Ilove seafood but like many cooks, am nervous about cooking it for variety of reasons. I don’t have a fishmonger nearby, most supermarkets only carry a limited number of species, seafood is expensive, and cooking it is finicky. I tend to avoid farmed fish because industry practices are poor in some parts of the world, so mostly cook wild salmon or cod and eat tuna from a can. I hoped Seafood Simple would help me change things up.
Eric Ripert needs little introduction. Le Bernadin, his seafood restaurant in New York, holds three Michelin stars, he has his own TV show and has published six cookbooks prior to this one. We should be in good hands.
Seafood Simple is organized in chapters based around nine preparation techniques: Raw, Cured & Marinated; Steamed; Poached; Fried; Baked; Sautéed; Broiled; Grilled; and Preserved, each with recipes for different types of seafood. In addition, there is a section on Techniques – filleting and skinning fish, cleaning shrimp, splitting lobster, shucking oysters and clams, removing pin bones, seasoning – with detailed step-by-step photos that are easy to follow. At the end of the book is a brief collection of Tips & Guidelines about shopping for and storing seafood.
As soon as I started flagging recipes to try, I was frustrated by the lack of information about substitutions. With a couple of exceptions (salmon/tuna, cod/merluza) most recipes call for one type of fish, with no alternative option given. Of the twenty-nine types of fish or seafood Ripert calls for, I was only able to source fifteen. Internet searches turned up a plethora of often conflicting suggestions for substitutions, which were not very helpful. I would have preferred to have trusted guidance from Ripert.
Even with this limitation, I had plenty of recipes to work with.
From Raw, Cured & Marinated I was keen to try the carpaccio technique. Ripert gives detailed instructions for pounding the fish into a thin sheet and cutting it into a perfect circle for plating. He suggests making the dish for two at first, so as not to rush the process while you practice the technique. My Snapper Carpaccio looked beautiful on the plate — a translucent disc of pearly white, white tinged with pink, decorated with basil leaves and delicate rings of cherry tomato and jalapeno pepper – and it tasted fabulous. Once you have the technique down, the carpaccio is a showstopper – serve it to guests and wait for a chorus of oohs and aahs!.
Much simpler was Tuna Tartare, dressed with just wasabi, ginger, salt and white pepper. Ripert uses ring molds for a perfect presentation, but it looked very pretty just mounded on the plate and tasted great. Scallop Ceviche – a simple dish of raw scallops, diced and dressed with lemon juice, olive oil, salt and white pepper, garnished with fresh chives and espelette pepper was also delicious. Next time around, I would be inclined to mix the scallops with another type of seafood to balance their creamy richness. I finished with Salmon Poke served over rice — another easy success.
From Preserved I made the minimalist Sardine Tartines, an elevated version of sardines on toast. Using good bread and “high-quality, oil-packed sardines” (it would have been helpful to have some brand recommendations) is the key — chewy, toasted sourdough is a perfect foil for the softness of the sardines while unsalted butter adds creaminess and tames the fishiness of the dish. A luxurious snack with a glass of wine!
According to Ripert, most of the recipes in the Baked chapter can be made in a toaster oven in place of a full size one, which is great for people with small kitchens. However, when I made Halibut en Papillote in my toaster oven, I had to increase the cooking time significantly. Cooking en papillote is a classic technique in which the fish is cooked in a packet made of parchment paper or aluminum foil with aromatics, so it retains its moisture and releases a cloud of fragrant steam when opened. The fish flaked perfectly and the delicate flavours of white wine, onion, tomato and olive oil, allowed the fish to shine.
Crab Gratin from Broiled is another classic preparation and this too cooked up perfectly — delivering a creamy dish of crab topped with a golden crust of breadcrumbs — but it tasted bland. The crab is mixed into a bechamel, flavoured with Dijon mustard and nutmeg but the result was pretty lacklustre. More mustard next time!
Much more exciting was Shrimp, Sweet Garlic, and Extra-Virgin Olive Oil, a simple two-step preparation that yielded tender shrimp and a heavenly pool of garlic-flavoured olive oil to be mopped up with crusty bread. I can see this one going into my regular rotation.
Also super was Blackened Red Snapper from Sautéed. The key to success here is a very hot cast iron skillet. Ripert gives a recipe for his own blackening spice blend but I used Paul Prudhomme’s since I had it on hand. (Prudhomme is credited with inventing the blackening technique). Following Ripert’s method produced a perfectly cooked fish with a golden crust and flesh that fell into soft flakes at the touch of a knife and fork. A squeeze of lemon was all this dish needed.
Also from Sautéed Calamari Tagliatelle was a fun to prepare and to eat. Cutting the calamari to resemble pasta makes for a cute presentation and the flavours garlic, lemon, bell pepper and parsley were perfect. The secret here is cooking the calamari very briefly so it doesn’t become tough and rubbery.
I was intrigued by Herb-Crusted Yellowfin Tuna from Grilled. I couldn’t see how such an audacious pairing — fish crusted with Herbes de Provence, with its floral note of lavender, plus a salad dressed with an Asian-inflected soy and ginger dressing – could possibly work. But it does. Again, nailing the technique is key. Fish cut to specific thickness (one inch), a scorching hot grill pan and a precise cooking time (one minute per side), results in a lovely contrast of textures, a hot herb crust encasing silken, barely cooked tuna. The ginger-soy dressing was a surprising but perfect addition that brought everything together. This recipe made more sense when I learned that in France, Herbes de Provence doesn’t typically contain lavender, while American blends do. Either way, this recipe is brilliant — another keeper.
Salmon and Tomato a la Gilbert, a minimalist dish from Poached is one of the most restrained and elegant in the book. Ripert recounts that it was served to him the first time he visited Le Bernadin by owner and chef Gilbert Le Coze. The quality of the tomatoes is key – Ripert calls for either fresh, or high-quality canned. The tomatoes are pureed and strained, then mixed with a little heavy cream to create a velvety sauce in which the salmon is briefly poached. I used bottled tomato passata, which not only tastes like fresh tomatoes but also means you can skip the blitzing and straining steps. I enjoyed this dish but my fellow eater thought the sauce tasted like tomato soup.
I didn’t cook from the Fried chapter because when Ripert says fried, he means deep-fried and that is not something I like to do at home. Unless you have a restaurant-level exhaust system, the smell of frying lingers for hours and there is also the problem of disposing of the used oil. But if you are game to fry, there are recipes for yummy-looking Crabcake Sandwiches; Lobster Spring Rolls, Shrimp Tempura and more crispy treats.
So, after trying twelve recipes, is seafood now simple? Not entirely. The majority of recipes are very straightforward, with minimal ingredients or procedural steps, and with a little practice, the techniques you’ll need to cook seafood successfully are easily mastered. But sourcing remains complex, with knotty questions of availability, sustainability and suitability to certain recipes or cooking methods, not covered in much detail in this book. Perhaps this was intentional – faced with too much information, cooks already nervous about cooking seafood might be further discouraged. But, that caveat aside, after working through each of the techniques and creating dishes that turned out perfectly each time, I am cooking fish with confidence and am looking forward to building my skills and expanding my repertoire further. Ripert says his goal with this cookbook was “to take seafood from daunting to rewarding.” In my case, he has done precisely that.
