The Hungry Fishmonger: A Seafood Cookbook

This slender (128 pages) book is the self-published work of a Dublin-based restaurant manager who turned to fishmongering during pandemic job displacement. You can find him on Instagram as @the.hungry.fishmonger, and there, as in this book, he offers practical adventure for preparing fish and shellfish at home.

Skillings arranges his recipes seasonally (spring/summer and fall/winter), with approaches that range from simple comfort fare to more ambitious preparations. For straightforward satisfaction, there's a potato-topped pie filled with your choice of fish fillets and shellfish, or fried mackerel with bacon, eggs and oats. When you want something more distinctive but still manageable, he offers hake schnitzel with butter emulsion tartare sauce, shrimp with aioli, or seared tuna belly with red chimichurri.

Scattered throughout are guides to handling more complex creatures—spider crabs, lobsters, and octopi—that will be useful for cooks ready to tackle these occasional challenges.

The presentations are elegant in their simplicity, though Skilling has clearly taken care to make them as attractive as possible. There's a brief dessert section as well.

Measurements are in metric, and there will be small differences in kitchen vocabulary between the US and Ireland, but nothing insurmountable for American cooks.

Hardcover. Color photographs throughout.