Have you seen Alton Brown's show "Mission: Poachable"?
He suggests poaching in a electric skillet. That way you can set the skillet to your desired final temperature and not risk overcooking the fish.
It makes sense. My grandmother taught me to make english toffee the same way. Letting the skillet manage the temperature for you.
Dan
PS Try poaching the catfish in milk.
I love your blog!
The font is teeny tiny though in every entry but the current? I never had the problem before...
Great blog. I love the fish recipe. Looks gorgeous! I will definitely try it!
I opened up your column from my My Yahoo page, which is in Firefox. For curiosity, I pasted the link into IE to see what the comments were about. The text was actually bigger, but I could change size with my keyboard, so I don't know if it came in the standard size or not. What I found strange, however, was that the subject body was way down below the headings and all the links on the right. It looked like an empty column at first until I scrolled down. I even changed subjects, and they were all the same.
re: IE bugs and CfE
Due to a bug in how IE handles CSS, if the default font size in IE is set larger than Medium (View-Text Size-Medium), then the center page expands past the absolute size set in the stylesheet. This results in the main section being pushed down below the sidebar.
I'll try to fix this in the near future. Unfortunately, I've been quite busy and barely able to write up articles. When I do get some free time I'll start prototyping a new website design.
hi,
first off, i love your blog, it really makes a greate and even more makes me hungry every time.
Anyway, about your IE formatting problem, have you had a look at the
IE7 Fix by Dean Edwards? It fixed most of my IE problems.
once again keep up the terrific work,
stefan
PS: even though it's called IE7 it has absolutely nothing to do with M$ ;)
For the adventurous, take some salmon and a fairly dense white fish like bass, cut them into thin strips, and weave them together like a kid's craft project. Poaching keeps the contrast and tidies up up the weave as the flesh swells slightly. It's a little time-intensive, but gorgeous.
Ask for the thinnest, most uniform fillets from your fishmonger.
I've used coconut milk as a poaching liquid as well, though it works better with a different set of spices (more thai/asian) and also with stronger flavored fish.
Great recipe! Want more tasty recipes? Visit this site: FishAreFriends.com
re: Fish are friends
Hey, there are no recipes on PETA's websites... well, I managed to find a pizza sauce recipe, but not any other recipes...
Michael, your site is amazing. I discovered it a few days ago thanks to a tip from ReadyMade magazine and am hooked. Thanks for the simple and practical recipes and thoughts. And the flowchart summaries - lovely and logical. Keep up the great work - I look forward to whatever new material you have in store!
I tried poaching a salmon fillet, it turned out great! Also tried it with another kind, not sure what, and it came out rather watery. The fillets were frozen for awhile and seemed quite watery before cooking too so they were probably not the best for poaching. Normally my mom bakes fish fillets, my dad usually finds it overcooked and dry when she does, I think poaching is the answer to that problem. Of course the watery fish were what I made when I was visiting them and the great salmon was made at home. Next time I visit them I think I'll buy some fresh fillets and make sure they are good quality and try it again :).
I'm wondering if the poaching liquid - water, milk, evaporated milk- might be used as the basis of a seafood soup.
I just found your site and plan to visit it frequently.
Thank you.
Tim Culhane
tculhane1@socal.rr.com
Yes, I suppose it can, but there's usually so much liquid that it doesn't pick up too much seafood flavor during the poach. A bit of experimenting may be in order. :)
especially since your other leading article references the santa cruz chowder-off! looking forward to a lighter seafood soup entry =)
cooking frozen scallops and haddock lately, the liquid in the pan is very blue, I have never noticed this before?
question - Im interested in using V8 veggie juice for poaching fish and/or chicken...anyone have any experience with that - does the juice hold up or change flavors....I was concerned about wasting some good fish!! Thank you for your advice in advance.....-good cooking and better tasting to all...John
I have been tracking this site for more than two years now, and I must say 'Well Done' to Michael for this wonderful site. The flowchart presentation is what I awe for, it is innovative, simple and sure shot.
And, I also liked your way of asking the confirmation code for posting this :)
In response to the question about poaching in V8 juice, I've poached fish in the following (I've also poached chicken and pork in similar liquids):
V8 juice
tomato juice (also tomato sauce/puree/paste thinned appropriately to juice consistency)
various tropical citrus juice blends (i.e. pineapple/orange, pineapple/mango, orange/strawberry/banana) - these are great with a tropical salsa - pineapple-jalapeno for instance- and served with a coconut rice.
