Healthy Gluten-Free Cooking: 150 Recipes for Food Lovers [Paperback]

Darina Allen (Author), Rosemary Kearney (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 1, 2005

Introduction by Elaine Monarch, president and founder of the Celiac Disease Foundation

Unable to digest gluten, a protein found in wheat and other grains, people with celiac disease resign themselves to life without bread or pasta-not to mention cheese soufflé, lasagna, chicken pot pie, pancakes, chocolate gâteau, and panzanella. But now, with Healthy Gluten-Free Cooking, all of these once-taboo foods, and many more, are available to the estimated two million Americans with this incurable condition.

Here Darina Allen, founder of Ireland's renowned Ballymaloe Cookery School, and Rosemary Kearney, a nutrition expert who has celiac disease, present delicious, gluten-free transformations of 157 recipes from appetizers and salads to main courses and desserts, including Irish soda bread, fritters, scones, pork en croute, and Yorkshire pudding. Also featured is essential advice on selecting gluten-free ingredients. In this book the authors achieve the ultimate in healthy cooking: a cuisine for a special need that is sensational enough for everyone to enjoy. AUTHOR BIO: Darina Allen is an internationally recognized culinary expert and the of several books on Irish cuisine. In 1983, she founded Ballymaloe Cookery School in Ireland. Rosemary Kearney, who has celiac disease, is a graduate chef from Ballymaloe Cookery School. She runs her own catering business, Rosemary and Thyme, in Ireland.

Product Details

• Paperback: 160 pages
• Publisher: Stewart, Tabori and Chang (April 1, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1584794240
• ISBN-13: 978-1584794240
• Product Dimensions: 8.6 x 8.3 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #544,121 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

This comprehensive cookbook is aimed primarily at people suffering from celiac disease, a painful autoimmune condition. The only way to control the disease is to keep the protein called gluten out of the celiac sufferer's diet; since gluten is found in wheat, patients must usually say goodbye to breads, pastas, cakes, brownies and other baked goods. But the authors find innovative ways around these restrictions, offering recipes for such treats as Blueberry Muffins made with rice flour and tapioca, Buttermilk Pancakes made with cornmeal, and a Mediterranean Tomato, Feta, and Pesto Tart using a combination of wheat-free flours for the crust. But perhaps the volume's most useful resource can be found in a section called "Basic Recipes," a compilation of gluten-free ways to make pastry, roux, béchamel, pancake batter and other traditional no-nos for celiac sufferers. After all, most foods are gluten-free, so while it's nice to see recipes in this book for Feta and watermelon salad, Fluffy herbed potatoes and Italian beef stew, the recipes that readers will find most useful are the ones that allow them to eat foods that were previously forbidden.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Product Details

• Paperback: 160 pages
• Publisher: Stewart, Tabori and Chang (April 1, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1584794240
• ISBN-13: 978-1584794240
• Product Dimensions: 8.6 x 8.3 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #544,121 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Called "The Julia Child of Ireland" by the San Francisco Chornicle, Darina Allen runs the world-renowned cookery school at Ballymaloe in County Cork, Ireland, which she founded with her husband in 1983. She runs the highly regarded three-month diploma course as well as various short courses, including the Forgotten Skills series, upon which her book, Forgotten Skills of Cooking, was based. That book has been shortlisted for the 2009 Andre Simon Food and Drink Book Awards.

Darina is the award-winning author of Irish Traditional Cooking, Ballymaloe Cookery Course, A Year at Ballymaloe, Healthy Gluten-free Eating (with Rosemary Kearney), and Easy Entertaining, which won the 2006 Chefs and Restaurants Award from the IACP. She is Ireland's most famous TV cook, having presented nine series of her cooking program, "Simply Delicious," on television around the world.

