Seafood: A Connoisseur's Guide and Cookbook

Alan Davidson is one of the shining lights in the pantheon of cookery writers. He founded one of the most influential food journals in history, Petits Propos Culinaires. Elizabeth David and Richard Olney soon signed on.

Davidson came to wilder shores of gastronomy after many years as a diplomat, traveling to far-flung outposts around the world. When his wife found the dazzling array of seafood in the markets of Tunis confusing, she asked her husband to find her a seafood cookbook explaining the various and unfamiliar fish. He found no such book and undaunted, set about to create one. When Elizabeth David found herself in possession of a crudely mimeographed copy of Seafish Of Tunisia And The Central Mediterranean, she knew she was holding a culinary masterpiece and with her help, Davidson published his fist book re-titled, Mediterranean Seafood. A posting to Laos led to two cookbooks on Southeast Asian seafood. Finally, diplomacy lost out to his true calling, writing.

Seafood : A Connoisseur’s Guide and Cookbook is just that. Davidson provides a history for each fish selected. He gives a name to the fish in a dozen various languages and provides a suitable substitute if they aren’t catching rascasse where you’re fishing. The “art” of the book comes from the exquisite illustration of Charlotte Knox. To complete this project, Knox had fish flown in from around the world to model for the drawings.





This is a recipe that makes halibut moist and filled with flavor.

Fish Steaks in Cream and Lime Juice

5-6 ounce steaks of halibut or any other firm fleshed fish
2 tablespoons olive or coconut oil
1 large onion, finely chopped
1 clove garlic, crushed
3 cups tomato juice
1 teaspoon black pepper
1 tablespoon ground coriander seeds
4 drops Tabasco sauce
2 tablespoons lime or lemon juice
1 teaspoon sugar
generous 1/2 cup heavy cream


Heat the oil and fry the onions and garlic until soft and golden, In another pan, heat the tomato juice to the boiling point then add it to the first pan along with the black pepper, coriander seeds and Tabasco. Simmer for 15 minutes. Then stir in the lime or lemon and sugar and simmer for five minutes more. Pour the cream into the center of the pan and do not stir but cover and simmer very gently for five minutes. Place the fish steaks in the sauce. Cover again and cook very slowly for eight to ten minutes until the steaks are cooked through. Serve with plain or coconut rice.

Try this recipe with salmon steaks, substituting the tomato with a citrus juice.

For more information on Petits Propos Culinaires check out Prospect Books.

See more of Charlotte Knox at www.charlotteknox.com.

Frank Stitt’s Southern Table

In the 1980’s after delivering his manuscript for The Prince of Tides, Pat Conroy sat on a plane next to the a guy from Alabama. The guy was a chef, though he had never run his own restaurant, but that was going to change. He was headed home to Alabama to open a restaurant in Birmingham. Conroy was skeptical. Frank Stitt changed his mind and along the way, he fundamentally changed the viewed of Southern cuisine. Birmingham is now a major foodie destination in the South.

Photo: Southern Living

His first restaurant, Highland Bar and Grill consistently finds itself on lists of top restaurants in America. Stitt melds local, indigenous ingredients with his classically trained cooking style to produce food that is at once familiar and dizzily unique. While you may find Kobe Beef Carpaccio is on the menu or Courteney Cox sitting at the really great table in the front, Stitt still knows how to make a mean pimento cheese. His book, Frank Stitt's Southern Table: Recipes and Gracious Traditions from Highlands Bar and Grill is one of my favorites.

Here is a great party favorite that is familiar and fun. Pickle Shrimp is always popular. Stitt notes that boiling shrimp makes it tough so he advises bringing the liquid to a boil then reducing to a simmer. Add the shrimp and as soon as the water starts to simmer again, remove it from the heat. Then drain.

