The Delia Collection, Fish (Delia Collection)

This volume may not replace earlier Delia books in a similar vein, but it provides as useful and basic a resource as any cookery enthusiast is likely to need. The large, attractive format is always at the service of the individual recipes, which are drawn from 33 years of recipe writing and television. While Delia followers will find much here to stimulate, this is an excellent entry-level book for those new to the doyenne of TV chefs. Fish confines itself to the main categories: white fish; salmon; trout; oily and other fish; and smoked fish. The recipes varying from the concise, such as a very straightforward Fried Plaice Fillets, to the more advanced (a mouth-watering preparation for Fillets of Sole Véronique). A particularly attractive recipe is that for Smoked Salmon Tart, which is an object lesson in concision and practicality--if the pastry isn't--we're told--rising in the centre, we should prick it a couple of times and press it back down with our hands.

Instructions are as direct and uncomplicated as one would expect (this, of course, is Delia's trademark) and up-to-date conversion tables are included, along with an impressive section on fish extras, making this an invaluable and user-friendly guide. --Barry Forshaw

Some of the recipes are too complex and the fish is hard to find (even from a fishmongers).

I have got better fish books and I strongly recommend any of her other books but this is not that good.

Ok but not up to her normal standard.