Details

About the Fish By Mat Follas Hardback Cookbook

The chapters run through salmon and tuna, freshwater fish, small fish, round fish, flat fish, more exotic fish, shellfish and crustaceans, and squid and octopus. The recipes run from cured salmon gravadlax to lobster bisque, with stocks and sauces, fresh and smoked fish, and suggestions for what to drink.

Reviewers picked out gravadlax, Thai fish cakes, crab thermidor, a Goan fish curry, salmon and dill pithiviers, monkfish harissa kebabs, tempura squid, flounder with tarragon sauce and mussels three ways, and one counted 25 recipes that take half an hour or less. The publisher describes over 80 dishes in all.

For anyone who catches their own fish, the preparation pages are the draw: step-by-step photos showing how to prepare fish, including filleting, plus an international list of fish names and advice on buying fish sustainably and in season.

Mat Follas grew up in New Zealand, beat Andy Oliver and Chris Gates in the 2009 MasterChef final, and ran The Wild Garlic in Beaminster, Dorset, which held two AA Rosettes. He's a food writer and Great Taste Awards judge, and his other books include Vegetable Perfection and Afternoon Tea at Bramble Cafe.

This is the 2015 first edition, ISBN 9781849756051; a revised edition followed in 2020. At about 25 x 22cm, it's a proper hardback for the kitchen shelf.