Cookbook Inspirations Old and New

Traveling back in time and on the road for seafood ideas, plus a great new cookbook app and news about my latest release

I can’t help but jump in with my cookbook news!! My last three books, Oysters, Crab, and Shellfish, are being released in a special edition box set in early December!!! (Yes, lots of !!!) The book covers have been updated so they match the fabulous design of the box itself. It’s such a colorful, striking package, a perfect gift for your seafood-loving friends or to have on hand at the beach cabin. This Essential Shellfish Collection will be released December 2, and is available for pre-order from the wonderful Book Larder cookbook shop in Seattle (I’ll be signing these copies before they go out), or your favorite book store.

Inspiration from Recipes Old and New

“Archestratus’s mission in life was to visit as many lands as he could reach in search of good things to eat.”

I think that’s a statement many of us can relate to. That’s how we’re introduced to the focus of the fourth entry among 100 in A History of Food in 100 Recipes, which I bought years ago. It took Archestratus’s recipe for fish baked in fig leaves, dating back to 350BC, to get me to walk out my front door, trim a few leaves from my fig tree, and wrap them around a couple pieces of fish to bake.

A few days prior, I had picked up that book with a curiosity about how seafood figured in the span of centuries accounted for in those 100 selections. In all, I saw 12 recipes featuring seafood in this collection—from Archestratus’s, to mussels in a white wine sauce from 1440, to steamed salmon with tomato basil couscous from Jamie Oliver dated 2009 (the book came out in 2013). “Recipe” used in a broad sense, especially with the older among them, some just the briefest of descriptions.

I loved a couple of things about that fig leaf recipe in particular. First, it got me to use leaves from my fig tree in the kitchen for the first time. One of these days I’ll pick some to make a batch of fig leaf ice cream. And second, what a great reminder that not only is there not much new under the sun when it comes to cooking—some of the things we cook today may be far older preparations than we imagine.

A slew of food stories and interesting recipes are to be found in Coastal: 130 recipes from a California road trip, by Scott Clark with Betsy Andrews, released earlier this year. This book takes us on a drive south from the Bay Area to Santa Barbara, stopping for a variety of meals, explorations, and visits to food producers along the way. This includes passing through Pismo Beach, which I just learned was at one time the “clam capitol of the world”; there’s a Hard Cider Clam Bake recipe in honor of the Pismo Beach Clam Festival (which I see is coming up next month, the 79th annual!).

Recipes reflect that coastal area and Clark’s years as a restaurant chef, currently chef/owner of Dad’s Luncheonette in Half Moon Bay. There’s certainly a lot more than seafood featured in those pages, but crab, tuna, anchovies, rockfish, oysters and sea urchins are among varieties featured. Inspired by the Confit Tuna Salad recipe, I olive-oil poached a piece of tuna with a fresh bay leaf and a couple thyme sprigs, then flaked it to mix with a light dose of mayo, a splash of white wine vinegar, some gochujang, and bit of soy sauce. I forgot to pick up some celery, so just green onion added to the mix. The book’s version has more going on, but even this simpler approach was quite good—an upgrade from my occasional canned tuna + mayo + chopped pickles (which I love). He offers a recipe for cracker-like lavash to eat the tuna salad with, I opted for whatever random crackers we had on hand. I was basically following his sage advice about the flexibility for potential variations, “This is your tuna salad; own it.” It made for quite a nice lunch yesterday.

In this earlier newsletter focused on cookbooks, I wrote about wondering if most people who cook seafood now and then content themselves with turning to general cookbooks versus relying on seafood-specific cookbooks for inspiration and recipes. I certainly do the same, finding interesting new ideas in any number of books. I’d love to hear some of your favorite go-to cookbooks when you’re looking for seafood ideas or cooking a seafood recipe that’s in regular rotation at your house. Let me know down in the comments. Thanks!

A New App for Your Cookbook Collection

For those of you with lots and lots of cookbooks, there’s a great new app to check out that will help you get the most out of those books. Cookshelf makes it super easy to get insights about recipe options and ingredient inspirations from among the cookbooks you own. For those, like me, who are already using the website Eat Your Books to catalog your cookbooks (which I wrote a bit about here), this is the app companion that makes your bookshelf easy to access and easy to update. And if you never used Eat Your Books, it’s a snap to get rolling with Cookshelf and build your collection directly there. It’s such a great help if you’re at the store and want to remember ingredients needed for a favorite recipe, or you could use some new inspiration for an ingredient you’ve got loads of, or ideas for combining a few things in the fridge for dinner tonight. Sure, you can hit the web and see what that turns up. With Cookshelf, you’re directed to the books you own, making good use of the reliable resources you already have. I’m a big fan, really happy that I can now search my collection when on the go, at the store, or whenever I’m looking for some recipe ideas.

