Fish & Shellfish: The Definitive Cook's Companion

by James Peterson

Every few decades a chef or a teacher writes a cookbook that is so comprehensive and offers such depth of subject matter and cooking inspiration that it becomes a virtual bible for amateur and professional alike. Author James Peterson, who wrote the book Sauces, a James Beard Cookbook of the Year winner, and the incomparable Splendid Soups, once again demonstrates his connoisseurship with Fish & Shellfish, a monumental cookbook that will take its rightful place as the first and last word on seafood preparation and cooking.

Fish & Shellfish demonstrates every conceivable method for preparing sumptuous meals of fish and shellfish, from baking, braising, deep-frying, grilling and broiling to poaching, panfrying, marinating, curing and smoking, steaming, and microwaving. Whether your taste runs strictly to shellfish or to everything seafood, Fish & Shellfish offers the equivalent of a complete cookbook on each subject. Within the chapters on finfish you'll learn how to prepare enticing recipes remarkable for their ease of preparation, their versatility, and their originality Here Peterson offers such splendid flavors and textures as succulent Stuffed Striped Bass with Spinach, Shrimp, and Mushrooms; crunchy Halibut Fillets with Curry, Herbs, and Almond Crust; delicate Salmon Fillets A la Nage with Julienned Vegetables; savory Braised Tuna with Vegetables; and fiery Thai-Style Swordfish Satay.

If it's shellfish you prefer, there are pages and pages of recipes for baking, frying, steaming, or serving raw everything in a shell, including mussels, clams, oysters, scallops, lobster, shrimp, crab, and crayfish. Peterson explains how to judge freshness and how to prepare shellfish delights, including lemony-flavored Steamed Mussels with Thai Green Curry; aromatic Littleneck Clams in Black BeanScented Broth; a simple and comforting Linguine with Clam Sauce; elegant Hot Oysters with Leeks and White Wine Sauce; rich and savory Braised Scallops with Tomatoes and Fresh Basil; Steamed Lobster with Coconut Milk and Thai Spices; Shrimp with Tomato Sauce, Saffron Aioli, and Pesto; hit-the-spot Sautéed Crab Cakes; and Japanese Style Grilled Squid, to name but a few of the brilliant and vast array of wonderful seafood selections.Fish & Shellfishalso offers techniques for preparing raw, marinated, cured, and smoked fish.

As you exploreFish & Shellfish, you'll learn not only the essentials of seafood preparation but everything in between, including how to make a curry sauce, which red wines to cook with, how to fry parsley, and how to make Vietnamese dipping sauces. You'll learn the secrets of a variety of coatings, how to blacken fish, add stuffings, and deglaze the pan for sauces, as well as discover the delights of salsas, chutneys, relishes, mayonnaises, and butters.

Here is seafood in every incarnation, from soups, stews, and pastas to mousses, soufflés, and salads. Try everything from pureed Marseilles-Style Fish Soup and Moroccan Swordfish Tagine with Olives and Saffron to Homemade Cuttlefish-Ink Linguine, and Crayfish Stew with Tomatoes, Sorrel, and Vegetables.

Jim Peterson has traveled the world and brought back the best international seafood flavors, textures, and techniques. Now you can improvise on your own with Thai marinades, Indian spices and condiments, and Japanese grilling methods, all of which play off more familiar ingredients to produce memorable dishes.

At the end of Fish & Shellfish you'll find a complete Finfish Dictionary, where you'll learn all you need to know about more than sixty species of saltwater and freshwater fish. There's also a 32-page section of color photographs that pictures many of the mouthwatering recipes in the book. And the step-by-step pictorials in the color section will show you how to prepare fish and shellfish for cooking.

James Peterson's books have been hailed as the most companionable and dependable of cooking guides. Replete with tables, timing charts, advice about equipment, safety preparations, a glossary of foreign ingredients, and an exhaustive index, Fish & Shellfish will give you the power of flexibility and spontaneity as it transforms you into an accomplished seafood cook. Here is a fundamental cookbook that you will come to depend on every time you think seafood-and now you'll be thinking seafood all the time.

