Everyone Can Cook Seafood

Joan Lovisek, Ph.D., is a consulting anthropologist and ethnohistorian
in British Columbia.

This is an informative and reader-friendly cookbook for those who like
fish and who know they need to eat more fish, but are afraid or
uninspired to cook anything other than a tuna casserole. Eric Akis
presents exotic-looking recipes that have few ingredients. The recipes,
which include both metric and imperial weights, cover starter courses,
“stirring soups,” salads, cold dishes, pasta and rice, burgers, and
sandwiches. Recipes range from a five-minute preparation of grilled
shark steaks with wasabi soy dipping sauce, to the 40-minute author’s
specialty, Eric’s Paella.

Sidebars provide helpful tips about the buying and handling of specific
fish. Akis also gives useful substitutions under a listing called
Eric’s Options; the hints include such information as how to determine
when seafood is cooked, tips on grilling seafood, cleaning live and
cooked crabs and lobster, shucking oysters, and “anchovies 101.”
Although the majority of recipes are seafood, the book does contain some
recipes for side dishes, sauces, dressings like green goddess dressing,
and fish batters, including Canadian beer batter. There are also three
different coleslaw recipes.

For basic cooks, this book provides recipes (such as grilled tuna on
chickpea salad, Thai-style noodle salad, and Mediterranean-style tuna
wrap) that appear to be quick to assemble, but a step above tuna
casserole.