Darina founded the first Farmers' Markets in Ireland and is a tireless campaigner for local produce. She was awarded the Cooking for Solutions Conservation Leadership Award - Chef of the Year 2008 by the Monterey Bay Aquarium in California. She is also a natural teacher and was awarded the IACP's 2005 Cooking Teacher of the Year Award.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

16 of 16 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Wonderful recipies (IMPORTANT: quantities are in British units) August 20, 2010

By Maulbeere

Format:Paperback

I LOVE this book. I haven't found a recipe I didn't like and it's very nice to be able to make some old favorites from my childhood gluten free. The victoria sponge was especially good, probably because I miss being able to buy these in every supermarket :)

I sympathise with the reviewers who couldn't make recipes work. IMPORTANT: THIS BOOK IS WRITTEN BY IRISH AUTHORS USING BRITISH/IRISH MEASURES.

As an expat Brit living in America for the last 12 years, the difference in sizes between American and UK/Irish measures has made MANY a nice recipe utterly bin-able. An English tablespoon is larger than an American tablespoon, for example, so the sweet pastry recipie will not hold together with only 2 American tablespoons of water, but it will if they're British. I actually keep a set of my old UK measures around, but for those without that luxury, here's some info - and it's worth Googling any questions, especially for baking where getting the chemistry right is a delicate balance.

1 pint US = 16.6 fl oz, BUT 1 pint UK is 20floz
To convert US pints to British pints - multiply by 0.83
1 cup is 1/2 a pint in both countries (so same conversion)
To convert US fluid ounces to British fluid ounces - multiply by 1.04 (such a small difference I don't bother unless it's a really large batch)
1 US tablespoon = 15ml, a UK tablespoon is 18ml (stores now sell 15ml tablespoons, but my old 18ml tablespoon works for recipes better. So again multiply the UK tablespoons by 0.83 to get to American)
1 UK teaspoon = 5ml
i.e 3 UK teaspoons to 1 UK tablespoon
British cookbooks usually measure dry ingredients by oz, and 1oz is 28 grams.
American to Brit oz is near enough the same as makes no difference.

Hope that helps.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Worth Buying August 14, 2008

By Claudia Horner

Format:Paperback

This cookbook is worth it's weight in gold if you like to cook with healthy, fresh, real food and want to make it gluten-free. The recipes are creative, gourmet but not too complicated or fattening, and really delicious. I would recommend this simply for the desserts, especially the sweet pie pastry which is truly excellent. Beautiful photos, too. Many of the gluten-free cookbooks out there include recipes that are bland, or try to recreate uninspired dishes from the 1960s, or try to recreate processed foods that are wretched with gluten let alone without it. This is the first gluten-free cookbook I've seen that reflects the food trends of today: healthy, fresh, local, organic. This gets used over and over again at our house.

5 of 7 people found the following review helpful

1.0 out of 5 stars DID ANYONE PROOF/EDIT THESE RECIPES ????? February 2, 2008

By Launa Craig

Format:Paperback

What a beautiful book to receive as a gift! BUT.......who
proofed the final print? Just tried my first recipe for
TEMPURA BATTER p.62 - Followed it closely but found that
3 cups of ice water is way too much water for 4 Tablespoons of
rice flour and 1 egg white. Maybe I should throw the book out
with this bad batch of batter.

5 of 7 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Finally! February 18, 2005

By Lance A.

Format:Paperback

Finally, a Gluten-Free Cookbook that is beautiful as well as helpful. These aren't recipes that look good considering that they're gluten-free, these are recipes that just look good. Highly recommended.

6 of 12 people found the following review helpful

1.0 out of 5 stars Healthy Gluten-Free Cooking July 19, 2005

By Marika

Format:Paperback

Absolutely worthless. I've tried several recipes in this book and they are so confusing. The ingredients will be measured in cups, but the directions will say pints. So which is it? Cups or Pints? The dry ingredients are measured in cups and in parenthesis it will be ounces, but the ounces aren't the equivalent of the cups. I really wish they would have made up their minds before putting this book together.