Seafood Menus for the Microwave: Full-course Meals in a Flash

Virginia Gillham is Associate Librarian of the Public Service Library at
the University of Guelph.

This is not the kind of cookbook that is printed on glossy paper and
offers tantalizing illustrations to encourage you to buy the book and
try the recipes. Nor is it filled with elaborate gourmet recipes that
will keep you in the kitchen for hours while your guests enjoy each
others’ company. Rather, it is a small, inexpensive, and unassuming,
spiral-bound volume, packed with useful information to help you prepare
healthy, appetizing meals with record speed.

Watson, a well-known food editor, says that seafoods and vegetables are
among the most successful foods for microwave cooking. Accordingly, she
has put together more than 20 menus, each including a seafood entrée,
one or more vegetable dishes, and dessert, all of which can be prepared
in a microwave oven. In addition to detailed instructions with each
recipe, there are “sequencing” instructions for each menu, to assist
the cook in bringing the meal together appropriately.

Fettucine with smoked salmon sauce, asparagus with ginger butter,
kiwi-raspberry sundae, and sole fillets with mushroom-tomato sauce, are
a few examples of recipes from this handy little book. Most fish is low
in fat and cholesterol, and as the author points out, microwave cooking
allows you to eliminate much of the fat and sugar required for more
conventional cooking. As a result, this volume offers a collection of
fast, delicious, and nutritional recipes and menus that will be an
invaluable addition to any kitchen