Cookbook is
catch of the day

"Roy's Fish & Seafood: Recipes from the Pacific Rim" by Roy Yamaguchi (Ten Speed Press, 2005, $35)

Here you are, in your kitchen, unpacking the groceries and feeling pretty good about the 5-pound uku that you bought because it was fresh and beautiful.

Then you realize that you don't know how to cook uku and you're not even quite sure what it is.

This is when "Roy's Fish & Seafood," chef Roy Yamaguchi's new cookbook, proves its worth. Normally, you'd have search a cookbook for a recipe that uses the fish you have on hand. With this book, you turn to the chapter on uku.

Here you learn what you've got (gray snapper), what it's like when cooked (firm and moist), plus general tips (makes good sashimi in summer when fat contest is highest).

As with most cookbooks from chefs, the food looks and sounds beautiful -- but also complicated. The titles tend to have "with" in them, as in Scallion-Crusted Uku with Char-Grilled Pineapple-Macadamia Nut Salsa.

Now, if you were organized enough to look up the recipe beforehand, and prescient enough to know you'd find uku at the store, you'll have pineapple and mac nuts in your shopping bag. Otherwise, make the scallion-crusted part and do the best you can about a salsa.

You'll find the instructions quite practical: Make a crust of 1/4 cup finely sliced scallions and 1/4 cup chopped lup cheong or bacon. Press into one side of each of 4 uku fillets. Cook over high heat in a dry skillet, 2 to 3 minutes.

Yamaguchi offers nearly 100 recipes covering shellfish (including opihi), and 16 fish from butterfish to ulua. Signature dishes from his restaurants, such as crab cakes and blackened ahi, are in there, but also many realistic suggestions for those who'd just like to use everyday fish in intriguing new ways.