Pickled Shrimp

3 pounds boiled small to medium shrimp, peeled
2 medium onions, quartered and thinly sliced
1 teaspoon celery seeds
1 cup extra virgin olive oil
6 garlic cloves, thinly sliced
4 lemons, thinly sliced
14 bay leaves
1 teaspoon fennel seeds
1 teaspoon mustard seeds
4 dried hot chile peppers
1 teaspoon freshly ground white pepper
1 teaspoon coriander seeds
1/4 cup white wine vinegar
1/2 cup fresh lemon juice

combine all the ingredients in a large bowl and toss thoroughly. Pack everything into a large glass jar, cover, and refrigerate overnight to allow the flavors to come together.

All the Veal & Sweetbreads and Kobe Beef Carpaccio in the world can't hold a candle to opening the refrigerator and finding a big jar of pickled shrimp sitting there waiting. I love summer!

The New Cook

This week I opened the mailbox and there was the Winter issue of one of my favorite magazines, Donna Hay. In the last year, 4 of the magazines I subscribe to have folded, so I am always glad to see any magazine in the box. It is always a bit disconcerting when Donna Hay arrives as it is published in Australia so our seasons are reversed. Evey food magazine stuffed into my mailbox is gearing up for July, with a plethora of flag motifed events and lots of salad, frozen confections and grilling. Donna Hay is serving up baked desserts and braised meat, still I savor every issue.

Besides the magazine, Donna Hay (the person not the magazine) publishes cookbooks. Each of the cookbooks is a visually stunning testament to the beauty of pure simplicity. Hay food is clean and simple and is displayed in a similar fashion. As simple as it is, the food is beyond beautiful. Opening a Donna Hay cookbook is the food equivalent to putting on Levis and starched white shirt, comfortable yet classic.



With dozens of cookbooks to her name, here is a recipe from one of my favorites, The New Cook
It may be winter in Australia, but during those zucchini rich days of July, this is a great way to use the abundant squash.

Zucchini Pancakes with Double Brie

2 cups grated zucchini
2 eggs
3 tablespoons melted butter
3/4 cup plain flour
1/3 cup grated parmesan cheese
cracked black pepper
1/2 teaspoon grated nutmeg
200 g double-cream brie
100g semi-dried tomatoes
2 tablespoons chopped chives

Squeeze the zucchini to remove any excess liquid. Place in a bowl with the eggs, butter , flour parmesan, pepper and nutmeg. Mix until smooth. Heat in a non-stick frying pan over medium heat. Add spoonfuls of the mixture and cook for 2 minutes on each side or until the pancakes are golden. Keep the pancakes warm and repeat with the remaining mixture.

To serve, spread a little double-cream brie over the pancakes and top with the semi-dried tomatoes and chives.

If you want to make this recipe, buy all means use the double brie, but the toppings, as with any pancake, can be limitless. Try them with a bit of salsa, some whipped goat cheese, or even some additional sautes squash!

For more on Donna Hay check out her website.

New American Classics

Jeremiah Tower was one of the first cooks at Chez Panisse in the 1970’s. He was a bad-boy chef before every guy in a chef's jacket was screaming bleeping obscenities from your television screen. In the 1980’s Food & Wine described him as, “one of the most fascinating and influential characters on the restaurant scene today.”

After conflicts with Alice Waters, Tower eventually open his restaurant, Stars, in 1984. Stars was a breeding ground for a host of chefs including Mario Batali and Emily Luchetti.

The 1986 winner for “Best American Regional Cookbook” at the James Beard Foundation Awards was Jeremiah Tower's New American Classics. While some of the photos look dated, if you reshot them and reprinted the recipes it could still be titled New American Classics some twenty years later.

Grilled Chicken Paillard with Ancho Chili Butter

2 large chicken breasts, skinned, boned
5 tablespoons ancho chili powder
1/4 cup olive oil
6 ounces unsalted butter
1 teaspoon salt
8 wedges lime or lemon

Put the chicken pieces between 2 pieces of heavy plastic and pound with the side of a cleaver until 3/8 to 1/4 inch thick. Mix two tablespoons of the chili powder and the oil in a pan just large enough to hold the paillards in one layer. Add the palliards and marinate for 3 hours turning occasionally.

