COOKBOOK REVIEW - Food & Fitness

COOKBOOK REVIEW

Wednesday, Jul 23, 2008 - 12:06 AM

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By LEE BARNES

TIMES-DISPATCH FEATURES EDITOR

It takes less than a minute to be impressed -- really impressed -- with "Fish Without a Doubt." Just thumb through the pages.

This isn't just a grand cookbook; it's almost an encyclopedia, ranking alongside the tremendous books published by Cook's Illustrated magazine.

There are more nice touches than you can shake a stick at, if you are inclined to stick-shaking. Such as:

The authors have a philosophy that if you can't have the fish you love, love the fish you're with, so to speak. You're encouraged to substitute types of fish in many of the recipes. For the Catfish Sloppy Joes, I used tilapia instead.

There are some recipes you won't find anywhere else. The Mussels with Black Bean Sauce, using fermented black beans, will be next in my kitchen.

The recipes are almost endless, with sophisticated names but unsophisticated ingredients. The authors make it a point to come up with substitute ingredients whenever they recommend something you might not be able to find at the grocery store. Where a recipe calls for crème fraiche, the authors say you can use sour cream and lemon juice instead.

Can you call a cookbook elegant? If it has only a single dessert, which is the last recipe in the book, and it's Key Lime Pie, well, that's elegance.

This is a terrific, useful cookbook. If you cook fish at all, this is the book to have.
Contact Lee Barnes at (804) 775-8129 or Lbarnes@timesdispatch.com.

Published by:
Houghton Mifflin Company
Price: $35 Pages: 496
Recipe worth trying:
Catfish Sloppy Joes, Page 373