Coastal Cooking with John Shields - Hardcover

Shields, John

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0767915356 ISBN 13: 9780767915359

Publisher: Broadway, 2004

Synopsis

John Shields, author of Chesapeake Bay Cooking and host of the public television series Coastal Cooking in America with John Shields, traveled from Maine to Miami and Big Sur to Baja to bring back the best of America’s coastal cuisine. The recipes encompass much more than seafood and include all of the ingredients—meat, poultry, game, fruits and vegetables in abundance—that have made the coastal parts of America particularly rich in culinary traditions.

Come along with John Shields to a New England clambake (complete with instructions on how to make an authentic one on a beach), dig into Cheese and Garlic Grits with Shrimp and Tasso Gravy in Baton Rouge, sample Savannah She-Crab Soup, savor California Cobb Salad or Big Apple Clam Chowder, and finish off with a luscious Dulce de Leche Bread Pudding.

This treasury of the very best recipes from professional chefs and local folks alike will expand your culinary horizons. His voyage of discovery led John Shields to the heart of Miami, both Little Haiti and Little Havana, where he learned the secrets of Haitian-Style flounder from Miss Liliane Nerette Louis, a vibrant neighborhood personality, as well as the Arroz con Pollo a la Cubano from chef Tony Piedra at the renowned Versailles restaurant.

In Oregon, John visited Tillamook County, where the cows outnumber the people, and sampled their famous cheddar in Tillamook Cheddar Cheese and Lager Soup, then ventured north to Blake Island, across the bay from Seattle, where he took part in the native American tradition that celebrates the wild Pacific salmon with an annual roast. He re-creates the experience for home cooks with a planked salmon recipe from Portland’s acclaimed Wildwood restaurant. On the Louisiana bayou, he uncovered the trick to a proper Crawdaddy Boil, then hopped a plane to Hawaii, where he found a recipe for a succulent stew using oxtails or lamb shanks and just three other ingredients that has become a part of his personal repertoire. Along the way, he collected beloved recipes for hometown favorites across the country—Boston-Style Baked Beans, South of the Mason-Dixon Line Cornbread, Bayou Seafood Gumbo, and many, many more.

The companion volume to the television series, Coastal Cooking with John Shields will give you everything you need to bring the bountiful flavors found along America’s coastline into your own kitchen.

About this title

About the Author

JOHN SHIELDS is an acclaimed chef, food journalist, television host, and expert in regional American coastal cuisine. His writing has appeared in numerous national publications, including the New York Times, Gourmet, and the Washington Post. The author of three award-winning cookbooks, he lives in Baltimore, Maryland, where he owns and operates the renowned restaurant Gertrude's. His website is www.johnshields.com.

From the Inside Flap

In Coastal Cooking with John Shields, the companion volume to the new public television series debuting in September 2004, celebrated chef John Shields expands his horizons to take readers on a spirited exploration of America's shoreline cuisines.

Readers will feast on the very best American recipes collected from professional chefs and locals alike. They?ll enjoy a New England clambake, sample Savannah She-Crab Soup, dig into soul food in Baton Rouge, savor North Beach Ciopinno, take part in a Hawaiian luau, and finish with a slice of Key Lime Pie.

From seafood classics like Old Reliable Fried Calamari, Bayou Seafood Gumbo, and Wildwood Planked Salmon, to Maple Glazed Duck Breast with Mushroom Spaetzel, Joan's Official Baked Beans, Low Country Comforting Rice Pudding, here is the entire wealth of cooking from the Atlantic, Pacific, and Gulf Coast regions.

Illustrated throughout with stunning location and food photography, Coastal Cooking with John Shields is ideal for home cooks looking for the best recipes for their own local favorites, or seasoned travelers who want to re-create America?s best regional dishes in their home kitchens.

Reviews

The food is flavorful but the presentation bland in this companion volume to a PBS cooking series. There's nothing wrong with Sole and Smoked Salmon Mousse with Dill Shallot Butter Sauce or Miss Shirley's Eastern Shore Crab Cakes, but they feel familiar. Shields, a self-proclaimed "Chesapeake Bay boy" who runs the Baltimore restaurant Gertrude's and is the author of Chesapeake Bay Cooking (also companion to a PBS show), offers a tour of the Atlantic, Pacific and Gulf Coasts and Hawaii. The ethnic recipes, like Moroccan Pesto Sturgeon with Clam and Chorizo Sauce from Seattle's Brasa restaurant and Mama Lan's Vietnamese Stir-Fried Crab from San Francisco, and regional classics such as Cheese and Garlic Grits with Shrimp and Tasso Gravy, are undoubtedly the most exciting fare. In an odd choice, however, only about half of these dishes from various shores are for seafood, since "The coastal communities of the United States are rich with recipes from the land as well." That may be true, but dishes such as Herb-Roasted Rack of Oregon Lamb or Tropical Hearts of Palm Salad (which uses canned hearts of palm) don't quite work hard enough to earn land food its territory here. Shields writes a tidy recipe, but this volume feels like a rerun. Color photos.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

New Year Noodles with Fish Curry Sauce
From COASTAL COOKING WITH JOHN SHIELDS

Chef Su-Mei Yu, the first lady of Thai cooking, holds court in her popular restaurant, Saffron–a terrific casual Thai noodle restaurant and rotisserie chicken takeout shop in San Diego. She was raised in Bangkok and often returns to her homeland to teach cooking classes to ensure that as Asia becomes more developed, the cuisine she loves so well continues to be passed down to the next generation, as has been the case for countless preceding generations. "The lesson I learned is that food is what connects you to who you are, and who your ancestors were." She adds that "Thai food is not just good food, it is homeopathic, and keeps one in harmony."