Make the ancho butter by combining 3 tablespoons chili powder with the butter and the salt. Let stand two hours to develop its flavors.. If the butter is in the refrigerator, be sure to remove it to let it soften and whisk to get it to the right serving texture.

Cook the paillards on a hot charcoal grill for 2 minutes on each side. Serve with ancho butter on top and garnish with lime and lemon slices.

Recently, Tower wrote and tell-all about life during the heady days of the birth of “California Cuisine” entitled appropriately California Dish: What I Saw (and Cooked) at the American Culinary Revolution. The bad-boy is now the bad uncle of American cuisine but he can still cook!

Check out Emily Luchetti's Classic Stars Desserts from an earlier post.

Jack Daniels The Spirit Of Tennessee Cookbook

In my kitchen there is salt, sea and kosher, and there is pepper, black and red and then there is Jack Daniel’s. In addition to my favorite libation, Old No. 7 is one of my favorite seasonings. So you can imagine how much I might like a cookbook filled with Jack Daniel’s recipes.


Jack Daniel's Spirit of Tennessee Cookbook by Lynne Tolley and Pat Mitchamore is a “twofer” both Southern and Jack Daniel’s. There is often a problem with cookbooks that features a single ingredient, such as Jack Daniel’s. With this type of cookbook the recipes tend to fall into three types -- well thought out recipes that use the ingredient as an integral part, recipes that tend to simply have the ingredient thrown into the recipes as an after thought and recipes that don’t include the ingredient at all.

Whiskey Sour Salad and Soused Onions feature Jack Daniel’s as defined part of the recipe. There is no Whiskey Sour Salad without Old No. 7.

Onion Soup with a shot of Jack Daniel’s is just that, onion soup with a dash of whiskey. Then there is Jack’s Black Bean Soup that is nothing more than canned soup with a shot! Actually, if you are going to cook canned soup, nothing might make it better than a little Jack. If you are going to eat canned soup, several shots of Jack Daniel’s BEFORE the soup would do more to improve it than adding it to the can. Finally, there are just filer recipes to round out the cookbook, like Potato Salad. There is really no way to add Jack Daniel’s to potato salad, well there is a way, but not in this cookbook.



The downfall of books like this are the second type of recipes. Seasoning black beans soup with Jack Daniel’s is a fine idea, but only if you actually cook the black bean soup. The best recipes in the book are for the sauces and desserts. Here is a dessert sauce and one of the best uses for Jack Daniel’s outside of a glass.

Plastered Hot Fudge Sauce

1 cup of sugar
3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa, sifted
1 teaspoon instant coffee granules
Dash of salt
2 tablespoons Jack Daniel’s Whiskey
1 cup heavy cream
1/2 cup butter

Combine sugar, cocoa, coffee and salt in saucepan. Mix Jack Daniel’s whiskey with the cream; add to sauce and stir until smooth. Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly. When sugar has dissolved, add butter and cook until thickened, about 5 minutes. Serve warm.

Once you have a big bowl of fudge sauce, you can make any dessert a Jack Daniel’s dessert! Ignore what I said about those recipes that just have some whiskey thrown in. While I wouldn’t recommend adding this sauce to black bean soup, feel free to grab Twinkies and cover them in sauce!

Serious Pig

After perusing Pot on the Fire, I pulled down another one of John Thorne’s books, Serious Pig: An American Cook in Search of His Roots . John Thorne’s books always list his wife, Matt, as the co-author, a generous move in today’s world of wanting to be the center of everything. He writes in his introduction:

“Matt has considered every word of every draft, reacting, suggesting, amending, and hence, reshaping, what appears herein…this means that the subjective self who speaks out of these pages is a larger, braver, much more interesting person than that which belongs to me alone.”

