FISH MARKET cookbook
Kathy Hunt
Running Press, 2013
In FISH MARKET, seafood-aficionado Kathy Hunt offers a boatload of seafood recipes ranging from Abalone to Yellowfin. Hunt’s recipes are easy-to-understand and include information about the species in each chapter. FISH MARKET offers shopping tips on hard to find items, too. Illustrations throughout the 249-page cookbook show techniques from how to crack a crab to how to fillet whole fish. Illustrations of fish are sprinkled throughout the cookbook as well as an identification aid when shopping for whole fish.
A landlocked native western Pennsylvanian, (like myself-what are the chances of that?), Hunt grew up eating typical Mid-Atlantic seafood dishes found in the local markets, flatfish and shellfish, an occasional salmon meal. As she traveled and expanded her horizons, she continued to eat a variety of seafood dishes. FISH MARKET is an extension of Hunt’s life experiences.
Divided in chapters based on flavor profiles, FISH MARKET begins the seafood recipe extravaganza with a “A Bevy of Bivalves.” Hunt offers a mixed selection of cooking methods for the ubiquitous shellfish species that make up this sustainable seafood option. Her fresh spin on traditional recipes (in an often misunderstood and underappreciated protein) is refreshing, and continues throughout the book.
Smoked Herring Tea Sandwich Sean Dippold
No seafood cookbook these days’ worth its salt would be complete without mentioning sustainability. Hunt delivers with an eco-rating chart toward the end of the book. In addition, FISH MARKET sprinkles tidbits of eco-rating information throughout the book. For particularly hard hit species in terms of environmentally unfriendly choices (like Orange roughy or Bluefin tuna), Hunt offers sustainable seafood substitutes.
At the end of the cookbook, Hunt shares a small but satisfying section on seafood sides, sort of like an amuse bouche given at the beginning of a good meal, a delightful surprise.
FISH MARKET’s take on seafood recipes is diverse and satisfying. Whether you love to eat seafood, or want to be a seafood-lover, or want to know more about seafood, you’ll want to pick up a copy of FISH MARKET.
(Disclosure: Kathy Hunt solicited me for this review and I received a softcover copy of FISH MARKET for review. This post contains Amazon links)
Kathy Hunt
Kathy Hunt is a food writer, author of FISH MARKET and the upcoming “Herring: A Global History” from Reaktion Books and a cooking instructor. An alumnus of Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism, she splits her time between Manhattan and an 1801, fixer-upper farmhouse in suburban Philadelphia. Look for her at Zester Daily, on her blog Kitchen Kat and on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Instagram.
