Go Fish!: A Complete Guide to Selecting and Preparing Seafood

A full-color, illustrated guide to fish contains instructions on the basic preparation of fish, from selection to filleting; recipes for traditional dishes and their ethnic variations; menus; recipes for stocks, sauces, and relishes; and more.

Don't let its playfully dismissive title fool you--this lovely, well-written, and thoroughly researched book is no joke. As any experienced cook knows, there's serious work to be done before getting down to the business of cooking seafood. Where can you find the freshest fish? How much do you need to purchase? What are the benefits of poaching, baking, broiling, frying, or grilling? Before laying out a single one of its more than 60 excellent recipes, Go Fish! provides in-depth information on every step in the preparation of a seafood meal. Such detailed instruction, in fact, that you're nearly halfway through the book by the time the first recipe is given. But, oh, what recipes! Pan-fried Trout with Sage, Prawns with Coconut Curry Sauce, Grilled Thresher Shark in Corn Husks with Tarragon Butter, Crab Enchiladas with Salsa Verde, and the list goes on. If you've ever admired a beautifully presented dish at your favorite restaurant and longed to serve something as sublime, this book can help you do it. The book design is exemplary, the photos gorgeous, and the text, while perhaps overlong for some experts, should prove a valuable resource for most cooks, serving a useful role in the kitchen for years to come. --George Laney