That is the heart and soul of cooking, is it not. The people for whom we cook, react and amend our recipes, reshaping them. I don’t like nuts, you don’t like Brussels sprouts; cooking evolves with the voice of those around us and it makes for a richer, braver cooks.

My friend, Paul, is a chef. Every time he ate something I made he would say, “You know what would make this really good….” His girlfriend would get apoplectic, but I understand. Cooks are always adjusting and changing. It is why one cannot copyright a recipe. Each cook transforms a recipe. People who cook are constantly asking themselves that question: What would make this better?

I have a lot of chives planted and I have been looking for recipes for chive blossoms. In Serious Pig, Thorne discuses his romance with the Shakers. He provides a recipe attributed to Eldress Clymena or Sister Abigail from Ohio.

Blue Flower Omelet

4 eggs
4 tablespoons milk or water
1/2 teaspoon salt
Pinch of black pepper
1 tablespoon minced parsley
1 teaspoon minced chives
2 tablespoons best butter
12 chive blossoms

This delicious omelet can be made only when the chives are in full bloom. Take the eggs and beat them just enough to blend the whites and yolks well. Add milk or water, seasonings, and the minced parsley and chives. Melt butter in a heavy iron skillet; pour in the mixture. When the edges of the omelet begin to set, reduce the heat. With a pancake shovel [i.e., a spatula], slash uncooked parts until the bottom is well browned. Then sprinkle the washed blossoms over the omelet and fold. Serve immediately on a hot platter. The blue blossoms add a delicious flavor and interest to the dish.

I can't wait for the chives to bloom.

Pot on the Fire

Saying John Thorne writes about food is like saying Michelangelo paints ceiling. Thorne was food “blogger” before blogs existed. For years Thorne with his wife, Matt, have produced a newsletter called, Simple Cooking. While the cooking is simple, the essays from his newsletters are each like little dissertations on whatever his subject may be.

Take his chapter on Riso in Bianco, plain rice. But wait, not plain rice:

“Such dished fall under the loose rubric of risi in bianco. In Italian, bianco has two meanings: “white,” and “blank” or “empty.” Consequently, in culinary parlance, the term in bianco not only means “unadorned” or “served plain” but implies additionally an absence that is itself a kind of presence (as in the suggestive phrase, “blank check”).”

In his essay on plain rice, there are mentions of over ten cookbooks, and a dozen recipes, both formal and colloquial. Writing these few piddly words about the essay seem so very inadequate.
On the Lucindaville site, I posted my recipe for Lemony Egg Pasta. This is the rice equivalent.

Riso Con Limone Alla Piemontese

1/2 pound Italian rice, prepared as directed
2 egg yolks
2 tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon juice
1 cup freshly grated Parmesan, plus more for the table
2-3 tablespoons unsalted butter
salt and fresh milled pepper to taste

While the rice cooks, separate the yolks into a small bowl and beat with a fork until frothy and well blended. Beat in the lemon juice and then stir in the Parmesan. When the rice is done, pour it into a sieve or colander and shake out any remaining liquid. Immediately return it to the saucepan and, with a large cooking spoon, stir in the egg-yolk-and-cheese mixture. Put the lump of butter on top and press it into the rice whit the spoon. Then put the pot on the burner over the lowest possible flame and let it sit there for 2 or, at most, 3 minutes – just long enough for the butter to melt completely. Mix it gently all through the rice, taste for salt, and mill over a generous amount of pepper. Serve at once in a warm bowl with the reserved Parmesan.

Lemon and rice, it couldn't be simpler or more complex.

Patricia Well’s Trattoria

For years, Patricia Wells has written about French cuisine, so when she wrote Trattoria, a book about Italian cooking, there was a great deal of excitement and she did not disappoint.

