Vegetables from the Sea: Everyday Cooking with Sea Greens [Hardcover]

Jill Gusman (Author), Adrienne Ingrum (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 29, 2003

Sea vegetables, edible seaweeds, or sea greens are rapidly becoming popular with chefs and home cooks. They are highly nutritious, mineral-rich, and have been used for centuries in Asian, Irish, English, and other cuisines. Sea vegetables are widely available and can be found in supermarkets, health food stores, and Asian markets.

Jill Gusman, a senior cooking instructor and lecturer on foods, shares her passion, knowledge, and recipes for enjoying these flavorful sea treasures at home.

With Vegetables From the Sea, home cooks can gradually introduce sea greens into soups and salads or make them them center of the plate. Miso Soup and Soba Salad with Arame to new classics such as Sea Palm Chicken Salad with Roasted Garlic and Wakame Succotash, here are seventy-five unique dishes, including Nori-wrapped Sole, Hijiki Crostini, Sweet and Sour Sea Palm Stew, and Dulse Mashed Potatoes. Vegetables From the Sea includes in indispensable full-color reference guide that shows all the major sea greens available, from agar to wakame, and explains everything about each, including how to buy, store, rehydrate, cook, and savor them anytime.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Jill Gusman, a graduate and former cooking instructor of the Kushi Institute, has over 16 years of teaching experience. Her background includes extensive catering in gourmet and healing cuisines. She is a natural Gourmet Cookery School chef instructor, private chef and teacher specializing in #147;Lifestyle Changes: How to Enjoy Healthier Eating and Living Patterns in the Modern World.#148;

Product Details

• Hardcover: 144 pages
• Publisher: William Morrow Cookbooks (April 29, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0066211174
• ISBN-13: 978-0066211176
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 8.4 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #976,319 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

35 of 35 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Worth a try, October 2, 2004

By 

M. Coppedge (North Carolina) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

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This review is from: Vegetables from the Sea: Everyday Cooking with Sea Greens (Hardcover)

Sea vegetables are an acquired taste. Knowing that most people are not familiar with sea vegetables as food, the author explains what those algae are, how and where they grow, and which ones are edible. She then discusses the nutritional value and provides a misleading chart of nutrients. She claims that some sea vegetables contain 10 times as much calcium as cow's milk, but she compares the values of dried algae to the values of drinkable milk. If she compared edible servings (non-fat milk and rehydrated algae, or non-fat dry milk and dried algae), she would find that milk and wakame (one of the algae highest in calcium) have about the same amount of calcium per serving. Most other algae have lower values.

Gusman then goes on to discuss the healing values of algae and claims that they help our bodies fight disease that results form a polluted environment. She does not address the issue of ocean pollution and the fact that algae absorb and therefore contain pollutants, which may or may not be absorbed into our bodies - nobody wants to elaborate on this issue.

Her chapter about the individual algae, however, is great. The author describes the algae, shows photographs of the dried products, and tells us how to use them in the kitchen.

The major part of the book is dedicated to recipes, many with photographs and additional information about the algae. Some of the recipes have an algae-stranded-on-the-beach flavor. Moreover, when I followed the advice of a Japanese friend to soak, drain and then sauté Hijiki and Arame in olive oil for three minutes before adding any liquid, and to always add a teaspoon each of sugar and rice vinegar, some of Gusman's recipes became more palatable.

I also tried her Nori Condiment, which turned my stomach when I read the recipe, but which tasted surprisingly good in the end. The recipe collection includes soups, salads, snacks, main dishes, vegetables and sweets. Some of them, like the condiments, can be made in a few minutes, others take more time. Some of them are pretty good, others are better without the addition of the seaweed (e.g. curried sweet potato soup does not benefit from the wakame). But overall, I think this is an interesting cookbook worth considering.

14 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Not for foragers, January 29, 2006

By 

Paul Bonds (Arkansas, USA) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Vegetables from the Sea: Everyday Cooking with Sea Greens (Hardcover)

If you want a few fancy recipes, or are new to sea greens, then this is the book for you. The author is very experienced at using sea veggies to spice up a meal. However, except for a couple of salads, I did not see a recipe where sea veggies were the main ingredient. If you want to forage your own then don't get this book. Not only does the book not tell you how to pick them, it discourages you from doing so.

13 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars average, March 25, 2004

By 

Claudine (USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Vegetables from the Sea: Everyday Cooking with Sea Greens (Hardcover)

the part that explains the different types of sea vegetables and how to use them is great
the recepies are average and most aren't healthy enough for me to make. I am really not impressed at all by them