Friendly Foods (Gourmet Vegetarian Cuisine) [Paperback]

Ron Picarski (Author)

Book Description

Series: Gourmet Vegetarian Cuisine | Publication Date: January 1, 1991

Franciscan monk, Brother Ron Picarski calls whole grains, vegetables, legumes, sea vegetables, and various other foods "friendly foods," because they do not bear the high environmental, economic, and nutritional costs of meat and processed foods. This new cookbook has 300 recipes that do not use meat, eggs, or dairy products--for the ghealth-conscious cooks of the '90s.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Pickarski, a professional chef who is also a Franciscan brother, brings his considerable culinary expertise to this sophisticated collection of vegan recipes (vegetarian dishes that exclude eggs and dairy foods as well as meats and fish). Experienced and savvy vegetarian cooks especially will enjoy trying out the volume's elegant dishes: e.g, a tofu seitan Wellington with Bordelaise sauce or a decorative leek aspic with tahini lemon sauce. However, most recipes are designed as daily fare, such as Pickarski's version of the Hungarian classic Sezekle gulos, which he serves with noodles and cabbage, or a meatless New England boiled dinner. Several recipes require ingredients generally available only from specialty sources, such as natural foods stores or oriental supply shops. For example, a creamy ginger dressing calls for white miso, Sucanat (a natural sweetener) and Szechuan peppercorns,pk while a delicate carrot sauce is made with silken tofu, white miso and packaged vegetable base. However, cooks interested in sampling these unusual flavor combinations and determined enough to identify and track down the ingredients (Pickarski helps with a glossary and an annotated list of mail order suppliers) will find these recipes worth the effort. Illustrated.
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Review

Friendly foods, according to Brother Ron, a Franciscan friar who is also an award-winning chef, are "foods that are friendly to our bodies, our pocket books, our busy schedules, and our environment." He offers these recipes as encouragement for people who are beginning to transform their diet in the direction of natural foods. Although the recipes - meatless, sugarless, and without dairy products - are presented appealingly and accompanied by an extensive introduction, people who are just starting to depart from the traditional American diet may find them somewhat daunting-, their ingredients often include such unfamiliar items as kombu, seitan, barley malt syrup, and agar flakes. Unless you have a larder well-stocked with natural foods, you won't be able to plunge into one of these recipes without making a trip to the health food store, where the necessary ingredients cost considerably more than the ordinary chemical-ridden processed foods at the supermarket. In spite of their strange ingredients, however, the dishes resulting from these recipes - at least the ones tried out by this reviewer - do not taste strange at all. They taste good. You would not know, either from their appearance or their flavors, that they were made with things like soy milk and brown rice syrup rather than cream and sugar. There is great variety here, and great inventiveness. Brother Ron has won many awards at the Culinary Olympics, and includes some of those prize-winning dishes such as Southern Blackened Tempeh with Tomato-Apricot-Ginger Coulis, and Garbanzo Parsnip Gnocchi, and Beet Sea Vegetable Quenelles - in a special section for the intrepid. -- From Independent Publisher

Product Details

• Paperback: 288 pages
• Publisher: Ten Speed Press (January 1, 1991)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0898153778
• ISBN-13: 978-0898153774
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 7.3 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,063,385 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Perhaps the best gourmet vegan cookbook on the market!, April 12, 1999

By 

Jeffrey A. Watts (Lower Lake CA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Friendly Foods (Gourmet Vegetarian Cuisine) (Paperback)

Many times I have eaten vegan recipies which are not only bland but unimaginative. When I bought friendly foods over 7 years ago (when I was just turning to a vegetarian lifestyle) I thought I had died and gone to heaven!

The recipies in here are not only nutritionaly well balanced, they are easy on the stomach, delicious and rather easy to make! This book was one of the few that convinced me that eating a non dairy/meat diet would not only be easy, but very satisfying.

Some of the best recipies in this book are the Carob Cake with the Peanut Butter frosting, Tofu Spinach Pie, Hazelnut Glennie and the Carrot Pate.

This book is not only well versed in well tasting vegetarian/vegan recipies, but is chock full of good nutritional advice as well. Although I have not tried all of the recipies in this book, every single one I have tried has been relatively easy to make and the ingredients are relatively easy to get at your local helth food store (and some more enlightened grocery store chains)

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Delicious and Delightful, July 22, 2000

By 

Rebecca R. Hadley "Rebecca R. Hadley" (Houston, TX) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Friendly Foods (Gourmet Vegetarian Cuisine) (Paperback)

My husband and I (both vegetarians) were lucky enough to be on a cruise in 1998 on which Mr. Pickarski was our chef. I had more delicious food during those six days than I ever had before or since! After we got home I ordered every Pickarski item I could get my hands on, this book included.

Bear in mind, these distinctive, gourmet vegan recipes aren't your everyday fare. This is the book you'll want to pull out when you need to wow your non-vegetarian friends. My favorite is the Chocolate Cream Couscous Cake (page 220). Vegan or not, this is one of the most elegant and delicious desserts you can ever hope to taste. Happy eating!

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars My Favorite Cookbook, November 16, 2005

By 

Michael Behrns-Miller (USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Friendly Foods (Gourmet Vegetarian Cuisine) (Paperback)

I'm vegan and this is my favorite cookbook. The recipes are simple to make, elegant, and delicious - it's perfection. Ron Picarski is a genius. I have sworn to try out every single recipe before I die. I'm about a third of the way there so I know I've still got some great food ahead of me!

Try it out, there's something in it for anyone and everyone.