An Italian trattoria is a resturant tucked away in every Italian neighborhood; a place you can duck into and find a meal that you just might find at home. Wells captures this coziness in her book. There is a tendency to refer to books about home cooked Italian food as “rustic.” That word gets thrown around when a recipe has a short list of ingredients one can pronounce. Its overuse has led to the very mention of “rustic” as some sort of pejorative. Patricia Wells' Trattoria is filled with simple recipes for pasta, rice, roasted meats and desserts.

As a rule, I do not want nuts in my food! I’m not fond of most nuts but I do like walnuts. I have friends in Oregon who supply me with lovely walnuts each summer and his is a great recipe to use the nuts.

Fusilli with Walnut and Garlic Sauce

2 plump fresh garlic cloves, degermed and minced
Sea salt
1 cup (4 ounces; 125 g) walnut halves, toasted and cooled
1 cup (250 ml) heavy cream
1 pound (500 g) dried Italian pasta, such as fusilli
1/2 cup (2 ounces; 60 g) fresh grated Italian Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese
Freshly grated black pepper to taste

1. In a food processor, combine the garlic, a pinch of salt and the nuts and process just to coarsely chop the nuts. Add the cream and process to a fairly smooth sauce. Taste for seasoning. Transfer to a large serving bowl.

2. In a large pot, bring 6 quarts (6l) of water to a rolling boil. As the water is boiling place the serving bowl over the pot to warm the bowl. When the water is boiling, add three tablespoons salt and the fusilli, stirring to prevent the pasta from sticking. Cook pasta until tender but firm to the bite. Drain thoroughly.

3. 3. Transfer the drained pasta to the warmed bowl, and toss to blend thoroughly. Add the cheese and toss to blend. Season to salt and pepper. Transfer to a warmed shallow soup bowls and serve immediately, passing the pepper mill.

If you are looking for a quick dinner, this is it. Instead of walnut “halves,” I find this is a great way to use those crumbly shards that remain when you have pulled out all the plump walnut halves from the bag.

The Table Beckons

Parisian chef Alain Senderens wrote a column for L’Express aimed at the home cook. His love of gastronomy and food made him a chef. Here at CookbookOfTheDay we firmly believe that cooking is an art and Senderens speaks eloquently to the multifaceted art of cooking:

"Unlike certain arts that please only one of the five senses, cuisine can delight each of them: vision through the ambiance, the décor of the table, and the presentation of the dishes; smell through the scents and bouquets; taste through flavors and their harmonies; the sensation of touch in the mouth, through the texture of the food that gives it its consistency; and of hearing from the crunch of the food."

Leftovers and French food are not two culinary phrases that one hears in the same breath. But that was not always the case. In fact during the Ancien Régime the King’s leftovers were a brisk commodity. Food from the King’s table was often spirited away by guards and sold to restaurants, kind of an early Craig’s List for food. In these economic times, this may be a new category on eBay, where one is likely to see auctions for a roll from an odd State Dinner or one bag of salad, slightly used, from the Vanity Fair Oscar Party. Don’t laugh, a 10 year-old toasted cheese sandwich purported to bear the image of the Blessed Virgin sold on eBay for $28,000 so even now there may be gold in them thar' leftovers.

Even the best cook in France is bound to look in the refrigerator and find leftovers, perhaps not the $28,000 variety but in my refrigerator I am always finding leftover chicken and usually leftover rice, so when I ran across this recipe it seemed like a natural.


Emincé de volaille à la bonne femme

Slice thin leftover meat from a roast chicken (or turkey). Add ham, which you have cut into thin strips. There should be 4 parts chicken to 1 part ham. Combine this with an equal amount of cooked rice and cover with Béchamel sauce. Spoon into a baking dish, sprinkle with grated cheese and a little butter and bake in a hot oven until it is heated through. Set briefly under a broiler to brown the top.

If food is a favorite subject, you should definitely read The Table Beckons. Each column is filled with wit, history, culture, and of course food. And be sure and check any leftovers before you throw them away, there might a religious artifact waiting for you.

Eating Together

Good cooking is chiefly common sense and good taste.

