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"Ancient Grains for Modern Meals: Mediterranean Whole Grain Recipes" by Maria Speck (Ten Speed Press, 9781580083546, $29.99) 

Do you love whole grains? Would you like to? I have an excellent guidebook for you: it's Maria Speck's new cookbook, which aims to share her gusto for grains and to help us all fall in love with the deliciousness and variety of whole-grain dishes and baking. 

Speck's philosophy is simple: whole grains are tasty and endlessly variable. Of German and Greek descent, she offers recipes that sparkle with Mediterranean flavors (spinach, lemon, mint) and gain occasional punch from judicious use of prosciutto, bacon, and cream.  

There are comforting breakfast bowls here (fig and pistachio muesli, citrus-apricot oatmeal), sturdy grain salads (oatberries with walnuts and gorgonzola), grill-worthy dishes (lamb and bulgur burgers), and tempting desserts (purple rice pudding!). 

Like Kim Boyce, author of my recent favorite baking book "Good to the Grain," Speck jumps into whole-grain baking with both feet: she has recipes for whole-grain pie and tart shells, orange-and-dark-chocolate scones, and great--very doable--breads like olive, bacon, and thyme bread or pine nut and sun-dried tomato bread. Her spelt-flour pizza crust is my new favorite homemade crust: just try it topped with sauteed onions, fennel, and apples! 

Will this cookbook send you searching for new whole-grain ingredients? Yes, if you're game. I've found nearly everything--wheatberries, spelt flour, purple rice--in Wichita's larger supermarkets and others items--oatberries, millet--in local health-food stores. This book is a grain-eater's dream because it tells you about these chewy little gems in depth, grain by grain, and it features awesome charts for how long to cook each kind and how much water to use, so you don't have to rely on back-of-the-package instructions. 

This is a great book whether your aim is health or hedonism--or both. It boasts a wealth of vegetarian dishes alongside several for confirmed carnivores. It has crunchy-granola grains and recipes for indulgent accompaniments like the one for chocolate-hazelnut butter (homemade Nutella!). It will make you excited about whole grains and help make your pantry an Aladdin's cavern stocked with little pearls of culinary wisdom. 

Review by Mark David Bradshaw

Ancient Grains for Modern Meals: Mediterranean Whole Grain Recipes for Barley, Farro, Kamut, Polenta, Wheat Berries & More (Hardcover)

By Maria Speck

$29.99

ISBN-13: 9781580083546
Availability: Usually Ships in 1-5 days
Published: Ten Speed Press, 4/2011

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