"For the Love of Seafood" is a culmination of Bennett's 20 years of culinary experience.

The only fish Bend local Karista Bennett ate growing up in Arkansas was catfish.

“Friday night catfish fry — that was the big fish night,” Bennett said.

She liked the taste of catfish, but as a child, the smell of it cooking was off-putting, leading to an aversion to seafood that lasted well into adulthood.

It wasn’t until her husband’s birthday dinner one year she changed her opinion. He requested to eat at a seafood bistro in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, where they lived at the time. Bennett joined him to celebrate the occasion, quietly dreading what was to come.

At dinner that evening, Bennett ordered the red snapper. It was tender on the inside with a faint golden-brown crust, laced with a beurre blanc sauce and topped with a lump of crab meat.

“It was just dreamy. I had no idea fish could taste so good,” Bennett said.

Shortly after, Bennett’s husband’s job landed them in Phoenix.

Bennett had been working in health care, where she felt “like a fish out of water,” she said. It was at that point that she enrolled in culinary school and never looked back.

“I left the first class with tears in my eyes thinking, ‘This is it. I’m going to be a chef,’” she said.

Since then, she has acquired 20 years of culinary experience working as a prep chef, sous chef and a cheese specialist. For most of her career, she ran a private chef company in Seattle while working as a culinary instructor. Of all of her culinary roles, she found her favorite was teaching others how to cook.

On Tuesday, Bennett continues to share her culinary knowledge with the publication of her second cookbook {span}with Countryman Press, “For the Love of Seafood — 100 Flawless, Flavorful Recipes that Anyone Can Cook.”

The first section, “Seafood 101,” covers purchasing seafood and questions she has been asked as a chef and culinary instructor.

It also includes a chart with 47 types of seafood. The chart lists the taste and texture of each, cooking methods and suggested ingredient and flavor pairings. The chart ranges from common to uncommon fin-fish and shellfish such as pompano, cobia, hake, lingcod and tilefish.

In culinary school, Bennett learned how to pair complimentary ingredients, such as halibut with Asian flavors, citrus and berries. In the chart, she details suggested pairings for each seafood, such as aromatics, Mediterranean, African or Hawaiian flavors.

The remainder of the book includes 100 recipes broken up into three chapters. Bennett has intentionally designed the book to build on itself, so that home cooks can acquire new skills with each chapter.

The first chapter, “Easy Like a Weeknight,” begins with how to cook each fish. The second chapter builds on those skills, involving a longer ingredient list or more active prep time. The final chapter includes Bennett’s most-loved and indulgent seafood dishes, which require more time in the kitchen but are worthy of a special occasion.

Bennett shared a recipe from the forthcoming cookbook with GO, a za’atar-spiced fish with orange cumin vinaigrette and fresh greens.

Za’atar seasoning is a combination of sesame seeds, dried sumac, salt, thyme and oregano and a staple of Middle Eastern cuisine, writes Bennett in the book. Bennett used rockfish for the recipe, but recommends any mild, flaky white fish, such as cod, tilapia, flounder, haddock or snapper.

“For the Love of Seafood” is available at most locations where books are sold, including Roundabout Books in Bend, or online at karistabennett.com.

Ingredients

1 ½ lbs. white fish, skinned in one piece or cut into four pieces and removed from the refrigerator about 20 minutes prior to cooking (cod, rockfish, petrale sole, tilapia, flounder, haddock, snapper)

salt and pepper

3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

1 tablespoon za’atar seasoning

For the Vinaigrette

1/4 cup fresh orange juice

zest of one orange

3 tablespoons champagne vinegar

1 teaspoon granulated sugar

1 clove garlic minced

1 tablespoon minced shallots

½ teaspoon ground cumin

1 teaspoon Dijon mustard

¾ cup extra virgin olive oil

For the Salad

5-6 ounces fresh baby greens

chopped fresh chives for garnish (optional)

parchment paper

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 375F.

2. Cut a piece of parchment roughly the size of the inside of your baking dish. Don’t worry about making it perfect. This is going to lay gently over your fish to help keep it moist during cooking.

3. Place the fish filet or filets in the baking dish and season both sides with salt and pepper.

4. Whisk the 3 tablespoons olive oil and za’atar seasoning and then spread it over the top of the fish.

5. Gently lay the parchment over the fish, it doesn’t need to touch the fish, the object is to keep in some of the moisture. Then place the baking dish in the preheated oven.

6. Bake for about 10-15 minutes depending on the thickness of the fish. Fish will cook through in 8-10 minutes for every inch of thickness. Once the fish is done remove it from the oven and let it rest for a few minutes.

7. While the fish is cooking, whisk together the orange juice, orange zest, vinegar, sugar, garlic, shallots, cumin, Dijon mustard and olive oil until it’s nicely combined. Season to taste with salt and pepper.

8. Toss greens with a tablespoon or two of vinaigrette and then divide the dressed greens among four plates. Place fish over the greens, drizzle a little vinaigrette over the fish and garnish with fresh chopped chives. Serve immediately.