Great Fish, Quick: Delicious Dinners from Fillets and Shellfish [Hardcover]

Leslie Revsin (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 13, 1997

This book is dedicated to the proposition that fish fillets and steaks, and all varieties of shellfish, are just as quick and easy to cook as chicken breasts--and much more versatile as well.

Although health-conscious Americans are consuming more and more fish and seafood in restaurants, most of us remain frightened--and ignorant--about cooking fish at home.  Leslie Revsin's Great Fish, Quick will rectify that ignorance and banish fear forevermore.

Beginning with Bass with Caper Vinaigrette, Watercress, and Avocado, and ending with Seafood Stew, each of these more than one hundred tasty recipes is quick, simple, and made with readily available ingredients.  And along with the recipes, Leslie Revsin offers comments about flavor, how to determine freshness, and health-related issues, as well as clever tips and seafood lore.  There are lists of recipes that are "the quickest of the quick," created for the grill, and perfect for parties, as well as notes on essentials of the Great Fish Pantry and instruction in special techniques.

For anyone who would love to cook great fish but has no interest in learning how to gut, fillet, or stuff them, Great Fish, Quick is the answer--a classic collection of essential recipes with none of the fuss.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Unlike cooks elsewhere, Americans can be notoriously hesitant to cook fish at home. Great Fish, Quick will have you piscatorially challenged cooks serving aquatic creatures at home as often and easily as you serve chicken breasts. With these recipes, you can get your friends to try new fish dishes with an appealing American stamp.

Leslie Revsin divides Great Fish, Quick into three sections, grouping 27 kinds of seafood into Delicate White-Fleshed Fillets, Darker-Fleshed Fillets, and Sea Animals. For the 9 varieties in each section, she provides advice on health information and on what indicates good and bad quality. She also addresses how to handle every fish or aquatic critter.

To prove the versatility of fillets and shellfish, recipes cover a wide range of tastes. There is the plebeian and practical Sea Legs Stir-Fried with Broccoli, Fried Catfish in Cornmeal, Simply Elegant Grilled Salmon with Basil vinaigrette, and surprisingly original spicy Pan-Roasted Shrimp. Most of the 100-plus dishes are ready in 30 to 40 minutes.

Finally, Revsin, who was the first female chef at New York's Waldorf-Astoria and ran her own, critically praised Restaurant Leslie, also offers suggestions for post-cooking odors: "Clean Air Tricks" to freshen the house before dinner goes on the table.

From the Publisher

"Leslie the chef has a flair
For fish fixed with minutes to spare.
She wrote this great book
Now we're lucky to cook
Up great dishes pesce di mare."
--Lora Brody, author of Bread Machine Baking: Perfect Every Time and The Kitchen Survival Guide

"A truly excellent treasury of modern fish cookery that will inspire new cooks and delight old souls in the kitchen."
--Madeleine Kamman, author of The Making of a Cook and In Madeleine's Kitchen

"Leslie Revsin's Great Fish, Quick is an exuberant book laden with creative and easily prepared recipes. This is a chef with a knack for organization, a talent for detail, and a flair for great-tasting food. Following Leslie's concise directions for selecting and preparing all manner of fish and shellfish will garner the cook satisfying meals--sooner rather than later."
--Marcel Desaulniers, chef/owner, The Trellis Restaurant, Williamsburg, Virginia, and author of Death by Chocolate

"Leslie Revsin takes the mystery out of preparing fish and seafood. Her recipes are easy to follow, and the health information she gives is just what readers are looking for. Fish that might have been intimidating to prepare, such as catfish and shark, have become new, comfortable, and delicious friends. Fish that home cooks would normally attempt to prepare have been elevated to a higher level. The reader no longer has to wait to order calamari in a restaurant; now it can be easily cooked at home. My fish-eating family and I will love cooking from Great Fish, Quick."
--Abigail Kirsch, author of The Bride and Groom's First Cookbook

"Congratulations to Leslie Revsin, an innovative chef bringing us delicious and easy recipes for healthful boneless fish and sensibly telling us what we can substitute."
--Barbara Kafka, author of Roasting: A Simple Art

"Leslie Revsin is a great cook who combines professional savvy and sophistication with the common sense of the home cook. Her writing is graceful; her recipes are delicious, original, and fresh without being fussy."
--Michele Urvater, author of The Monday to Friday Cookbook

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 320 pages
• Publisher: Broadway; 1st edition (October 13, 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0385485387
• ISBN-13: 978-0385485388
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 7.3 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #706,006 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

31 of 31 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars My favorite cookbook, November 28, 1999

By 

K. Merker (New York City) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Great Fish, Quick: Delicious Dinners from Fillets and Shellfish (Hardcover)

I buy a lot of cookbooks, and I subscribe to every cooking magazine imaginable. I use them all, although I sometimes wish I had more time. Recently I was yet again reaching for great fish quick, when I realized that it is my favorite of favorites. I have fish scales stuck to the pages, and all the pages are warped from wet hands and rinsed ingredients. I have almost worn this book out, having made every recipe at least once. What more can I say? A lot. Every recipe is, in fact, quick, but also delicious. I hate cookbooks that have you searching for impossible ingredients, every item in every recipe of this book is found at your local food store. This is a book I highly recommend. I wish she would write more.

24 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars One of the best., November 13, 2000

By 

Martha Schueneman "schueneman" - See all my reviews

This review is from: Great Fish, Quick: Delicious Dinners from Fillets and Shellfish (Hardcover)

I have more than 2,000 cookbooks (I'm a cookbook editor), and only three of them stay in the kitchen; this is one (and the only one I didn't work on). I've had this book for about three years. It's stained and splotched, there's breading in the binding--ample evidence that every recipe I've tried (probably two-thirds of the book) not only tastes great but WORKS. The sauces and toppings are all richly flavored yet easy. The techniques are simple and thoroughly explained. Best of all, though, is the author's tone. Fish can be tricky, and Leslie Revsin gives enough detail so you know, for example, that it's okay if the fillets curl when you turn them over. I love this book (and so does my husband).

21 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Fishing for Compliments, February 19, 2000

By 

Mitch E Eakin - See all my reviews

This review is from: Great Fish, Quick: Delicious Dinners from Fillets and Shellfish (Hardcover)

I can't begin to remember all the nice pieces of fish that my wife and I had collectively sent to the Badly Cooked Place in the Sky. Talk about being clueless! We're trying to eat healthier but when it came to seafood, forget it. Something had to be done. After scanning the seafood cookbooks on Amazon I quickly narrowed it down to Leslie Revsin's book, GREAT FISH, QUICK. Written with easy to follow directions, utilizing readily available ingredients, this is THE book for fast and incredibly delicious meals using fillets and shellfish. Your personal fears about cooking such entrees will disappear as the words of praise pour in. Most main courses take under 40 minutes to prepare and since many of the recipes can be made by interchanging different types of fish there is a great diversity of possible dishes. What's also nice is that you don't need exotic cookware or mysterious ingredients. Leslie offers sound advice in choosing the healthiest pieces of seafood and avoiding frozen and chemically processed junk. Also included are sensible cooking and preparation techniques, sauces, garnishes, marinades, serving advice, party and grill specialties, etc. Her writing style is pleasant and highly readable and so far, according to my wife, I'm batting 100 on successful dishes. What more could you possibly ask?