W.W. Norton & Company
$35.00
A Seafood Cookbook for the Entire Family
In his sleep, the legendary Jasper White can easily whip up cherrystone seviche, Portuguese-Style pan fried hake and Fra Diavolo sauce. Yet in his recently released cookbook, The Summer Shack Cookbook, readers are also served terrific recipes for the most delightfully and deliciously unsophisticated food — the fried chicken, Italian hot dogs and strawberry shortcake vie with lobster rolls, “retro” shrimp cocktail. And just reading the insightful lemonade concoction may very well quench your thirst. “Forget the traditional concept of meal planning — it’s different at the shore,” says White, the unassuming yet seasoned and celebrated chef. “People come to life in the summer — they work less and enjoy simple things.”
This is also that rare cookbook that appeals to entire families. Men can delight in the kitchen gear chapter — what guy wouldn’t love a Chinese cleaver and Japanese fish tongs to adequately follow the author’s detailed instructions on mastering the grill? Children who dream all winter of the hot-sun season of wet bathing suits and dripping popsicles would definitely eat almost any recipe in the unabashedly indulgent “Boardwalk Food” section, packed with all foods “crispy fried,” along with other “fun stuff.” And for just about anyone handed the shopping list, White saves precious summer hours by pragmatically suggesting these simple directions: the busiest fish markets are always the best and the finest ingredients are always the best. (Down-to-earth reason rules in this book.)
Keeping boardwalks, church suppers, farmer’s markets and hot summer beaches in mind, White remains understated while commenting on the importance of great ingredients that do not require complex cooking and recipes; if he’s inclined to turn up the heat on “not screwing up” fresh seafood, what comes to mind, he says is New England’s famous flounder. “People overcook it all the time,” he sighs.
White achieved his first taste of fame in the 1980s, introducing diners to New England cooking at his elegant Boston restaurant, Jasper’s. Considered to be one of the pioneers in American regional cuisine, he closed Jasper’s 12 years later, taking five years off to write cookbooks.
In The Summer Shack Cookbook, White honors both his Asbury Park, New Jersey Shore childhood and his years haunting clam shacks as a summer-home owner on Maine’s Sawyer Island. He may boast credentials from the Institute of Culinary Arts and a most enthusiastic endorsement from the late Julia Child (particularly for his baked oysters “casino”), but if you speak with him these days he’s most wistful while reminiscing about embracing the slow pace of summer and his “soft spot for steamers at Robinson’s Wharf and catching bluefish in the rough.”
Any reader embarrassed by minimal seafood-management skills might appreciate this expert’s definitive directives on smashing crabs, skinning round fish and shucking oysters with competitive deftness. And finally, in keeping with White’s current state of culinary thinking (that the summer season is all too fleeting) this new cookbook also makes room for indoor clambake instructions and preparing panoply of lobster dishes, year round.