Tilting towards the Sandra Lee end of the spectrum, I've also poached fish in canned soups - tomato, veggie, and even manhattan clam chowder (I've even brightened up the soup/fish combo with some fresh herbs and veggies and served it as a stew).
The bottom line is if you enjoy the flavor of the poaching liquid, you'll enjoy the flavor of the poached fish.
Use your head; trust your palate (or is that palette ?).
I’ve tried fish grilled, baked and fried. I was never able to create the texture I desired with those methods. Plus, the fish almost always turned out either a little dry or undercooked. :angry: Today I thought I would try poaching it. I purchased some orange roughy :) , came home, sat down, and looked for a recipe online. The first one I found was yours. How wonderful! I have never poached before and all of your instructions, hints, and pictures were magnificent! And after reading all of the other’s comments, I can’t wait to try my own variations. :lol: I’ll be back!
I make a beautiful fish salad with poached fish. After poaching, mash it up with mayo, salt and freshly ground black pepper. Put it in a tray, shape into a fish... decorate with sliced cucumber scales and a pepper eye. Surround with chiffoned lettuce leaves. Looks pretty and tastes fabulous.
We love poached Salmon, usually takes about 10 minutes per inch of thickness. Last time I poached it in a miso soup. Came out real nice. Serve with a simple Remoulade sauce.
This makes a fantastic meal. I made this with lite mayo two Fridays ago for my family and they loved it. It's one of those things I think I would like to make every week or at least every other week.
I just tried this on three filets of tilapia, and I gotta say it's a very good way to cook it. It seems to yield more consistent results than when I blacken them in my cast iron pan; it doesn't require nearly as much fine tuning in the cooking time. I have to admit, my third try was almost perfect.
The temperature of the water tends to stay very consistent (at or near the saturation temperature), and I believe this has a lot to do with the success rate.
Hello. Thanks for the excellent information and clear layout of all. Your recipe was helpful to the preparation of my dinner :) I wrote about it on my food blog, Nibbles of Tidbits. And I added a link back to your site. Here it is - http://www.ineedtext.com/FoodBlog/?p=1643
Ciao, Shelly Borrell
B)
I just poached fish for the first time and followed your recipe. Thanks for a wonderful dinner! The fish salad recipe and asian style recipes above all sound fantastic. Thanks for your post!
You can poach this fish then cool it and flake it and use it as you would crab in a sea cake. Very easy and tasty
After tilapia has been poached and cooled, I separate it into small pieces and sprinkle with salt, pepper, diced Italian parsley and some olive oil. Refrigerate and serve as a salad.
My husband sautees tilapia each morning for his breakfast. It's been a problem cause he doesn't always regulate the temp of the olive oil. We found your poached fish recipe this morning. No white peppercorns in the house, so we used whole black instead, and we only had dry parsley. I added some italian seasoning at his request. Much to our surprise, the tilapia came out absolutley delicious, delicate and flavorful.... Thanks so much for posting this recipe on line! To make it easier for my husband I strained the broth then reserved it - in the fridge for tomorrow's fish. I imagine if we just make the broth up every few days, this will streamline his daily fish breakfast prep - alleluia! :)
This question was posed here March 3, 2006, and the responses were tepid.
May I suggest Billi Bi. Loosely quoting from the Craig Claiborne International Cookbook, this may be the most delicious soup ever concocted.
It is an easy cream soup based on the liquor resulting from poaching mussels.
Mike Eaton
Thank you! I uasually end up cross referrencing several sites for the same recipe, in my attepmts to figure out the science of cooking something without bumbling it up.
Taking your advice I tried poaching it in Perrier. It tasted awful ;)
For this recipe, prepare the poaching liquid by filling a saute pan with enough water to measure a depth of about one inch (2.5 cm). Throw in a couple cloves of garlic, about 30 to 40 whole peppercorns, 4 sprigs of parsley, 1/2 cup dry white wine, and a bay leaf. Covering the saucepan, allow the mixture to come to a full boil and turn the heat down to low. We want to let the flavors of the spices infuse into the liquid, so let it sit on low for about twenty minutes. Feel free to use this time to prepare any side dishes you may want, like a rice pilaf.
Remove the filets from the liquid and serve with some kosher salt sprinkled on top, a drizzle of extra virgin olive oil, a few drained capers, and a couple slices of lemon on the side.