Average Reviews:
(More customer reviews)What are we to make of a seafood cookbook written by someone who apparently doesn't care for seafood? Brody admits in her preface that, until she began working on this book, she was "uncomfortable" cooking fish and had a very limited repertoire; one gathers the whole experience of putting this collection together was akin to dental surgery. In her extensive general information section, which precedes the recipes, she devotes pages and pages to touting the health benefits (which she exaggerates) of seafood consumption, and warning us about safe food handling, but never breathes the faintest hint that you might eat seafood because, cooked well, it is unbelievably delicious.
The recipe collection contains some useful ones; those I've tried have been decent, although nothing to knock you out. But there's a lot here that won't do much for your palate. Brody relies heavily on industry group-developed recipes, which are just as uninspired as you might expect. She also seems to assume that her readers don't like fish any more than she does, and many of the concoctions are clearly attempts to disguise fish as something else -- burritos, pizzas (although it's perfectly possible to make a fabulous seafood pizza topping), casseroles, chili.
This is a big collection, and some of the recipes are good -- but it's a joyless book to browse through, not likely to get you fired up to cook and eat. Brody frequently mentions how low-fat a particular dish is, or that it's economical or easy to make; she almost never says that it tastes good. She includes a number of recipes for the noxious pseudo-crab imposter surimi, and never indicates that tilapia, although cheap to buy, is not a very tasty fish. She also devotes a hefty chapter to microwave cookery, the bastion of the convenience-counts-more-than-good-eating crowd.
I eat fish three or four times a week -- not as preventative medicine, but because it's delicious. I've had this book for six months, and it languishes on the shelf while I ransack other books for their relatively meagre store of seafood recipes. If you want to taste the delights of the sea, try Mark Bittman's fish cookbook, or any good ethnic cookbook from a seafaring culture (Italian, Thai, Greek). Recipes produced by people who love food, instead of viewing it as medication, are the only way to discover how good it can be. END
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