wester's Reviews
Cookbook Reviews
The River Cottage Fish Book
By Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall, Nick Fisher
Bloomsbury Publishing PLC - 2007
This is much more than a good fish cookbook. It tells you all about all stages of getting a fish and cooking it. It tells you how to kill a fish, or how to buy it, how to clean it, how to cook it, what to do with the leftovers.
The book is in three parts - Understanding fish (how fish live, sustainability issues, how to buy a fish, basic fish skills), Fish cookery (raw fish, smoked, barbecued, baked, soups, frying, cold fish, and fish thrift and standbys), and British fish (a complete list of all fish that swim around Great Britain).
These guys love fish, and it shows everywhere. They love cooking and eating fish. They are willing to go to great lengths occasionally (not just catching your own fish, but also building your own smoker, etc.) but they are also comfortable with really simple recipes - even a few with canned fish. All the recipes are there to let the fish shine, not to let the cook show off. They also feel they have a large responsibility towards fish, and they will educate you, and you will probably enjoy that too.
If you love fish, you need this book.