Book Review: 500 Best Quinoa Recipes

I'm far from a health-food nut, but I do like trying some of the grains that have become more widely available recently, such as buckwheat, millet, and bulgur wheat. I have no issues with gluten (thank God), so I'm not looking for alternatives to regular wheat products, but I'm all for more choices where food is concerned.
One of the more popular, or at least more visible, of these alternative grains is quinoa. I've used it, and I like it for its granular texture and mild nutty flavor.
But as for actually cooking with quinoa, all I've really done up till now is use it as a rice substitute. (And given recent reports of high arsenic levels in rice, that's not a bad thing.) That's fine, as far as it goes, but it only goes so far.
So I looked forward to my review copy of 500 Best Quinoa Recipes, from Robert Rose Books. Five hundred quinoa recipes? And those are just the "best"?
As this book shows, though, quinoa can be used as far more than a simple grain to include in side dishes. And the sheer breadth of the book makes it as comprehensive a guide to cooking with quinoa as you can find.
Author Camilla V. Saulsbury starts things off with a primer on quinoa - its history, why it packs such a nutritional punch, some basics on preparing it, and what to stock in your kitchen to cook with it - and moves on to the recipes, which make up over 90 percent of the book.
The recipes are arranged thematically, with chapters on breakfasts, appetizers and snacks, soups, stews and chilis, salads and sides, vegetarian main dishes, seafood, poultry and lean meat dishes, breads, and desserts. The recipes are simply and clearly presented, and accompanied by useful preparation and cooking tips. Two sections of color photographs help whet your appetite to try many of the recipes.
You may wonder why you'd want to incorporate quinoa into so many dishes - come on, quinoa desserts? Keep in mind, though, that quinoa doesn't always figure into the recipes in its basic, granular form. Many of the recipes call for quinoa flour, for example as an ingredient in pie or tart crust. For folks like me, who don't have any problem with wheat products, these may not be a big draw. But for anybody who's looking to cut carbs, or to avoid gluten, the inclusion of these recipes makes this book a valuable resource.
Even if you're not consciously trying to avoid wheat, there are plenty of intriguing recipes here to tempt you, like Thai Chicken and Coconut Soup, Black Bean Quinoa Chipotle Chili, and Spicy Kale Quinoa with Pan-Fried Salami. You'll also find more familiar dishes, with a quinoa twist, such as quinoa-stuffed peppers and a simple quinoa pilaf. Many of these are dishes that I would order, if they appeared on a restaurant menu, and Saulsbury shows how easy they are for the home cook as well.
Naturally, I looked right away for a pizza recipe, and landed on the book's recipe for pizza dough made from quinoa flour (which is available at local supermarkets under the Bob's Red Mill brand). Because of quinoa's lack of gluten, this will not yield a puffy, bready crust, but the use of baking powder will give you a crisp yet airy crust marked by the faintly sweet, nutty flavor of quinoa. (And to skeptics - before you dismiss the idea of quinoa pizza dough, be aware that customers of Velvet Elvis Pizza in Patagonia, Arizona are shelling out $45 for the pizzeria's "Inca Quinoa Pizza.")
If you're stuck in your culinary ways, then you won't be much interested in this book. But if you're like me, you're always interested in expanding your kitchen horizons, and 500 Best Quinoa Recipes is a good place to start. I've now got a quinoa-dedicated container on my kitchen shelf.
500 Best Quinoa Recipes, by Camilla V. Saulsbury
Paperback: 528 pages
Publisher: Robert Rose (2012)

New Giveaway: $30 Gift Card for The Pizza Stop in Greece

It's been too long since I did a giveaway on here, so here's a good one. One lucky reader will be receiving a gift card good for $30 worth of food at the new location of The Pizza Stop at 2532 Ridgeway Avenue in Greece, in the shopping plaza near Long Pond Road. This pizzeria features the same New York style pizza as the original on State Street in downtown Rochester, as well as an expanded menu that includes wings, fries, and other guilty pleasures.
I will be giving away a second gift card for the downtown location in the near future, but this one is for the Greece location only. To enter to win, all you have to do is leave a comment after this blog post, and provide me with a way to contact you, at least by email, and, if you win, by postal mail, so I can get the gift card to you. And I need to know that I'm sending it to the right person, so anonymous comments will not qualify you to win.
So - you can include an email address in your comment, or send me an email at rochesternypizzaguy@gmail.com, with your email and/or postal address. If your Blogger profile includes an email address, that's good enough for now. But again, if you win, I will need a postal mailing address.
Usually I run these contests for a week, but with Thanksgiving coming up in a week, I'm going to extend this one a bit. I will pick a winner, at random, on Monday, November 26, shortly after noon. Each comment will be assigned a number, and I'll use random.org to pick a winner. Multiple comments from the same person will be ignored - one number per person.
Winning this won't disqualify you from future giveaways, including the giveaway for the downtown Pizza Stop, so comment away. Pizza-related comments are preferred, Pizza Stop-related comments even more so, but any comments will do.

Little Caesars Hot-N-Ready® Pizza

We've all seen the signs, and the ads: Little Caesars HOT-N-READY® Pizza, "ready when you are!" A 14-inch pizza, ready instantly. For five bucks. Is this a great country, or what?
But it couldn't possibly be any good, could it? Yet still ...
There was, for a while, a trend toward big, cheap pizza around here. Mostly these came out of inner-city places selling super-thin pies, often skimpy on the toppings. But some weren't bad, especially for the money - typically a dollar a slice, or $5 for a large pie.
I don't see them around as much as I used to, although as far as I know you can still get a 99-cent slice at Checker Flag on Dewey Avenue.
But what about a chain like Little Caesars? I don't think much of chain pizzerias to begin with, but for five bucks, it seemed worth a shot. So one day when I was in the mood for pizza (which is to say, like any other day), but couldn't think of where I wanted it from, I decided to take a chance on Little Caesars. Even if it sucked, I wouldn't be out much money.
I went to the location on Lyell Avenue in Gates, across from Wegmans. I went to the drive-through, and on a whim, I sprang for the extra 95 cents to get pepperoni.
There was no line of cars, so I got to the window within seconds after placing my order. Voila, the pizza was there waiting for me! This was truly instant - it's taken me longer to get a cup of coffee at McDonald's.
That was the good news. And the good news virtually ended there.
The bottom of this pie was dry, with no visible or tactile oil, but it had that pancake-like appearance of a crust that's been baked in a pan. I've had good pizzas that were baked in pans, but this wasn't one of them. It was soft and chewy, with no character and no, well, substance. Aside from the bubbly craters underneath, it didn't seem to have risen much.
The crust was topped with a slightly sweet, herbal sauce. It reminded me of canned spaghetti sauce, which is not in itself a bad thing, I mean I use it sometimes and I'm OK with it, but typically it's not anything great. I can't say for sure, but I'm guessing there was high fructose corn syrup in there somewhere.
The cheese wasn't bad. It was stretchy and smooth - these pizzas must be kept ready to go, but this wasn't dried out like a convenience-store slice that's been sitting there too long. And it hadn't exuded a slick of orange oil the way that cheap cheese will. The pepperoni was abundant but bland. Not bad, just not very flavorful.
So yes, I was only out five dollars. And if you're hungry and nearly broke, I suppose you could do worse. But if you can spare more than five bucks, get yourself a better pizza, preferably from a local independent shop. Little Caesars HOT-N-READY® gets a D from me.
Little Caesars Pizza, 2394 Lyell Ave., 14606
(585) 247-3211
Various other locations in the Rochester area.
Open 11 - 11 daily, Fri. & Sat. till midnight.