Darvill’s Hosts “Fishes and Dishes” Authors

On Thursday April 29, Laura Cooper and Kiyo Marsh will tell stories and talk about their new book The Fishes & Dishes Cookbook- Seafood Recipes & Salty Stories from Alaska’s Commercial Fisherwomen.

Sisters Kiyo and Tomi Marsh were fishing in the Bering Sea on Tomi’s 78-foot commercial fishing boat, the Savage, when they dreamed up the idea of publishing a cookbook combining seafood recipes and personal stories from other fisherwomen they had met and worked with in Alaska.

Tomi, who lives in Ketchikan where the Savage is based, owns and skippers the vessel. Her sister, Kiyo, who now lives in Seattle, ran the deck and galley. Between fishing openings, they both turned out creative, mouth-watering dishes taking advantage of the bounty of seafood available to them.

Laura Cooper of Seattle, a friend and former fisherwoman, brought her own illustrations and a philosophy that stresses the importance of seafood sustainability to the project and what began as a joke about “cooking in the ditch”—the trough of the wave—became The Fishes & Dishes Cookbook: Seafood Recipes and Salty Stories from Alaska’s Commercial Fisherwomen. The new cookbook (Trade Paperback, 144 pages, $19.95) will be published in May by Epicenter Press.

In addition to sharing 80 mouth-watering recipes, the book describes the adventurous lives of women who work in America’s most dangerous industry. They relate many funny and harrowing stories, from the travails of running their own boats, to the danger of working on deck in the Bering Sea. These women have been involved in most of the Alaskan fisheries, from the king crab fisheries of TV’s “Deadliest Catch” fame, to longlining black cod and halibut in the Gulf of Alaska, to tendering salmon in Western and Southeastern Alaska.

A generation ago, these women featured might have been celebrated as pioneers. In today’s world, they are simply living their dreams while proving their success in the male-dominated commercial fishing grounds of Alaska.

Tempting dishes such as Seafood and Sausage Gumbo and Smoked Salmon and Egg Salad Sandwiches are practical and unpretentious. Pacific Rim flavors infuse recipes such as Jade Dumplings with Coconut Curry Sauce and sophisticated dishes such as Baked Salmon Wellington or Miso Glazed Black Cod will wow at dinner parties. The dishes are fresh and original–your taste-buds will never be the same!

Also included are tips for cleaning, preserving, and preparing fish, recommendations about how to pair wine with seafood, a glossary of commercial fishing terms, an explanation of fishing methods, onboard fashion tips, and information about sustainability.

The authors will be at Darvill’s Bookstore at 7 p.m. on Thursday, April 29.