Seafood Cookbooks

Sara Croft - Orphan Treasures, Riverside, CA, USA

By now, everyone except Queen Latifa has told you that you need to eat more seafood. It has Omega 3 oil and vitamins all over it. Your body needs it. The thing is that not all of us like seafood. Shrimp, maybe, or tuna, but those big flat pieces of fish! I don’t think so. Still, it’s one of your New Year’s resolutions, to eat healthier—and fish is part of that. How can cookbooks help you?

Each part of the US and Canada that is on a waterfront of any sort, has it’s own style of cooking seafood. In fact that goes for all 190 countries of the world (yesterday’s number—may be wrong). Water access means an active cooking tradition involving seafood. And this is going to be your secret weapon in getting seafood on your family’s plates. There are several ways to go about it.

If your family has ties to another country, you are probably always talking about strengthening ties to the culture. So get a cookbook from that country and try a popular fish dish from there, along with appropriate side dishes. You can find one by using the country name in the keyword space of AbeBooks super search engine.

If you originally are from a waterfront state, you can get a cookbook from there and make up some down-home flavor seafood. For example New Maine Cooking by Pollard or Alaskan Cookbook by Cleveland or Eva Davis Mississippi Mixens by Davis.

Another way to go about this is to pick an ingredient that you like and find some recipes involving it and fish. For example, if you love Beer (and that beer can chicken from last year) then buy The Beer Cookbook by Tolson. If you adore habanero chilies, the Habanero Cookbook by DeWitt will give you fish recipes you’ll like. Crazy for curry? Try the Complete Book of Curries by Day. This will work for nearly every ingredient but Chocolate.

If your specialty (or your spouse’s) is outdoor cooking, Seafood on the Grill by Barich is one of many cookbooks that will help you choose the right fish, and rub or marinade to get a flavor you like. If a smoker is more your style, MECO Barbecue and Smoker Cookbook by Fisher will do the trick.

If none of those appeal to you, how about a Christian approach? Cookbook of Foods from Bible Days by McKibben brings history to the table as well as loaves and fishes.

If you and your family don’t require manipulation, and you just want a lot of good seafood recipes, then we recommend Lake, Stream Seafood Cookbook by Henderson or the Complete Fish Cookbook by Grunes, 250 Fish and Seafood Recipes by Berolzheimer, The Fish and Seafood Cookbook by Fried or Seafood Recipes from the Shrimp Peddler by Porter.

Learning to eat fish is not only worth your time to bring new interest to your table, but to bring more variety to your nutritional intake for your health. Ask Queen Latifa.