Simply Shrimp: With 80 Globally Inspired Recipes

`Simply Shrimp' by the very accomplished cookbook writer and teacher, James Peterson, is a follow-up to his similar `Simply Salmon'. Since this book reflects the fact that unlike salmon, shrimp appears in virtually every world cuisine, this is a far more interesting book from the point of view of the variety of flavors, dishes, and techniques presented. And, it may have, depending on the state of your knowledge, a few surprises for you regarding this favorite seafood. One of the greatest things about shrimp is that among the shellfish, especially among the crustaceans, it is still thought of as an `expensive' and slightly exotic ingredient, even though, as Peterson points out, its price for both wild and farmed shrimp has dropped dramatically over the last 25 years. This means that for a third the cost of a comparable weight of lobster or crab, you can make a relatively exotic dish with an impressive ingredient. The other side of the coin is that those TV ads for wild Gulf caught shrimp really have some substance to them. Just like wild versus farmed salmon, wild shrimp is far tastier than farmed shrimp (although the comparison on nutritional or mercury poisoning risks does not seem to be in play here). One may also take comfort in knowing that farmed shrimp tend also to have much less grit in their `vein' (actually, their gut) which is such a nuisance to remove. This book may impress you, at the outset, as just another nice single subject cookbook, a genre which all too quickly finds its way to the bargain tables at Barnes and Noble and Borders. The fact that the author is maestro Peterson makes a terrific difference. For starters, I have simply enjoyed reading every one of Peterson's books. The man just writes well, a fine quality for a superior teacher, which he is. Then, there is his grasp of the subject and his point of view. Even if you never cook any of his recipes as he wrote them, you will invariably benefit from reading this book, the more so the more often you cook `freehand', without a recipe, based entirely on available ingredients and your knowledge of same. And, this is not simply because Peterson is quite precise about his explanation of cooking traditions. An example of this simple level of scholarship is where he correctly distinguishes the East Indian staple, ghee, from the French technique of clarified butter. The technique for making ghee cooks the butter longer than the French method, until you reach the stage of what the French call buerre noisette and the milk solids are caramelized, not just `separated'. Beyond this level of accuracy, there is a thoughtfulness you rarely see in many other books. It is something he shares with Julia Child, Elizabeth David, Jane Grigson, Paula Wolfert, Madhur Jaffrey, and Shirley Corriher and some others. It's the difference between wanting to read the book from cover to cover rather than simply pulling it off the shelf when you happen to be looking for a recipe. Peterson makes a point

Very good! Some of the recipes require what I consider to be exotic ingredients (meaning I can't find them at my supermarket) but the ones I've tried have been excellent.