A cook's guide to grains - Jenni Muir

Grains are one of the most tasty, versatile and nutritious food sources available, a delight to eat, easy to cook and a must for eating well in the 21st century - a wide variety of grains in your diet will offer you a range of essential nutrients including protein, B-vitamins, minerals (iron, zinc, copper), antioxidants (vitamin E and selenium), fibre and phytonutrients. In this ground-breaking new work, Jenni Muir travels the world, exploring each continent's indigenous grains and the best recipes for using them. As well as established favourites such as oats, wheat and corn, there's North America's wild rice, bulghur and freekeh from the Middle East, the rye used in Scandinavian and Russian cooking, quinoa from Peru and the ancient Aztec grain, amaranth. The first section provides an in-depth look at each of the grains, discussing their history and provenance, culinary and nutritional qualities, and their myriad cooking uses. The second part of the book features over 100 interactive recipes, taking you from breakfast through to dinner and warming bedtime drinks. Here Jenni provides instructions for each dish and explains how to vary the recipes according to the grains you have in the larder. Furthermore, she recommends and gives recipes for an exciting range of accompaniments that will help you transform each dish to suit the occasion, such as elevating a simple risotto from a cosy fireside supper dish to a special dinner party starter.Whether you love the rustic and robust cooking of the Mediterranean, the elegance of French haute cuisine, virtuous salads or comforting home baking, A Cook's Guide to Grains will lead you to a more exciting world of cooking. You will be surprised and fascinated by the magical tastes and textures grains can produce, from the earthy flavour of buckwheat to the sweeter, mellower taste of barley, and with this book by your side, you'll be able to explore them with confidence.