Asbell - Great bowls of food: grain bowls, buddha bowls, broth bowls, and more

Copyright 2016 by Robin Asbell
Photographs copyright 2016 by David Schmit Additional photographs:
Page vii, viii: Elena Veselova/Shutterstock.com; x: Narith
Thongphasuk/Shutterstock.com; xiii: Yulia Davidovich/
Shutterstock.com; xv: HandmadePictures/Shutterstock.com; xxi:
GMVozd/iStockphoto.com; xxii, 2, 122, 124, 126, 127, 136, 138,
157: Olha Afansieva/Shutterstock.com; xxvi, 1: marekuliasz
/Shutterstock.com; 6: anna1311/iStockphoto.com; 10, 11: In
Green/Shutterstock.com; 14, 24: Quanthem/Shutterstock.com;
21: Stepanek Photography/Shutterstock.com; 30, 31, 52, 53, 76,
77, 140, 141: CatchaSnap/Shutterstock.com; 44: marco mayer/
Shutterstock.com; 56: Alsellin82/iStockphoto.com; 112, 113: AS
Food studio/Shutterstock.com; 158: JeniFoto/Shutterstock.com All rights reserved For information about permission to reproduce selections from this
book, write to Permissions, The Countryman Press,
500 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10110 For information about special discounts for bulk
purchases, please contact W. W. Norton Special Sales at
specialsales@wwnorton.com or 800-233-4830 Book design by Seton Rossini Cover design by Seton Rossini The Library of Congress has cataloged the printed edition as follows: Names: Asbell, Robin, author.
Title: Great bowls of food : grain bowls, buddha bowls, broth bowls,
and more / Robin Asbell ; photographs by David Schmit. Description:
Woodstock, VT : The Countryman Press, a division of W. W. | Stews. | One
dish meals. |
LCGFT: Cookbooks. |
LCGFT: Cookbooks.

Classification: LCC TX757 .A834 2016
| DDC 641.82dc23
LC record available at http://lccn.loc.gov/2015040710 ISBN 978-1-58157-555-2 (e-book) The Countryman Press
www.countrymanpress.com A division of W. W. Norton & Company, Inc.
500 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10110
www.wwnorton.com Id like to dedicate this book to the memory of
Larry Calhoun, who made great bowls.

The bowl is more than just a place to put cereal. It can be a gateway to the practice of mindful eating. It can be a blank canvas for your spontaneous creativity.

Or it can be a comforting cradle in which to pile your favorite flavors. Its up to you. More and more restaurants and home cooks are serving bowls, and diners have embraced them with gusto. If you have used the bowl to enjoy all the delicious stuff in a burrito without a tortilla, or if you have encountered a Buddha Bowl, Zen Bowl, or Gratitude Bowl at a restaurant, then youre already a part of the bowl trend. So what is a bowl? Quite simply, a bowl in this book starts with a grain or vegetable base, topped with a variety of components, and finishes with a sauce. Compare this, say, to a bowl of stew, where everything is cooked together; the bowl foods described in this book are composed and layered and piled on top of each other, sauced (or covered in hot broth), and served.

Bowls can be hot or cold or room temperature, but they arent tossed like a salad. Once you sit down with it, you can mix your bowl as much as you like, or you can take bites of each separate element, working your way around the bowl. The Buddha Bowl has been part of the healthy eating zeitgeist for years, in vegetarian restaurants and at Buddhist retreats. One origin story is that Buddhist monks, who lived to embrace the spiritual over money or possessions, roamed the countryside carrying a big bowl. The community supported the monks by adding food to the bowl. (For a visual metaphor, imagine that the bowl is piled high with rice and vegetables, creating a rounded shape that resembles Buddhas belly.) This macrobiotic tradition, which is rooted in a grain-based, yin-and-yang balancing practice, certainly contributes to the Buddha Bowls ongoing appeal. (For a visual metaphor, imagine that the bowl is piled high with rice and vegetables, creating a rounded shape that resembles Buddhas belly.) This macrobiotic tradition, which is rooted in a grain-based, yin-and-yang balancing practice, certainly contributes to the Buddha Bowls ongoing appeal.

Whole grains are centering, right in the middle on the continuum of yin to yang. In the tradition of the Buddhist monks, the bowl can be a pile of motley leftovers, and the simplest way to keep hunger at bay. It can also be part of the practice of mindfulness. Americans tend to eat a bread-, pasta-, and potato-based diet, while the ancient traditions of Asian countries are more rice-based. In a world where people often eat mindlessly, you can use the preparation and eating of your food bowl as a ritual.

Your bowl is your friend. Your bowl is your friend.

Some of the bowl ingredients like to sprawl out in a wide, pasta bowltype dish. A bowl of this kind offers a wider surface to arrange your lovely toppings. Other recipes are for times when you want to feel comforted by the abundance of a deep bowl with its round belly. Do you like to see everything you are going to eat in a wide expanse, or do you want to dig deep to find the mysteries that lie in the bottom of the bowl? Contemplating which bowl to use is a moment of mindfulness, as you consider the presentation of your beautiful food. A larger bowl will give you more white space in which to place the elements of your meal. A smaller bowl keeps you from overindulging.

Some of the dessert bowl recipes are meant to be a little smaller, and so may feel more elegant in a smaller bowl. Negative space is an important concept in Japanese culture and is called Ma. Ma is the calming, serene space between objects, the pause between statements that allows you to take them in, and the silence that frees you to think. We all need more Ma in our crowded, busy lives. Choosing a larger bowl gives you more room for Ma. Let your food have some space around it, so you can perceive it fully.

Drizzle a little sauce on an expanse of grain, in between vegetables, or leave some open space for a feeling of stillness. Stillness is good. Just stop for a moment to think about where your food came from, and all the people who labored over it. A person planted the seeds of every plant. Someone tended and harvested it. Many hands lifted it as it made its way from the field to your bowl.

Pay attention to how you cook and compose your bowl. Give yourself the experience of making something beautiful and whole. Eat it with attention, observing the play of color and texture in your temporary work of art. Chew slowly. Take a moment to notice how your food makes you feel. If you make your meal at a time when you really focus on what you are doing in the moment, you can find an island of calm in your busy day.

Your bowl is an oasis, free from the outside world. You can put your cell phone in the other room. If you must eat on the run, you can eat it from a jar as you ride the bus reading texts. It will still be a bowl of healthy, real food. Main dish bowls are a lovely presentation of a balanced meal, with plenty of plants and nutritious sustenance.

Your daily bowl can be as simple as a bowl of leftover grains, topped with whatever vegetables are in your fridge, some leftover beans or seeds, and a drizzle of tamari. Next page