Lillian Hellman

Lillian Hellman was the provocative playwright who authored The Children's Hour and The Little Foxes. She authored a memoir, Pentimento, which included the story of her close friend, Julia. The book became an Oscar- winning film of the same name. The story of "Julia" it was later revealed was not that of Hellman's "friend" but the story of New York psychiatrist, Muriel Gardiner, who claimed she was "Julia" and that she had never met Hellman, though she did share lawyer with Hellman. The inconsistency in her work sparked one of America's great literary feuds when Mary McCarthy said on national television that "every word she writes is a lie, including 'and' and 'the'."




One work that did belong to Hellman was a cooking memoir, Eating Together, she wrote with Peter Feibleman. They spent spent many summers together on Martha’s Vineyard. Both were writers, both were Southerners born in New Orleans, and both were a bit difficult – Lillian Hellman much so.

The tradition in the kitchen was to work separately as neither liked to have the other interfere in their cooking. Each was right, always! There was no interference, or sparks flew. Lillian Hellman says, “he puts up with turkey, while I think it is worthless.” As for her recipes, Hellman points out,

“You will note that we haven’t always given exact timings because there is no such thing in cooking. Exact timing cannot be done. It’s a fake. It depends on your stove, the opt you’re cooking in, the temperature outside and too many other factors for any cookbook to tell you how long to do anything.”

Peter Feibleman notes that,

“the social mores of the artist-intellectual set on the Vineyard are the flip side of Easthampton which is to say that a man who wears a tie is gauche elegance is outré, discomfort a virtue, modesty a must, casual living reigns and who has air-conditioning in a bedroom admits to it.”

In spite of their opinionated beliefs, a strong bond formed which led to many parties. They say that the people who are most impressed with celebrity are other celebrities and making a guest list for a party on Martha’s Vineyard is an inescapable exercise in name dropping. So when Mike Nichols visited Hellman, there was need for a dinner party. The guest list was a Who’s Who dripping with Kennedy, Cronkite, Mailer, Graham and Styron to name a few. Hellman vacillated till the bitter end on what to serve. In keeping with the bohemian existence of the Vineyard, she chose a pasta, salad and dessert. By the day of the dinner, Hellman announced, “Fuck all of them.” But the dinner progressed. Feibleman was heading out of the kitchen with the following salad. Hellman stopped him at the kitchen door and removed a lone radish he had stuck on the top, tucking it deep into the salad saying, “ You don’t want people to think you’re decorating food around here. Some of them would never speak to you again.”

Chopped Vegetable Salad

1 zucchini, cut into bite-size pieces
2 carrots, cut into bite-sized pieces and lightly blanched
2 cups green beans, cleaned, cut into bite-sized pieces and blanched
1 red pepper, chopped
1 green pepper, chopped
2 stalks celery, chopped
1 bunch scallions, chopped
1 bunch radishes, sliced
2 packages frozen mixed vegetables
2 cups Romescu sauce
Combine all vegetables in a large bowl. Toss with 2 cups Romescu sauce. Refrigerate and serve well chilled.


Romescu Sauce

1/4 cups almonds, toasted
1 clove garlic
1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1 teaspoon salt
1 tomato, peeled, seeded, and chopped
1/4 cup red wine vinegar
1 cup olive oil

Pulverize almonds, garlic, cayenne pepper, slat, tomato and vinegar in a blender. Slowly drizzle in oil, making sure that each addition is completely absorbed. Adjust seasonings to taste with additional salt and pepper.

Let's hope Hellman would not find my salad too decorative. In recent years, Hellman paid a hallucinatory visit to Lisa Simpson in an attempt to get her to start smoking.

For those of you wondering, Lisa demurred.

For those of you who know more about The Simpson's than Lillian Hellman, there is no truth to the rumor that she invented Hellman's Mayonnaise.

Catch a slightly different, though clearly plagiarized version of this post for Famous Food Friday on the Lucindaville blog.