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That fabulous fungus
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REVIEWS BY SYBIL PRATT
By Amy Farges Workman, hardcover, $25.95 ISBN 0761122028
Paperback, $16.95
Magic makeovers September brings us back to school, back to work, and back to reality, and in the kitchen it's back to basics to back up all those "back-to's." More Healthy Homestyle Cooking: Family Favorites You'll Make Again and Again: 200 All-New Recipe Makeovers, Evelyn Tribole's sequel to her best-selling Healthy Homestyle Cooking, is the timely ticket to tempting meals, basic yet brimming with taste and flavor. What makes these family favorites stand out is what they've lost. It's as though the 200 recipes included here worked out with a personal trainer, building up nutritional muscle and losing unwanted fat and calories. The author (and recipe coach) is an accomplished culinary makeover artist who knows exactly what to trim, what to replace, and what to adjust without tampering with taste. She shares her secrets here, and the savvy cooks who follow her lead don't have to spill the low-cal beans when they are showered with compliments. A review of nutrition basics is followed by a master list of recipe substitutions that shows how to use Tribole's makeover methods on any recipe. Then comes the main event -- hearty, wholesome dishes from warm, welcoming Spiced Apple Muffins and Gingerbread Pancakes to Apple-Carrot Cake topped with Best-Ever Light Cream Cheese Frosting. Just so you'll know what you've missed, calorie and fat-wise, Tribole supplies a before and after "Nutritional Scoreboard" with each recipe and a complete nutritional analysis. There's a lot to gain from eating healthy, homestyle food and very little to loose.
Family Favorites You'll Make Again and Again: 200 All-New Recipe Makeovers By Evelyn Tribole Rodale, $29.95 ISBN 1579541178
I'm not suggesting that you flip out, go bonkers, or freak, I merely want to call your attention to an off-beat banana book that asks the eternally perplexing question -- How can you not love a banana? In answer, Susan Quick offers Go Bananas!, a bit of banana history, an introduction to the banana's botanical varieties, peeled-back trivia, and 150 irresistible recipes that will forever banish the notion that bananas are something you slice over corn flakes or mash into Aunt Tillie's banana bread. You'll find that bananas, never banal, are a boon and a bonus any time of day -- breakfast, lunch, and dinner, not to mention, smoothies, salads, divine desserts, and appealing appetizers. Don't miss this chance to explore "America's most versatile fruit" and be Top Banana yourself.
By Susan Quick Broadway Books, $16 ISBN 0767904036
Sybil Pratt has been cooking up this column for more than five years.
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Those generic, off-white, bulbous buttons that used to mean "mushroom" to most of us have moved to the sidelines in recent years. Now, replacing -- or sitting next to -- the one-size-fits-all fungi, we have a vibrant variety of velvety mushrooms that can be brown, yellow, red, or black, meaty firm or feather light, ranging in flavor from earthy to fruity to somewhat seafood-like. This exotic array, once remote and risky, is being collected and cultivated all over the world; they've found their way into our supermarkets and gourmet shops and into creative home cooks' repertoires. Thirteen years ago, food writer Amy Farges and her husband founded a wild mushroom and truffle business. Aux Delices des Bois grew, prospered (dare we say mushroomed), and recently morphed into Marche aux Delice, a major mushroom catalog. The Mushroom Lover's Mushroom Cookbook and Primer is the result of Amy's passion for mycological miracles, her in-depth expertise and gastronomic know how. She begins with "Mushrooms 101," a guide to selecting, storing, cleaning, and cooking these incredible edibles, then takes you through 175 recipes from finger foods, salads, soups, and sides to sustaining mains, breads, and condiments. The dishes are inventive, unusual, trendy, and chic; some have multi-ethnic overtones (Seared Cod with Porcini a La Grecque, Duck and Shiitake Tortillas), some are unabashedly extravagant (Roasted Squab with Black Truffles), and others are variations on the well-known (Polenta with Wild Mushroom Ragout). They may take time and planning, but Fargis has supplied the enthusiasm to urge you on and the detailed directions to make it all happen.
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Go bananas!