I subscribe to the late M.F.K.Fisher's observation, "All of them, whether tender or hard, thick skinned or thin, die when they are peeled. . .even as you and I." It has been my great pleasure, since the early 1970s to have written and taught whole foods cookery throughout North America and in Europe. In the 70s a grain-based diet was revolutionary and what I had to say was decidedly on the fringe. What a pleasure that in 1998 The Splendid Grain won both the James Beard and the Julia Child/ International Association of Culinary Professionals awards. What a pleasure for quinoa, amaranth, tef, corn, black sticky rice and rye to claim their position in fine cuisine! And may you have pleasure enjoying and being nourished by these most important foods.
Rating: Summary: What a terrific cookbook! What wonderful flavors & textures Review: I have had so much fun (and great meals) trying recipes from this book. There are so many grains available to us, besides the everyday rice and corn, but if you are like me, you don't always know what to do with them. The Splendid Grain is full of terrific ways to use locally available grains such as Quinoa, Millet, Amaranth and Wild Rice. The book also contains excellent meat recipes such as the oatmeal and spice coated "Better than fried chicken."I took "Onions stuffed with Millet and sun-dried tomatoes" on our last camping trip and cooked them in the campfire. They were superb alongside smoked pork chops. Try the popped Amaranth cold breakfast cereal, or just sprinkle it on your next tossed salad for a boost of crunch and nutty flavor. It couldn't be easier to do. You will never make waffles with plain wheat flour again, once you try "Tef waffles" Tef tastes almost like hazelnuts, and combined with cinnamon it is truly a treat. I must say I was most amazed with the "Couscous Marmalade Torte," it is very tasty and very light (even with the whipped cream on top). It is the easiest and quickest dessert I have made in a long time, and all my guests wanted seconds! I highly recommend The Splendid Grain, it is a terrific resource, taking you from selection, storage and the cooking methods for specific grains to delectable recipes with a new twist. Put it in your shopping basket, you won't be sorry.
Rating: Summary: Grains are yummy! Review: I love all the grains and cook with them daily. Having each of them on hand is like having a wardrobe of beautiful silk shirts and then having to chose just one. There aren't enough days in the week to savor each grain.
The Splendid Grain is more than a cookbook, it also tells each grain's story. For the medicinal and energetic properties of grains and over 600 other whole foods, see my book, The New Whole Foods Encyclopedia: The Comprehensive Resource for Good Eating.
Rating: Summary: WOW,what a book! Review: I'm inspired by The Splendid Grain. I've been getting back to healthy eating and a healthful lifestyle after several years of being off track, and this book gives lots of great idea, recipes, information about getting those whole grains back into my diet. Thank you for reminding me what is important.
Rating: Summary: Comprehensive grain cookbook Review: What thrills me about The Splendid Grain is that so many readers are reporting back that it's helping them to effortlessly--and deliciously--incorporate more grains into their everyday diet. I couldn't ask for more. As for myself, whole grains have remained my daily staple for over 30 years. Please visit my Whole Foods Digest homepage for more grain information and recipes. http://www.natgrand.co
Rating: Summary: Award-winning cookbook celebrates the jewels of the fields Review: Where was I when The Splendid Grain won the James Beard Foundation Award for Excellence and the International Association of Culinary Professionals Julia Child Cookbook Award? Usually I am waiting with bated breath to see who wins these awards and I have read and digested all the cookbooks in the running. It is like the Academy Awards for the cookbook world. "The Splendid Grain" by Rebecca Wood did win the award and deserved it. It is filled with text that engages and recipes that have kept us cooking since I first discovered it about three years after it came out. My only excuse for not having found it earlier is that I had one year old twins who never slept and all I did was nurse, look about with bleary eyes and try to make noodles for the fifth night running. I guess The Splendid Grain would have been of no use to me then. I would have cried when I read it. All these recipes for bagels made with barley flour and Strawberry Blue Corn Waffles that I could not cook because I was on the floor baby-proofing the outlets or cleaning up oatmeal from