The Seafood Shack: Food and Tales from the Scottish Highlands

In this delightful debut, Renwick and Scobie capture a cuisine and a way of life unique to Ullapool, a fishing village on the northwest coast of Scotland. In 2016, Renwick (the daughter of a fisherman and the wife of a commercial diver) and Scobie (a cook and the wife of “a mad keen fisherman”) teamed up to create a venue for casual outdoor dining featuring Scotland’s freshest seafood in the form of a food truck they dubbed the Seafood Shack. They tell the story of their truck and also of the fishermen, fishmongers, and divers who supply the fare they depend on (“Having such fantastic and fresh produce is what makes the Shack work”). Through chapters on white fish, smoked fish, mollusks, crustaceans, sides, and sauces, Renwick and Scobie braid firsthand accounts of life at sea with tips for buying, storing, and preparing various types of fish. They offer recipes from the simple (oysters with lemon and Tabasco) to the complex (Moroccan-style langoustine rice), and from the exotic (Thai-style cod fish cakes) to local favorites such as Cullen skink, a smoked fish soup. In their section on sauces, a guide to six flavored butters is not to be missed. For fish lovers hoping to travel to a far corner of the world without leaving the kitchen, this will not disappoint. (Oct.)