Grains: 76 Healthy Recipes for Barley, Corn, Rye, Wheat and Other Grains

With the introduction of the nutritional pyramid, even the U.S. government ordains grains as the foundation of a good diet. Hayes and Leblang (Rice and Beans) here advocate the inclusion of true grains like barley, corn, millet, oats, rye, triticale and wheat in the American diet, along with amaranth, buckwheat and quinoa which, not technically grains, are used like them. For flavor, the recipes rely largely on simple combinations of common spices and such vegetables as bell peppers. Fats are used more than readers picking up this volume for health reasons may expect: fried Buckwheat Blinis come with smoked salmon and sour cream; sausage is used in several recipes. Some attempts to integrate grains seem gratuitous, e.g., Irish Ris-Oat-O, a risotto made with oats instead of arborio rice. Many of the recipes call for cooked grains; that the instructions for cooking them are in a separate section from the recipes themselves is bothersome. Also annoying are such oversights as misplacement of recipes, e.g., Quick Cajun Polenta appears several pages before Cajun Polenta with Ratatouille, which it is said to follow. (Mar.)