I love cooking, but even more than cooking....the chopping, dicing, stirring, sauteing, tantalizing aromas, meditation, and deep satisfaction of knowing I'm serving (usually) a highly nutritious meal to those I love....more than all that: I love to read cookbooks. I currently have more cookbooks than I can handle, yet I continue to collect more. One reason for this is I go through definite stages with my cooking proclivities. For a few years, I cooked nothing but Indian food. Then I moved on to vegetarian Mexican and African. Then Caribbean and Mediterranean. (And then came grad school, and I forgot how to cook!) Upon moving to Alaska, I got into learning basic American food.
My newest thing: Whole Grains, which can very happily be introduced into any ethnic cuisine. Throughout all of my forays, health and nutrition have always been important to me. I was a vegetarian for about 15 years, and still lean that way, but fish, poultry, and very rarely meat, are now a part of my diet. And while I used some whole grains in my cooking, like brown rice instead of white, quinoa, and a few others, I felt my knowledge in this arena was sorely lacking.
To the rescue:
Whole Grains Every Day, Every Way by Lorna Sass
King Arthur Flour's Whole Grain Baking
Two wonderful, and very educational, cookbooks. I highly recommend both of them. The granola I offer for breakfast here during the summer comes from Sass' book, and I can't tell you how many times I got requests for the recipe!
The last few days I've been focusing on spelt. Cranberry-orange spelt muffins a few days ago. Spelt pancakes this morning. And I'm smitten! Spelt is one of the "ancient wheat" varieties, a founding member of the wheat family, and originated in present-day Iran. The King Arthur folks claim spelt is one of the seven original grains mentioned in the Bible and that spelt is one of the grains women gathered dating as far back as 6000 BC. This is baking with history on your side! Spelt has a wonderfully nutty and sweet taste, and is, not surprisingly, nutritionally superior to standard old wheat. It doesn't hold up to modern farm machinery, practices, and yield requirements, so it's been largely ignored and forgotten. But forgotten no more in my kitchen. Spelt will always be one of my staples now.
Sunday, November 30, 2008
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
11 comments:
Sound like something for me. I giggled while reading your post because I myself am an ex-vegetarian who now eats fish, poultry and the Spanish jamon which, of course, is the source of all evil and the culprit of my conversion into a carnivore. :)
I also prefer brown or wild rice to regular rice and I eat other cereals like buckwheat or barley which Jose frowns upon as some weird Russian foods. Never tried quinoa or many other grains which I see in healthy foods shops, for that matter. Usually I look up some recipes online but there is nothing like a good old cookbook. :)
Hi Jenny - Thanks for the kind words about our King Arthur Flour Whole Grain Baking book. I became quite attached to spelt once I was introduced to it, while doing the book. It's a lovely, mild stand-in for whole wheat- try the spelt pancakes sometime, they're yummy! Stay warm - PJ Hamel, King Arthur flour baker/blogger
Yes spelt is one of the ancient grains mentioned in the Bible and in all three of my books on Nutrition and the Bible. You might want to try the one major use of it mentioned in the Bible: Ezekiel flour which combines spelt, barley, and pulses (beans). It is higher in protein and very tasty.Kathleen O'Bannon, CNC
Your cranberry muffins sound sooo good - and I didn't know there was this kind of history behind some of the old grains - and cookbook collecting is so much fun, one can't really have too many of them! Especially if you actually do use them, which you certainly are doing!
I agree with Costarossa, chorizo and salami were the main reasons for my conversion back to the omnivore world. But whole grains are chewy, tasty and otherwise superior to that tasteless stuff :x
Jenny, keep up the great writing!
Wow! I am surprised with all the comments about spelt! After I posted it last night, I jokingly said to Audie that I bet this posting gets no comments. Who cares about spelt? Apparently, I was wrong!
And extra thanks to PJ Hamel for commenting! I am honored that you visited my little "center of the universe" here. Your recipes, and flours, are fantastic! You folks do marvelous miracles with whole grains.
And to the other ex-vegetarians....I'm with you! I love jamon, chorizo, and salami now too! :)
where's mine? MUFFINS?!
All eaten up! I'm send you some from the next batch! :)
Jenny, two things:
Who cares about spelt? - We do! While I never spotted it being sold on its own, we do buy spelt bread every now and then as Jose is sensitive to wheat, although they detected no allergy.
About chorizo etc - you know where to find the best of them, don't you. :) Read my email if you are still at a loss. :) And in Costa Brava they have their own yummy pork specialty, fuet espetec.
Cool!... I've gotten used to checking out your blog often, (cards will be mailed before Friday by the way) :) and how interesting that the Health Food store is in the same block as the Post Office!
I can't wait to try splet pancakes! I make my Grandma's World Famous Buckwheat Pancakes (well, they're world famous in our little corner of the world!)for every Christmas breakfast!
I make my Great-Grandma's "Jonny-cake" (Corn bread baked in a cast iron pan with maple sryup we made in the spring) on the first brunch of the New Year!
Maybe I'll be able to add another "tradition" for my nieces recipe files!
Thanks for sharing!
Hi care-bear....will definitley look forward to seeing the cards! Thank you..
And yes, it's wonderful having food traditions. Today I'm thinking about whipping up a fruit compote that my grandma always made for my Norweigan grandpa around the holidays. Just doesn't seem like Christmas-time without it.
Post a Comment