The Berry Bible: With 175 Recipes Using Cultivated and Wild, Fresh and Frozen Berries
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Tom Douglas is an American chef, restaurateur, and writer. He is well known for helping to define Northwest cuisine and igniting the Seattle restaurant scene, winning the James Beard Award for Best Northwest Chef in 1994. Since 1989, Tom has opened five of Seattle's most popular restaurants: Dahlia Lounge, the Greek-inspired Lola, Serious Pie pizzeria, Palace Kitchen, and Pike Place Market's iconic seafood restaurant, Etta's. He also owns Dahlia Bakery, famous for its Triple Coconut Cream Pie.
Tom is the author of Tom Douglas' Seattle Kitchen, named Best American Cookbook by the James Beard Foundation, Tom's Big Dinners, and I Love Crab Cakes! He bested Masaharu Morimoto in an episode of Iron Chef America and was named 2008 Bon Appetit Restaurateur of the Year. Read his exclusive guest review of Janie Hibler's The Berry Bible:
Washington State is berry country. Every summer for a brief but glorious window of time, my Seattle restaurant kitchens overflow with berry abundance--first the sweet local strawberries, then blueberries, red and golden raspberries, boysenberries, blackberries, and finally, the wild huckleberries we buy from foragers, treasured in the restaurants for syrups, jams, and sauces. Berries are the sweet source of many purple-stained memories, like picking wild blackberries with my daughter, Loretta, when she was a kid, and slamming out hundreds of summer berry crisps after hours in the Palace Kitchen one year for the Bite of Seattle.
That s why I m delighted by this AmazonEncore edition of Janie Hibler s Northwest classic, The Berry Bible. A bible it is indeed--every berry under the sun is included here, from cloudberries and currants to cape gooseberries and salmonberries. Read up on the history, habitat, and health benefits of each berry before diving into the recipes where berries are used in every course, from soups and entr es to drinks and desserts... even barbecue sauce.
Janie has studded the book with berry-relevant stories, anecdotes, and folklore. You can pick up some fabulous facts along the way. Did you know it takes 80 pounds of raspberries to make one 375 ml bottle of Framboise?
My wife Jackie and I like to put up a batch or two of my Mom s easy freezer strawberry jam (right on the back of the pectin box!), but I think Janie s excellent chapter on berry jams, jellies, pickles, and preserves will extend our repertoire this summer.
Now I m going to head out to the deck with a Strawberry Mojito in one hand and my Berry Bible in the other to solve the big question--which dessert recipe to try first? I m leaning towards Peak of the Season Blueberry Pie, but The Perfect Strawberry Shortcake sounds mighty fine. --Tom Douglas
Recipe Excerpts from The Berry Bible
Delicious, good for us, but underrepresented on our tables, berries are one of nature's greatest gifts. Amending our lack of berry-smarts, Janie Hibler's The Berry Bible presents a definitive guide, with over 200 recipes using cultivated, wild, fresh, and frozen berries--from well-known types such as blueberries and raspberries (and their related varieties), to lesser known kinds, like the cloudberry and manzanita, and apple-like fruit enjoyed traditionally by Native Americans. The recipes cover a wide range of easily produced dishes, such as Morning Glory Muffins with Blackberries and Pork Tenderloin Salad with Warm Strawberry Dressing, and also include formulas for smoothies, cocktails, condiments like chutney, and homemade berry liqueurs such as Madame Rose Blan' s Cr me de Cassis. What makes the book a particularly valuable kitchen resource, however, is Hibler's A to Z berry encyclopedia, a section that, in addition to providing nomenclature, history, habitat, and classification information, also offers picking, buying, storing, and cooking advice. Accompanying the descriptions are pages of color photos that further aid in berry identification, a gift to those who like to gather their own. --Arthur Boehm (from the Hardcover edition)
