Cookery and recipes - Rick Steins seafood by Rick Stein
Review : Hitherto, the contents of Rick Stein's Seafood have been accessible only to students of the Padstow Seafood School, as course notes in a loose-leaf binder. Now the teachings of this remarkable establishment are made available to a wider public, in amply illustrated form at once lucid and sumptuous. This is both a technical manual and an extraordinarily comprehensive collection of recipes; and the tone throughout is correspondingly sober and professional. The first hundred pages cover technique -- not just cooking seafood, but buying and preparing it, too -- in great thoroughness, from scaling and gutting fish, skinning eels (requiring a butcher's hook and a pair of pliers, if you can face it), through deep-frying, poaching, steaming, grilling, to opening oysters and tenderising octopus (not, as you might suppose, by bashing it repeatedly against a rock, but in the oven).
The recipes group fish not just by species, but by shape: large fleshy fish, flat fish, small round fish, crustaceans and so on -- a sensible approach, since within these categories the fish are to an extent interchangeable. Austerely, the recipes are neither prefaced with an introductory blurb nor sourced, but they are of the most distinguished provenance. Salmon en Croute with Currants and Ginger, for example is a famous George Perry-Smith recipe; the neighbouring Escalopes of Salmon with Sorrel Sauce derives from the Triosgros brother; while the interestingly strange Pernod and olive oil dressing with which Stein anoints grilled Dublin Bay prawns comes from Alexandre Dumas by way of Elizabeth David (it also includes mustard, soy sauce and tarragon). This is not to accuse Stein of plagiarism: he has simply collected the very finest seafood recipes and filtered everything through his characteristic simplicity and emphasis on freshness, quality and flavour. The result is a book of quite exceptional quality and usefulness. One hesitates to use the word bible, but if seafood can have one, this may be it. -- Robin Davidson
Synopsis : Divided into three sections: techniques, recipes and food information. Techniques covers all main preparation and cooking methods for each type of fish. There are 200 tried and tested recipes including all essential basics. The A-Z encyclopedia of fish and seafood covers Australian, US and European fish.
(Source: Amazon UK 2005)
From the front flap ...
Rick Stein's passion for cooking and serving fish has inspired many of us to become more adventurous in the seafood that we eat. Yet even the keenest cook can find the prospect of preparing and cooking fish at home a little daunting. In Rick Stein's Seafood, Rick helps to allay these fears as he combines practical advice, step-by-step techniques and fabulous recipes to create the ultimate companion to fish cookery.
Divided into three sections and based around the methods taught at his seafood school in Padstow, Rick Stein's Seafood guides the reader through the whole spectrum of cooking seafood from choosing and buying fish, to preparing and serving it.
Part 1: Techniques
From filleting small round fish, to preparing flat fish and making a fish stew, this section offers a comprehensive selection of preparation and cooking techniques that will arm the cook with the knowledge to tackle fish of all shapes and sizes. Each technique is accompanied by step-by-step text and clear, full-colour photographs.
Part 2: Recipes
A mouth-watering selection of 200 recipes chosen by Rick to reflect the techniques featured in the first section. Rick has included many favourites from his earlier books, such as Bouillabaisse, Braised Haddock with Mussels, Spinach and Chervil and Char-grilled Snapper with a Mango, Prawn and Chilli Salsa, as well as a selection of new recipes including Pave of Salmon with Roasted Tomatoes and Fennel and Spiny Lobster Salad with a Tomato, Tarragon and Chervil Dressing.
Part 3: Information
In order to cook and prepare fish properly, Rick believes that it is essential for us to know about the fish themselves and the families into which they fall. This complete encyclopaedia combines lively text, covering the world's major fish families, with beautiful colour illustrations of many of the fish discussed.
Complete with hints and tips on buying and storing fish and packed to the brim, with essential information, Rick Stein's Seafood is certain to become the well-thumbed bible for everyone who enjoys cooking and eating fish. RRP £25.00 (Source: Front Flap)
From the back flap ...
Rick Stein and his wife, Jill, own The Seafood Restaurant in Padstow, which, every year, attracts thousands of fish lovers from Britain and abroad. They have also ... opened the highly acclaimed Padstow Seafood School. Rick's previous books include English Seafood Cookery, which won the 1989 Glenfiddich Award for Food Book of the Year and Taste of the Sea, which won the 1995 André Simony Memorial Fund Food Book Award and the 1996 Good Food Award for Cookery Book of the Year. His latest bestseller, Rick Stein's Seafood Lovers' Guide, has sold over 170,000 copies. The television series it accompanied won the Television Programme Award at the 2001 Glenfiddich Awards, while, also in 2001, Rick himself was awarded the overall prize, the Glenfiddich Trophy.
Author's acknowledgement...
I am indebted, as ever, to Debbie Major, who tested the recipes, prepared all the food for photography and whose hands appear in many of the step-by-step shots. Without her incredible hard work this book would have been ten years in the making. (Source: Back Flap)
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Cookery and recipes - Rick Steins seafood by Rick Stein (TV chefs and cookery books)
The best and most comprehensive guide to fish cookery from the Padstow seafood school Frontcover
Rick Stein TV chefs, TV cooks and cookbooks
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