Genres: Cookbooks, Cooking, Nonfiction, Food

418 pages, Hardcover

First published April 15, 1996

About the author

James Peterson grew up in northern California and studied chemistry and philosophy at UC Berkeley. After his studies, he traveled around the world, working his way through Asia, by land, to Europe. Eventually he landed in Paris and was amazed by the French attitude toward food and drink. (This was in the mid seventies when food in America was practically non-existent.) It was in France that he found his calling. As he was running short on funds, Jim found a job picking grapes in the south of France where he lived with a family for two weeks. He has never forgotten the sumptuous lunches prepared by the vigneron's wife. After his initial inspiration, Jim returned to the United States and got a job as a short-order cook. This was his first cooking job and while the cuisine was not 3-star, there was still the need for speed and organization. After saving money for a year and a half, Jim returned to France. After begging his way in, he ended up working at two of what were then among France's greatest restaurants, George Blanc and Vivarois. It was his experiences in these restaurants that shaped his style of cooking and drove his pursuit of cuisine as a career. Jim also studied pastry at Le Cordon Bleu in Paris.

By a series of serendipitous events, James found himself a partner/chef in a small French restaurant in Greenwich Village, called Le Petit Robert. It was here that he was able to experiment and invent and shape his own unique approach to cooking. The restaurant was reviewed in a wide variety of major publications including Gourmet Magazine where it was called "...what may be the most creative restaurant in New York." It was no doubt in part because of his extravagant use of truffles and foie gras, that the restaurant, after four years, was forced to close. At a loss, Jim started teaching cooking at the French Culinary Institute and later, at Peter Kump's New York Cooking School, now ICE. Jim spent a year developing curriculum for the French Culinary Institute.

After translating a series of French pastry books, Jim established a relationship with a publisher who encouraged him to write his own book. His first book, Sauces, published in 1991, continues to sell as well now as it did the first year after publication. It won the James Beard Cookbook of the Year Award and put James on the map as a serious writer and teacher. Other books followed: Splendid Soups, nominated for both a James Beard and IACP Award, Fish & Shellfish, nominated for both awards and a winner of an IACP Award, Vegetables, winner of a James Beard Award, The Essentials of Cooking, nominated for both awards.

It was during the writing and preparation of Fish & Shellfish that Jim starting taking his own pictures for his books. This started what has become a twenty-year obsession with photography. He set out to write and photograph a definitive technique book similar to Jacques Pepin's La Technique except in full color and updated. After the publication of The Essentials of Cooking Jim embarked on four small, photograph-laden, books about food and wine including Simply Salmon, The Duck Cookbook, Sweet Wines, and Simply Shrimp. After the completion of these four books, Jim set out on producing the monumental Cooking which is his attempt at explaining and illustrating the most important basics of cooking. Cooking won a James Beard Award for best single subject. When Cooking was published, Jim set out to tackle baking. A two-year project ensued during which Jim shot over 3000 pictures (with film!) for the definitive Baking. Baking went on to win a James Beard Award in the dessert and baking category. Exhausted after these behemoths, Jim wrote a book dedicated to simple dishes--dishes that can be prepared in 30 minutes or less. Out this last August, Kitchen Simple has been acclaimed as an important collection of simple yet elegant recipes. The latest project is the publication of the second edition of Jim's award-winning Vegetables. This new edition will hav

Reviews

[Yaaresse · Rating 4 out of 5]

Pretty much the definitive guide to all things seafood. I wish I could have gotten more use out of it, but I was living where the words "fresh" and "fish" never are used in the same sentence. I learned a lot from it, then passed it to someone who has regular access to good seafood and loves to cook. He was thrilled with it.

[Kirsten Karlen · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the ultimate reference manual for fish. Recipes are fine (a little basic) but info on all kinds of fish, how they are best cooked, and the essentials on scaling, etc, are fantastic.

[Catherine Woodman · Rating 3 out of 5]

beautiful book, never use it--just not as user friendly as some of my other fish cookbooks

[Andrew Brooks · Rating 5 out of 5]

Only thing I really could want more than this book is a Kindle version so I could more quickly search, build shopping lists, etc. The book as is has proven superb as both a cookbook and reference whenever I go to cook seafood.

[Rachel · Rating 5 out of 5]

Your one stop shop for all things aquatic!

[Tim · Rating 5 out of 5]

another indispensable guide from james peterson.