For the Love of Garlic The Complete Guide to Garlic Cuisine Victoria Renoux

ISBN: 0-7570-0087-8 Length: 204 Pages Size: 7.5 x 7.5-inch Format: Quality Paperback; 2-Color Category: Cooking / Garlic Price: $13.95 US Availability: In Print Click below for: Synopsis • Contents Introduction • Reviews

Synopsis

If you have a passion for the robust flavor and pungent aroma of garlic, here is a book guaranteed to both delight and satisfy. If you are simply interested in learning more about this amazingly popular plant, this book will fascinate you with the secrets of garlic’s centuries-old magic.

For the Love of Garlic is a celebration of an astonishingly versatile food. It explores garlic’s past and present, and provides a wide variety of delicious kitchen-tested garlic recipes designed to tempt not only garlic aficionados, but all lovers of great cuisine.

Part One begins by looking at the history, lore, and many uses of this culinary treasure. It examines how garlic’s active compounds have been proven to heal illness and maintain radiant health. Also included is a section on growing and buying this gourmet marvel. Part Two indulges in the tastes and pleasures of garlic. The author first discusses cooking techniques and special utensils that can enhance the use of this ingredient. She then offers eighty-five tempting dishes that will allow you to indulge all your garlic fantasies.

Whether given as a gift or used as a personal reference, this beautifully designed and illustrated work will prove itself to be a useful and informative guide time and time again.

Victoria Renoux is an experienced natural foods cooking instructor, an accomplished artist, and an internationally recognized food writer. She has owned and managed a health food store and has served as head chef at a top natural foods restaurant. Victoria’s art has been shown in galleries throughout the United States and abroad. As a best-selling author, she has written six cookbooks, including Cooking With the Right Side of the Brain, The Arrowhead Mills Cookbook, and Cooking for Life. Victoria currently lives in Sarasota, Florida.

Contents

Introduction

Part 1: The Life & Times of Garlic
1. Garlic Through the Ages
2. From Planting to Plate
3. Garlics of the World
4. Garlic & Your Health
5. Growing Your Own Garlic

Part 2: The Tastes & Pleasures of Garlic
6. Cooking Techniques & Tools
7. Luscious, Healthful Recipes

References for Further Reading
Buying Gourmet Garlics & Garlic Paraphernalia
Index

Introduction

There are countless forms of earthly pleasures and innumerable objects onto which we can focus our desires. They range from the quiet pleasures of hearth and home to the more exotic enchantments of faraway lands, lavish surroundings, and beautiful loves. As most of us suspect, and the more adventurous know, danger often lurks behind the allures of passion. This danger, be it to our emotional, financial, spiritual, or physical well being, is not just an element of romantic novels, but is very real, indeed. In my life, I consider myself quite lucky because not only have I had the opportunity to experience the sublime bliss of unabashed passion, I have managed to do so in a totally nondestructive way. In fact, my little obsession seems to have done me quite well.

Like the diaries of writer Anaïs Nin, this book is the chronicle of my passion. In Part One, “The Life and Times of Garlic,” I will share with you stories of my beloved. In Chapter 1, “Garlic Through the Ages,” we will explore some of the folklore and history surrounding garlic. You will learn how people before me loved garlic and how others have passionately disdained the object of my desires.

In Chapter 2, “From Crop to Plate,” we will take a look at what garlic is in the botanical sense and how this deceptively simple bulb goes from being a crop in some farmer’s field to a pleasure on your plate. It is in this chapter that you will learn how to choose the freshest and best garlic for all of your culinary needs.

Garlic has definitely lived the life of a rogue, being both loved and hated in almost every culinary tradition. In Chapter 3, “Garlics of the World,” you will learn about the characteristics of the many varieties of garlic and discover the origins, when known, of the different types.

Every enjoyment eventually grows shallow when all it has to offer is itself. Take ice cream, for example. Ice cream is quite a delight with the first few bites, but with serious indulgence, it becomes a foe, not a friend. Ice cream can make you fat, raise your cholesterol, and, God forbid, create excess mucus and other unpleasant reactions if you are lactose intolerant. Garlic would never do that to you. In spite of its reputation as a stinker, it is steadfast and true. Although it offers culinary delights that can rival those of any food on this planet, garlic has been used throughout history to cure almost every ill known to man and woman. In Chapter 4, “Garlic and Your Health,” we will discuss the healing powers and health benefits attributed to garlic.

In Chapter 5, “Growing Garlic at Home,” I will share with you how to raise delicious, gourmet garlic right in your own backyard or balcony. Go ahead and take the risk. It’s easier than you might think.

In Part Two of this book, we will indulge in “The Tastes and Pleasures of Garlic.” In Chapter 6, “Garlic Tips, Tricks, and Tools,” we will discuss cooking techniques you may wish to try and special tools you may wish to own. In Chapter 7, “Cooking With Garlic,” the real fun will begin, with luscious, healthful recipes that will allow you to indulge in your own garlic fantasies to your heart’s content. What does health have to do with passion? Without health there can be no passion, and with these recipes you can have both.

Following the recipes, you will find a resource list showing where to buy gourmet garlics and garlic lovers’ paraphernalia. Then finally, as with all good things, this book must end, but you will take with you some new knowledge, perhaps improved health, and hopefully, a love for this marvelous plant that is affectionately called “the stinking rose.”

Reviews

to come

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