Wild Rice Cooking: History, Natural History, Harvesting, and Love
Author: Susan Carol Hauser
People have eaten wild rice since prehistoric times. As a food it is one of the most nutritious; as a symbol and source of mythology, it is fascinating. In the northern and eastern United States and southern Canada, wild rice is still harvested by Native Americans and folks who have lived for generations near the lakes and rivers where it grows naturally. The satisfying process of harvesting, called "ricing," still follows ancient tradition, using canoes, poles, and handmade knockers.Today, thanks to commercial growers, who have made it available in grocery stores throughout the country, wild rice is enjoyed by people of all cultures. It's a delicious accompaniment to meat and wild game, great in casseroles, and delectable in pilafs and salads. It's easy to cook and inexpensive, if you follow some simple guidelines.Wild Rice Cooking is the complete book of wild rice, giving its history and lore, offering a primer on how to share the joys of reaping wild harvest yourself, along with a guide to buying wild rice, and instructions on cooking it, with 80 fabulous recipes.There are scrumptious breakfasts and breads (including Wild Rice Whole Wheat Pancakes and Wild Rice Muffins); delectable soups and salads (featuring Cream of Potato and Wild Rice Soup and Curried Chicken Wild Rice Salad); delightful side dishes and stuffings (such as Herbed Wild Rice Pilaf and Wild Rice Dressing with Bacon); satisfying and sophisticated entrees and casseroles (with Wild Rice and Spinach Sauté, Wild Rice Meat Loaf, and Wild Rice, Morel, and Chicken Rissoto); creative desserts, snacks, and beverages (from Creamy Baked Custard Wild Rice Pudding to Popped Wild Rice); and recipes for large parties (suchas Lemon-Tarragon Wild Rice and Wild Rice Quiche Florentine).Wild Rice Cooking will appeal to all those interested in getting back to the land, as well as anyone who likes to cook. (71/4 X 71/4, 208 pages, color photos, b&w photos, map, charts)
Table of Contents:
(xv) Prologue: Wild Rice, Ricer, Ricing (1)
Manoominike-giizis: Wild Rice Moon (2) The Good Berry; Breads and Breakfast (3)
Manoomin; Salads and Soups (4)
Wenabozhoo: The Origins and Discovery of Wild Rice; Entrees and Casseroles (5) Zizania palustris; Side Dishes and Stuffings, Desserts, Snacks, Beer, and Wild Rice for a Crowd (6) Epilogue (Endnotes) (Recommended Reading) (Selected Bibliography) (General Index) (Recipe Index)
Book review: Women of Wine or Great Whole Grain Breads
Flavor
Author: Rocco DiSpirito
He runs one of the most successful restaurants in New York City. He is seen everywhere from David Letterman to Good Morning America to the Food Network. He has graced the cover of Gourmet magazine as "America's Most Exciting Young Chef"-and Zagat calls him a "rock star." Now, Rocco DiSpirito unleashes his culinary magic with Flavor.
In Flavor, DiSpirito shows readers how to create bold, intriguingly delicious food through combinations of ingredients both mundane and exotic. The cuisine is sophisticated but surprisingly easy for home chefs to replicate. Using the four flavors (sour, sweet, bitter, and salty) as basic building blocks, Rocco demonstrates how to combine and commingle flavors to create one-of-a-kind dishes.
Some recipes included in Flavor are:
— Lemongrass Lobster Salad
— Baby Lettuces with Pickled Squash Blossoms and Yogurt-Tahini Vinaigrette
— Calamari with Coconut Curry and Green Papaya
— Braised Veal Roulade with Root Vegetables
— Cinnamon Glazed Duck
— Lavender Creme Brulee
— Peach-Phyllo Strudel with Goat Cheese Cream and much more
Rocco DiSpirito, chef and proprietor of Manhattan's Union Pacific restaurant, attended the Culinary Institute of America at age 16, then studied at the Jardin de Cygne in Paris. He has worked at the Adrienne in New York City and was chef de partie at Aujourd' hui in Boston. Eventually, Rocco joined Lespinasse's opening team. In 1997, DiSpirito opened Union Pacific, where the "poetry and complexity" of his dishes earned three stars from the New York Times. He is featured on Melting Pot Mediterranean on Food Network and has appeared on many other TV shows, including Cooking Live with Sara Moulton, The Late Show with David Letterman, Emeril's Christmas Special, and The Early Show on CBS. He was on the cover of Gourmet magazine in 2000. He lives in New York City.
Detroit Free Press
[Flavor] celebrates the fundamental notions of taste, and the depth created by toying with sweet, salty, sour . .
Part of Dispirito's brilliance is his ability to make a few, seemingly disparate elements come together in something bold.
Publishers Weekly
Before he was a television star (not just on the Food Network, but as the central character in the NBC reality show The Restaurant), DiSpirito was a rising star chef in New York with his high-end restaurant, Union Pacific. As Tom Colicchio did so ably in Think Like a Chef, here DiSpirito details the theory behind his cooking. In a nutshell, he seeks to balance sweet, sour, salty and bitter tastes in savory dishes such as Ceviche of Tuna, Sweet Onions and Lime, and Pomegranate and Cinnamon-Lacquered Duck. Each recipe has colored dots to indicate which ingredients provide which flavors; they also bear prep times, level of difficulty, yield and a brief wine suggestion: e.g., Black Sea Bass with Chestnuts and Blood Oranges is paired with a "medium-bodied Chardonnay with no oak." As at Union Pacific, DiSpirito works magic with seafood in particular, with such dishes as Charred Spanish Mackerel with Pear and Sweet Spice, and Calamari with Coconut Curry and Green Papaya. DiSpirito translates a few restaurant techniques for the home cook, as with a suggestion for using plastic wrap instead of the vacuum-sealed packaging used for sous vide cooking when making Chicken with Eggplant Carpaccio and Turmeric Marmalade. Desserts such as Mango and Papaya Carpaccio with Cilantro Candy are in the same lively spirit as the rest of the book, and photographs are also energetic. DiSpirito has considerately cordoned off the more advanced recipes in their own chapter, and a guide to ingredients helpfully includes photographs. Some stars can still relate to the little people. (Oct.) Forecast: By October, DiSpirito will have burst onto the national scene via the reality show about the creation of his new Manhattan restaurant, Rocco's. He should be as visible and familiar by then as chefs like Mario Batali and Emeril Lagasse. Expect this book, interesting in its own right, to sell on that star power alone. Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information.