As you will be able to taste in this delightful fish curry, Su-Mei loves seafood. One of her friends does tuna farming in Ensenada and she invites him and other like-minded cooking buddies to "tuna parties," where everyone pitches in and cooks up a feast of fresh tuna and other straight-from-the-ocean delicacies. Su-Mei's first cookbook, Cracking the Coconut: Classic Thai Home Cooking, won an IACP award for the best book by a first-time author.

Serves 6
1 pound dried vermicelli
1 cup yogurt
1/4 cup chopped onions
1 garlic clove, minced
2 teaspoons lemon juice
1 teaspoon ground coriander
1 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1 teaspoon ground ginger
1/2 teaspoon turmeric
1/4 teaspoon curry powder
4 whitefish or flounder fillets
1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil
1/8 teaspoon cumin seed

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.

Put all the ingredients except the fish fillets, oil, and cumin seed into the bowl of a food processor fitted with the metal blade and blend until thoroughly mixed. Cut the fish fillets into halves and arrange in a shallow baking dish.

Combine the oil and cumin seed in a skillet and heat until cumin is dark brown. Add the blended ingredients, stirring constantly. Pour the mixture over the fish and bake for 10 to 15 minutes, until the fish is cooked through but still moist and flaky.

Prepare the noodles according to package directions. Drain. To serve, divide noodles evenly among plates and top with curry.


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Wildwood Planked Salmon
From COASTAL COOKING WITH JOHN SHIELDS

Roasting wild salmon is a tradition dating back many hundreds of years in the Pacific Northwest. During a visit to Seattle, my friend Mary McGowan and I took a boat ride to Blake Island in Elliot Bay to experience an authentic re-creation of a Native American salmon roast.

It is an arduous process in which round pits are dug for fires and stoked with hardwood. Sides of salmon are affixed to split wood planks and placed near the open fire to roast slowly. It is great fun to watch and a memorable experience to sit at long family-style tables enjoying platters of freshly roasted salmon.

No one is going to want to replicate this at home, and there is no need to with this planked salmon recipe by one of the Pacific Northwest's best known and highly acclaimed chefs, Cory Schreiber of Portland, Oregon. At his hip, regional restaurant, Wildwood, where the finest of Pacific Northwest fare is celebrated, Cory uses a technique that is much more manageable for the home cook, but still imparts the wonderful wood scent to the baked salmon fillets. Cory, author of Wildwood: Cooking from the Source in the Pacific Northwest, suggests serving the salmon with Saffron-Braised Leeks (page 208).


Serves 4
4 cedar planks, soaked overnight in water (see note)
Four 6-ounce salmon fillets, preferably wild, boned, skins on
Vegetable oil
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
8 sprigs fresh rosemary, thyme, or tarragon

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit.

Drain the cedar planks. Lightly coat the salmon with vegetable oil and season with salt and pepper to taste. Place the salmon on the planks, tucking 2 herb sprigs underneath each fillet. Bake for 15 to 20 minutes, or until the salmon is firm to the touch and cooked through. The boards may start to darken as they lose water. For an attractive presentation, serve the salmon on the boards.

NOTE: You can find cedar grilling planks at gourmet specialty stores. You can also find cedar scraps at lumberyards and home-improvement centers, but you must be certain to use only new natural cedar, and not other wood scraps, possibly treated with preservative chemicals.


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Wellfleet Cranberry Scones
From COASTAL COOKING WITH JOHN SHIELDS

No self-respecting New Englander would take tea without scones, and the residents of the charming village of Wellfleet, Massachusetts, on Cape Cod, are no exception. This version uses Massachusetts’s signature berry, the cranberry. You haven't really lived until you’ve seen a Cape cranberry harvest, when they flood the bogs and beat the bushes so the berries rise to the surface of the water in swirls of every shade of red from pink to burgundy, but mostly in such a clear, pure crimson it takes your breath away.


Makes 10 to 12
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 tablespoons sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
3 teaspoons baking powder
4 tablespoons (1/2 stick) cold butter, cut into small pieces
2 eggs
1/2 cup heavy cream
1/4 cup milk
3/4 cup dried cranberries

Preheat the over to 425 degrees Fahrenheit.

Mix the flour, 1 tablespoon of sugar, the salt, and baking powder together in a large mixing bowl. Using a fork or pastry cutter, cut in the cold butter until thoroughly blended.

In a separate bowl, whisk together the eggs, cream, and milk. Working quickly, combine the flour mixture with the egg mixture just until incorporated. Do not overmix. Fold the dried cranberries into the batter.

Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface and knead it for 1 minute. It should be a little sticky, but if it is too wet, add just a tiny bit of flour.

Press the dough into a circle about 3/4 inch thick. Sprinkle with the remaining tablespoon of sugar. Cut into 10 to 12 wedges and place them on an ungreased baking sheet. Bake for 15 minutes, or until the scones are golden brown.


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Edition details

• Publisher: Broadway
• Publication date: 2004
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0767915356
• ISBN 13: 9780767915359
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 304