Coast to Coast: Food from the Lands & Sea Inspired by Travels Across the World [Hardcover]

A very good book with a wide range of recipes, and also well laid out. Recommended by a friend who clearly has used his copy extensively - given the amount of stains throughout the book!

as a really big fan of rick stein, and having all of his previous books, this is just a bringing together of his favorites. not worth purchasing if you have previous books, but a nice little pressie for a newbie

Recipes with a coastal slant; food from land & sea inspired by travels across the world along with his own travel stories add up to another book, written in the typically relaxed Rick Stein way.

'Really good local dishes tell me more about the thoughts, habits and enthusiasms of a foreign country than museum visits or a walk round a famous cathedral.....'

BBC Books/2008
To avoid possible duplication - there are two different cover pictures available on the hardback edition.

From the acknowledgements:

Amongst others, Rick pays tribute to his new commissioning editor, 'who saw the sense of a book of recipes as a record of all the parts of the world that have influenced me in my cooking......'

From the introduction:

'.....I'm just someone with an enthusiasm for food and a curiosity that that has sent me sniffing around all over the place looking for lovely dishes in all corners of the globe....'

- and that is precisely what this well-produced, chunky tome contains!

Simple, but appealing board covers open to 287 high quality pages, split over main chapters:

1. Britain & Ireland
2. Western Europe
3. Mediterranean & Middle East
4. India
5. Far East
6. Australia & New Zealand
7. The Americas

along with sections:

* basic recipes (inc. dashi, duck confit, Thai red curry paste)
* preparation techniques (inc. butterflied lamb)
* specialist ingredients suppliers

sandwiched between an introduction and a full index.

Each chapter opens with a full page of typical RS banter giving the background to the recipes which follow.
Each recipe has a bold title, (with a translation, if applicable) followed by a general opening narrative, the full list of ingredients, the number of servings and a clear method.
The book has full colour photography but not all of the dishes are featured, which may prove slightly negative to those of us who like to see what we are aiming for on the plate!
However, I feel it is still not worth dropping a full star from five - maybe only half a star!
(Some more sensitive readers may not appreciate the photograph accompanying the rabbit recipe - please see above image)!

From Pizza Margherita:

'This isn't any old recipe for pizza - this is my recipe, and it's worth making for the following reasons.
Firstly, the dough will give you the lightest, crispiest, thinnest base.
The buffalo mozzarella will give you a very good-tasting cheese on a pizza, and the use of the best vine-ripened tomatoes, peeled and seeded, then concentrated in hot olive oil, will give you a really fresh tomato sauce.
I add a bit of oregano and garlic, too, but basically this is just a pizza Margherita , which is finished with fresh basil leaves and said to resemble the Italian flag - i.e. red tomato, white mozzarella and green basil.......'

and the finished product is photographed on page 115!

Other recipes in this book include:

* Hugo's breakfast fishcakes
* Creamy chicken and asparagus soup
* Cauliflower cheese
* Poached salmon with cucumber and dill salad
* North Atlantic prawn pilaf
* Stein's classic Cornish pasty
* Roast rib of beef with Yorkshire puddings and roasties
* Raspberry cranachan
* Carbonnade of beef à la flammade
* Sole Véronique
* Beef Stroganoff with matchstick potatoes
* Couers à la crème with raspberries
* Crème brūlée ice cream
* Moussaka
* Crab linguine with parsley and chilli
* Matar peneer
* Keralan curry with prawns and kokum
* Crisp Chinese roast pork
* Sri Lankan fish curry
* Cured duck breasts with melon, soy and pickled ginger
* Pavlova with cream and passion-fruit
* Char-grilled beef tortillas
* Hangtown fry
* Strawberry and vanilla shortcake

'Rick Stein's passion for fresh, well-sourced food has taken him from continent to continent, across magnificent shorelines and to the very best produce the coast has to offer.'