Go, fish: Tomes offer seafood recipes for big splash on menus

Nation's Restaurant News, Nov 24, 2003 by Michael Schrader

Seafood is one of nature's most delicious resources, and more and more people are eating it. If your menu lacks seafood options, the following cookbooks may inspire some.

THE NEW LEGAL SEA FOODS COOKBOOK, Roger Berkowitz and Jane Doerfer, 310 pages, New York: Broadway Books, $26.

Berkowitz, president and chief executive of Legal Sea Foods since 1992, started working at his family's fish market when he was 10 years old. He teamed up with Doerfer, who. with Berkowitz's father, George. co-authored the original "Legal Sea Foods Cookbook." In this second edition, 2001 of the restaurant's recipes are featured.

The Legal Sea Foods chain, which debuted in 1968 in Cambridge, Mass., now operates 26 units in seven states along the Eastern Seaboard. Its slogan from the beginning has been "If it isn't fresh, it isn't Legal."

This excellent cookbook focuses on how the preparation of seafood and people's tastes have changed through the years. Chapters cover selection of fish, basic cooking techniques, finfish, shellfish, appetizers, main courses, salads, soups and sandwiches, vegetables and side dishes, and sauces and coatings.

Most interesting are the recipes for finfish. Standouts include bluefish with an almond tomato sauce, cod with mushroom and peppers, and halibut with fruit salsa.

NORTH ATLANTIC SEAFOOD, Alan Davidson, 512 pages, Berkeley, Calif.: Ten Speed Press, $24.95.

Davidson, an authority on fish, is co-founder and editor of the food journal Petits Propos Culinaires.

His current opus, in its third edition, is about North Atlantic seafood, which inhabit the waters washing Canada, the United States and Europe. The descriptions of 130 types of fish, 24 crustaceans and 39 kinds of mollusks and other edible sea creatures are accompanied by line drawings. The nearly 300 recipes, from European countries and the United States, are impressive, including Swedish mackerel soup, Irish Donegal crab pie and Rhode Island clam chowder.

MEDITERRANEAN SEAFOOD, Alan Davidson, 429 pages. Berkeley, Calif.: Ten Speed Press, $24.95.

Here, Davidson's knowledge of seafood extends to the Mediterranean as well as the North Atlantic. In this volume, which originally was published 30 years ago, the seafood expert offers his take on the finfish and shellfish of the Mediterranean.

The new edition lists the types of the area's edible marine life and features more than 100 line drawings. The book covers about 150 varieties of fish, 18 types of crustaceans, 38 forms of mollusks and seven other edible sea creatures. The 200 recipes include such dishes as fish soup of Capri, French sea anemones with fritters and Moroccan marinade for fish.