the baseboards. I read an article on bread by Laurie Colwin back before I had children. Wisdom wasted on the uninitiated. In it Laurie Colwin said that she found a bread cookbook when her daughter was young and she read it as fiction because that is what bread baking is to people with babies. This is not just to let me off the hook for missing a great cookbook when it came out but to say buy it even if you have no kitchen because it makes such a good read. The recipes in "The Splendid Grain" are easier than they appear. I made bagels with my three kids and a few assorted extras over on play dates. We made the dough in a few minutes and then let it rise while we kept the dog from scaring one child and we forgot about the dough all together by the time the dog was on a leash and the child pacified. When we came back to the dough it had a strange gray color from the barley flour but this was a plus for the under seven set. Making the bagel shapes was easy enough for three year olds. Boiling was fun and baking easy and we were done. The dozen were gone immediately. I had one that I split with my husband. They were an eerie Halloween gray but had a complex taste from the barley. I forgot about them in my rush to try the next recipe from The Splendid Grain. I was informed at school a few days later that my son's friend, the one who is scared of the dog, was never coming over again if I did not stop upstaging her mom by doing things like making these great homemade bagels. I guess they did not forget about the bagels for a while. We made waffles, and breakfast cakes; winter squash potage was the hit of a Hanukkah party for which we promised to make Matzoh Ball soup but I just couldn't leave old Rebecca Wood to do it. No one missed the Matzoh Balls, and I make excellent Matzoh Balls. We had cornmeal mush instead of oatmeal. Real Vietnamese Spring Rolls are the plan for dinner tonight. She makes it look so easy. On the still-to-try list is a Rye and Cauliflower Casserole and Quinoa Soup Saigon Style. The Apricot Millet Breakfast Cake is what brought the book to my attention. I would like to thank my friend Jeanie for the cake I finished before I could share it with the kids as intended. Jeanie was a chef and cake baker extraordinaire before kids. I trust her food judgment and envy her huge Hobart mixer and professional range. She gave us a piece of this cake as I was picking my son up from a play date. Jeanie showed me "The Splendid Grain." "You've seen this, right?" I hadn't. I wanted to borrow it but she wouldn't let it go--a sentiment I appreciated. So I went out and bought the book. That was about six weeks ago. I slept with it next to my bed. Read all the fascinating information about each kind of grain and read the recipes, as Laurie Colwin taught me, as a good novel and not a cookbook. Then I started making grocery lists for all Rebecca Wood weeks. This has continued for at least a month and no one has stopped eating long enough to thank me. But I want to thank Jeanie publicly. This gift of "The Splendid Grain" does not raise her in my esteem, it simply reminds me of how highly she is held (even though she would not lend me her copy). You do need to add a salad or some steamed vegetable to the all Splendid Grain menu. But no protein need be added as she has every combination of chicken, prawns, tofu, you name it in the recipes. It is just a little light on salads or some kind of green stuff. I have a mind to call Rebecca Wood and thank her for this book. She researched so thoroughly and cooked so plentifully for us, her readers. Rebecca wood covered it all. Ancient food from the Americas to a Norwegian friend's mother's recipes. From macrobiotics to blinis with caviar and Christmas Hen. Normally I am wary of someone trying to cover the whole world and every grain. Things tend to get diluted and hodge-podgy. Not so in "The Splendid Grain." Each recipe is crisp and novel. I am grateful. It is the week after Christmas as I am writing and Hanukkah has passed into the winter. I have been made aware this year of how the traditions I find around me all stress this time of year as a time to bring light and warmth into your heart in this darkest time of the year. Rebecca Wood's book feels like a warm hearth to me, and a good friend cooking for you. I am grateful that I am out of the dark woods of parenting early childhood. I am grateful to Jeanie for bringing this book and a lot more into my life. The Splendid Grain came to me through a warm friend and I have shared it with my friends over the winter. I am grateful for the feeling of warmth and the book that has helped inspire me to share it.
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