Mediterranean Seafood

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Mediterranean Seafood is a different type of cookbook. In fact, I’m not even sure if it’s a cookbook at all. ‘The main purpose of this book is to help readers who visit and love the Mediterranean region to enjoy the seafood there available,’ writes Alan Davidson in his introduction.

More than a cookbook

For me, I think the book’s appeal is bigger than solely helping those visiting the Mediterranean. I think anyone with an interest in cooking and learning about seafood would find Mediterranean Seafood of enormous use.

This is a book where the recipes are almost an afterthought – but that doesn’t make it a disappointment. For one, if you’re looking to expand your knowledge of seafood species then this is the book for you. Additionally, it is also refreshingly simple to understand.

Mediterranean seafood

Davidson approaches the daunting task of detailing species found in Mediterranean water with calmness and clarity. For each species we get a lovely hand-drawn illustration, a brief description and notes of interest, and culinary uses and tips for cooking.

Helpfully, Davidson also lists the recipes and page numbers in which the fish features in the second half of the book. Thoughtfully, he also lists the local names of the fish for several Mediterranean countries. So if you’re travelling to the Mediterranean in search of seafood then this is definitely the book for you. However, it’s quite a bulky book so you probably wouldn’t want to carry it around with you.

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Recipes

The ‘Recipes’ section of the book begins with advice on how to keep fish fresh and a small essay on cooking methods. It’s all great advice, but if your appetite is building and you’re looking for a quick recipe, then it can all feel a little heavy. However, what follows is fascinating.

Davidson has brought together more than 200 recipes from Mediterranean and Black Sea countries. It’s a remarkable feat, and a great pleasure to discover recipes from France, Spain, Italy, Greece, Turkey, Tunisia, Algeria, Morocco, the Black Sea area, Syria, Malta, Lebanon…

Mediterranean Seafood – a must-have

Most of the recipes are easy to follow. However, frustratingly Davidson refers to oven temperatures as ‘moderate’, ‘hot’ or ‘slow’. It requires a glance at the ‘Measures: Tables of Equivalence’ section right at the back of book to discover what ‘hot’ actually means.

Additionally, it could be argued that the recipes themselves suffer from a lack of illustration, but then Mediterranean Seafood isn’t that kind of book. Flicking through its pages, you get the feeling you’re being gently educated, but that doesn’t make for an academic, difficult read.

The reason for this is, and as Davidson himself admits, he is a passionate amateur when it comes to seafood. He is one of us. He has written an incredibly well-researched, well-presented, highly impressive catalogue of both species and recipes, and all to help us.

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