Fish: 54 Seafood Feasts

LeFavour’s first cookbook focused on steak, and her second was all about chicken. Her third time’s a char—an arctic char to be precise—served with eggplant, couscous, and mint, and there are 53 other “feasts” as well, featuring fish of every stripe with flavors drawn from six different global cuisines: American, Bistro, Latin, East Asian, South Asian, and Middle Eastern & Africa. The recipes are presented as complete meals, offering unique combinations of flavors that have been proven to complement each other. For instance, baked branzino is paired with watermelon-mango relish and sautéed-garlic bok choy. And fried oysters are served with spinach dal and basmati rice. Meanwhile, hints of Italy turn up in dishes like scallop-chorizo spaghetti and lobster and black truffle linguine. The book’s introduction spells out the importance of sustainable seafood and includes a handy chart of “fish you can eat in good conscience.” Though most of her prose is straightforward, LeFavour’s former career as a college writing professor sometimes makes itself known. For a green bean dish she recommends the kind with a “snappy, unbending attitude” and instructs that within a pot of thickening grits, “the bubbles should make a messy explosion on the surface.” Not to be outdone, photos by the well-established magazine photographer Antonis Achilleos are clever and crafted. A freshly caught fish in a colander sits opposite the title page, while a picked-over plate of bones is all that’s left to accompany the end flap. (Oct.)