Homegrown Pure and Simple: Great Healthy Food from Garden to Table

Description

In this follow up to the best selling Taste Pure & Simple, chef Michel Nischen shows how to take his philosophy of heart healthy cooking into the garden. As Michel watched his children growing up, he yearned to share with them his mother's heirloom recipes - dishes that prominently featured the fresh fruits and vegetables she grew in the backyard garden of his childhood. This led him to plant a garden in his own backyard, with 2 serious goals in mind: He wanted it to be as organic as possible and he wanted to use all the vegetables they grew to feed his family. Lettuce, radishes, sugar snap peas, tomatoes, bok choy, eggplant - these are just a few of the early season vegetables that started finding their way onto the dinner lable. Using these farm-fresh vegetables, plus vibrant herbs, healthful oils and spices, Michel has created recipes that are good for the body and yet packed with abundant flavor. Discover a bounty of flavorful meals that comes from using homegrown produce and fresh ingredients in Homegrown: Pure and Simple - undoniable proof that a healthful diet can be both rewarding and delicious.

Michel Nischan is a chef and best-selling author of Taste: Pure and Simple. Nischan appears frequently on the Food Network and has been a guest on Oprah, and has also been featured in O Magazine.

Warm, enthusiastic and sweetly dedicated to the author's garden-devoted mom, this volume celebrates the bounty that can come from a home garden (assuming the involvement of a dedicated gardener) with simple, mostly very healthy recipes. Following an introduction to his own garden, Nischan author of the James Beard Award-winning "Taste Pure and Simple" and former chef of New York City's Heartbeat restaurant organizes recipes into straightforward chapters on salads, soup, main courses, side dishes, "extending the harvest" (jams, pickled veggies, infused oils), breakfast and desserts, all interwoven with garden-related anecdotes. The recipes are appealing, with many options for both vegetarians and carnivores. Sugar Snap Peas with Fennel, Onions, and Grilled Peach Dressing; Grilled Lamp Chops with Home-Dried Tomatoes and Citrus Yogurt; Pistachio Pork Loin Chops with Pumpkin Sauce; Oregano Chicken with Grilled Kale and Heirloom Tomatoes; Shiitake Mushroom and Koshihikari Rice Cakes; and Roasted Pear and Spoon Bread Tart with Cranberry, Orange and Jalape o Glaze are all a few gourmet steps above standard homey garden fare and color photos by Susie Cushner add to the book's sophisticated feel. -Publisher's Weekly "Easily the most appealing new American cookbook is "Homegrown Pure and Simple: Great Healthy Food From Garden to Table," by Michel Nischan and Mary Goodbody. The recipes have been gathered from many cultures, but somehow they all seem homespun, perhaps because of the book's rustic design. I was especially drawn to the recipe for crispy striped bass with tomato and onion sauce." -New York Times Sunday Book Review