Showing posts with label herbs. Show all posts
Showing posts with label herbs. Show all posts

Monday, May 20, 2013

Vegetarian Cookbook: Fields of Greens

Fields of Greens by Annie Somerville

This is my favorite vegetarian cookbook. It has hundreds of recipes and many are very delicious. There are some unusual recipes that call for different ingredients (leeks, sprouts etc.) However, these many not be that unusual to you. I come from a "meat and taters" family so they are not common foods in my house. 

"The opening of Greens Restaurant on San Francisco Bay in 1979 changed forever the image of vegetarian cooking in America.  From the restaurant's imaginative mix of casual elegance, exciting tastes, and a subtle message of health and harmony, a distinctive cuisine was born that has continued to bring joy to many thousands of diners every year as well as to the hundreds of thousands of readers who delight in The Greens Cookbook. In its latest incarnation, the restaurant has evolved toward a lighter, leaner, simpler cuisine, one that keeps all the spirit and refinement of the original menu but depends more on the excitement of sparkling fresh produce and its integral relationship to the dishes it inspires.
In close to 300 original recipes, the new Greens style includes exuberant salads, soups, the legendary crusty Greens pizzas, curries and hearty stews, grilled vegetables, and intriguing turnovers made with filo pastry, tortillas, and savory doughs.  And of course there are heavenly breads and the famous desserts, like ginger pound cake with poached apricots and cherries.  This cornucopia of brilliant dishes focuses on tantalizing tastes, with a new simplicity, clarity, and liveliness as its hallmark.
Annie Somerville, the executive chef at Greens, goes right to the heart of the matter: extraordinary produce that's bursting with flavor, color, and texture.  Some of her favorites--like crinkly Bloomsdale spinach, candy-striped Chioggia beets, succulent Rosefir potatoes--are highlighted in the text for gardeners and farmers' market aficionados.  But the Greens style is above all accessible; ordinary red beets will be just fine if more exotic varieties are unavailable.  To help with availability, there's information on locating farmers' markets throughout the country as well as sources for plants, seeds, and local resources.
Because the garden is at the center of this book, readers are encouraged to try their hand, in tiny backyards and windowsill boxes if necessary.  Invaluable growing tips are offered from Green Gulch Farm, the source of much of the stunning produce served at the restaurant.  Other special features include a section on low-fat cooking and another on pairing wine with vegetarian food.
All of the abundance and exuberance that the title Fields of Greens implies is here, for the novice as well as the expert, for simple last-minute meals as well as extravagant occasions.  For truly inspired contemporary vegetarian cooking, Fields of Greens is the essential sourcebook.

Annie Somerville trained under Deborah Madison, the founding chef at Greens Restaurant.  Under Somerville's guidance as executive chef, Greens has become a culinary landmark.  Her work has been featured in Gourmet, Food & Wine, Ladies' Home Journal, SF, and California magazine.  She also contributed to The Open Hand Cookbook and Women Chefs cookbook."  Description by Goodreads.


If you are vegetarian, or have "vegis" in the friend or family circles of your life this could be a very useful book to have.
                       
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                                                Good Day and Good Reading

Nonfiction book of the day: Country Diary Herbal

Nonfiction Book of the Day: The Country Diary Herbal by Sarah Hollis

I got this book at my local library and love it. I've checked it out many times and enjoy it for many reasons. 1st, it has gardening tips and advice for pretty much any herb. It has an A-Z reference of all the herbs mentioned in the book (they are in alphabetical order all through). It has drawings instead of pictures, which I find both an advantage and disadvantage. A drawing points out the main details you should see in the plant, ex. the color of the leaves, the shapes of the stalks, or how bushy it grows to be. However the obvious drawback is that you're not actually seeing the plant, so therefore the colors can be off, and if your plant isn't doing the best it may not look anything like the image in the book.
In general I'd rate this book at something of a 6-7 out of 10 for an herb book. I've only read a couple others that have surpasses this one in the amount of herbs listed which is why this has such a good review.
Couldn't find a review on goodreads or Amazon for this book.   

                                 

Good Day and Good Reading