Isaac Cronin - The California Seafood Cookbook: A Cooks Guide to the Fish and Shellfish of California, the Pacific Coast, and Beyond

Copyright 2011 by Isaac Cronin, Jay Harlow, and Paul Johnson

Preface copyright 2011 by Rick Moonen

Illustrations copyright 2011 by Amy Pertschuk

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available on file.

ISBN: 978-1-61608-344-1

Printed in China

Seafood Watch Culinary Chart of Alternatives

Preface

I've been a seafood chef since 1994, and before that I cooked in several restaurants. I own a sustainable restaurant in Las Vegas, RM Seafood at Mandalay Place, which is complete with sushi, raw bar, casual menu downstairs and fine dining upstairs. And for twelve years, since I was at Oceania in New York City, I've been purchasing from Paul Johnson, coauthor of The California Seafood Cookbook. The reason I use Paul as a source is that he understands sustainability, he has a strong sense of the varied proteins of the ocean, and, like myself, he's got a passion and sense of responsibility about seafood.

Most people are comfortable eating only the Big Five species of fish: salmon, the number one selling finfish in the world; tuna, canned or fresh, the meat of the aquatic world; cod, the reason that the Americas were established; snapper, a broad category and a completely confused one; and bass, the blanket name under which all else is swept.

When I first opened up The California Seafood Cookbook, I was struck by the sixty-four diverse species of seafood included. The California Seafood Cookbook breaks down and introduces different types of seafood, explains how and where they are available, and provides some useful vocabulary, so you can walk into a market or restaurant and order your fish with confidence. Isaac Cronin, Jay Harlow and Paul Johnson explain the seafood selection process by going into depth with each different product, its Latin name, substitutions, how to clean it, how much fat it has, appropriate ways to prepare it, yield, etc. All fantastic knowledge to possess in order to become a little bit closer to your dinner.

Their choice of recipes, from Asian to Latin American to European to regional U.S., still reflects the range of culinary approaches to seafood popular today. The simple, straight forward recipes show respect for seafood and serve as a starting point for culinary discovery.

This is my theory: if people don't see the Big Five at the market, they don't buy seafood. They buy something else. The California Seafood Cookbook is instrumental to opening up consumer's horizons, which is crucial to relieving the pressure on the Big Five species, allowing them to reproduce, and thus ensuring that the food chain remains intact and that the species we consume will be hearty and plentiful.

When Aris Books published The California Seafood Cookbook in 1983, seafood was generally less expensive than meat. Now the converse is true, in large part due to overfishing.

It is our responsibility, for a healthy environment and a healthy family, to learn a little bit more about what is available. That's exactly what The California Seafood Cookbook does. It introduces a small segment of the global biomass that can be eaten from the ocean. By learning a little bit more and by being a little bit more experimental, we'll bring a balance to our world, and we'll get some tasty meals out of it as well.

Rick Moonen, 2011

The authors would like to thank the many people who contributed to this book.

Many Bay Area restaurant chefs and other talented cooks provided recipes and specific information on culinary techniques. These include Bruce Aidells of Poulet, Somchai Aksomboon of Siam Cuisine, Carol Brendlinger of Bay Wolf, Bruce Cost, Victoria Fahey of Curds and Whey, William Marinelli, Jeremiah Tower of Santa Fe Bar and Grill and Dan Wormhoudt of Gulf Coast Oyster Bar.

A wealth of technical information was provided by various experts including many wholesale fish dealers of San Francisco and the Bay Area: Tony Porti, William Marinelli and the West Coast Aquaculture Foundation; Robert Pata and Joe Farrell of the National Marine Fisheries Service; Robert Price and Fred S. Conte of the Sea Grant Program, University of California at Davis; and Joan Eesley and Larry Marsali of the California Seafood Institute.

Seeing our words come to life through the magnificent drawings of Amy Pertschuk was a joy and an inspiration. We thank Amy for patiently bearing with us as we kept adding more and more species to the book.

Sidney Weinstein, Deborah Bruner and Tim Ware supplied invaluable editorial assistance, and Jeanne Jambu imparted clarity and elegance with her graphic design.

Although not involved in this project, the following chefs and restaurateurs have, through the years, provided culinary guidance and inspiration, and their presence is felt throughout the book: Anne Powning Haskell, Mark Miller, Jeremiah Tower and Patty Unterman.

Finally, we would like to acknowledge the support and guidance of our publisher, John Harris, who provided us with a wonderful facility in which to pursue our culinary interests, the freedom to define and organize this book according to the special demands of the subject matter, and his enthusiastic appetite at our recipe testings.

In the fall of 1981, John Harris, our publisher, approached the three of us with an idea for a California seafood cookbook. Each of usa food writer, a restaurant chef and a fishmongeragreed on the need for a comprehensive culinary guide to the variety of seafood available in California. We had found that most seafood cookbooks, while they may have excellent recipes, are written from an Atlantic or Gulf Coast perspective; with very few exceptions, Pacific species are given at best passing mention. Cooks on the West Coast have had to fend for themselves in adapting Eastern recipes to locally available fish.

As we began to catalogue the varieties of seafood available in California, it became clear that we also wanted to capture the spirit of an eclectic, adventurous style of cookery which is typically Californian. Using the finest and freshest ingredients available and incorporating a wide range of ethnic influences, the chefs, caterers and cooking teachers of the Bay Area are among the best exponents of this style. Several of them came to our test kitchen during the development of this book, demonstrating techniques and contributing recipes.