Good to the Grain

My latest favorite thing to do in San Francisco is to get Burmese food (because really, where else are you gonna find it?) and meander around Green Apple Books, which is located in the vicinity of several good Burmese places.

During my last such trip, while looking through the impressively massive selection of used food-oriented books, I spotted a nice copy of Kim Boyce's highly acclaimed Good to the Grain.

A former pastry chef at LA's Spago (a restaurant by Wolfgang Puck), Boyce describes the history and use of each grain, then offers various recipes to complement their subtleties. Wheat is only the beginning here - she details all kinds of flours including less common, less known varieties such as kamut, amaranth, spelt, and teff. She offers insights such as this: "With a scent that is strangely reminiscent of ripe apricots, barley flour is almost tart." Who knew?!

I'm just getting started, but already her recipe for Oat Molasses Sandwich bread helped me produce a gorgeous golden, raised, finely textured bread. Slices of it were dynamite today with sliced turkey, cream cheese and some homemade chutney.