Coastal Cuisine: Seaside Recipes from Maine to Maryland by Connie Correia Fisher with Joanne Correia Published by Small Potatoes Press 160 pages, 1999 Buy it online
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Pass the Chowdah Reviewed by Linda L. Richards
There is an innocent charm about Coastal Cuisine: Seaside Recipes from Maine to Maryland. And it's not unpleasant. New Jersey author Connie Correia Fisher has built a cookbook around her own passions for the seaside places she visits in the summer. In her introduction, she waxes poetic about summer for a bit, then heads for the place where the book begins: Summer's over and what memento did I bring home to remember my summer holiday? Usually nothing but some sand in my sneakers. All too quickly, the memories of towns and sailboats and beaches fade away. Oh, how I wish the flavor could remain. So I asked the chefs at my favorite seaside haunts if they could help me preserve the taste of summer, packaged up so I could take a little piece of it home. It can, from this, be gleaned that Correia Fisher has a most excellent taste in "favorite haunts." There are about 100 recipes in Coastal Cuisine, brought together from 65 inns and restaurants from coastal Maine, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Delaware and Maryland. And though there is much that is seafood-based, don't expect endless recipes for crabcakes and chowders -- though a few of both are included. These recipes are mostly at least a little bit more upscale. Things like Truffle Whipped Potato Profiterole; Lobster Risotto and Bluefish Paupiettes with Thyme and Basil all sound wonderful, even if they're not restricted to eateries of that region.
Linda L. Richards is the editor of January Magazine. |