Cornmeal-Crusted Fish with Green Tomatoes (from South of Somewhere)

One other book I’ve been paging through recently is South of Somewhere by Dale Gray, which came out a couple of years ago. Her culinary perspectives include those from time spent in South Africa (where she was born), South Korea, and the American South. Looking through the seafood chapter, I gravitated to this recipe below. Fish pan-fried after a light dip in buttermilk and well-seasoned cornmeal? Yeah, that sounded delicious. And I have ample green cherry tomatoes just outside my front door, hanging alongside those still ripening. I also have ample fresh basil in the fridge from our last CSA that I forgot to scatter over before serving! Ugh, I hate when that happens.

And the bonus? Her suggestion of serving the fish with Mississippi Comeback Sauce. I’d heard of the sauce for years, but had never made it before. The author describes it as similar to New Orleans remoulade sauce, saying that it makes a great dip for seafood. The recipe that readers are directed to for the Mississippi Comeback Sauce is one she calls Porch Party Shrimp—a platter loaded with roasted shrimp and a variety of vegetables to dip in the sauce. That’s going on my to-make list for some upcoming party. I served extra sauce with fish sticks last night: highly recommend!

I used lingcod which looked great at the store, very thick fillets, so I ended up browning them in the skillet, then transferring to the oven to finish cooking. I’m not a huge fan of green tomatoes, next time I’d make this with the ripe tomatoes instead.

Green Tomatoes
2 large green tomatoes, cut into 1/2-inch wedges [I used a handful of green cherry tomatoes]
1 green onion, chopped
2 tablespoons white wine vinegar
2 teaspoons honey
1/4 teaspoon celery salt

Cornmeal-Crusted Fish
1/2 cup buttermilk
2 teaspoons Tabasco sauce
1 cup fine cornmeal
1 1/2 teaspoons Cajun seasoning
1 teaspoon dried parsley or dried chervil [I used a couple teaspoons fresh parsley]
1/2 cup extra-virgin olive oil [I used my everyday olive oil]
4 (6-ounce) trout, tilapia or haddock fillets, skin and pin bones removed [I used lingcod]

For Serving (optional)
1/4 cup loosely packed fresh basil leaves
Mississippi Comeback Sauce (below)

For the green tomatoes, in a large bowl, stir together the tomatoes, green onion, vinegar, honey, and celery salt until combined. Cover and refrigerate until ready to serve.

To fry the fish, in a large shallow bowl stir together the buttermilk and Tabasco until fully combined and even in color. In another large shallow bowl, stir together the cornmeal, Cajun seasoning, and parsley. Working in batches, dip the fish fillets into the buttermilk to coat both sides, then into the cornmeal, gently pushing down to coat each side.

In a large skillet, heat the oil over medium-high heat until it ripples. Working in batches if necessary (you don’t want the fillets touching each other in the skillet), add the fish and cook, flipping once, until light golden brown and crispy, 2 to 3 minutes per side depending on the thickness of your fish [if you have very thick fillet pieces like I did, you can transfer the browned pieces to a baking sheet and put in a 350°F oven until cooked through]. Transfer to serving plates.

To serve, top the fish with the green tomatoes. Sprinkle with the torn basil and serve with the Mississippi Comeback Sauce if desired.

Mississippi Comeback Sauce
1/2 cup mayonnaise [the author’s a Duke’s fan, for me it’s Best Foods]
2 tablespoons buttermilk
1 tablespoon ketchup or chili sauce (such as Heinz)
2 teaspoons Creole or stone-ground mustard
1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
1 teaspoon Tabasco sauce, or any vinegar-based hot sauce, plus more to taste
1/2 teaspoon smoked paprika
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder

In a small bowl, stir together the mayonnaise, buttermilk, ketchup, mustard, Worcestershire sauce, hot sauce, smoked paprika, and garlic powder until well combined. Cover and refrigerate until ready to use.