The Sunday Dinners project is a collaboration between Andrew Schloss and Cookthink. (For more on this, read Andy’s introduction to the project.)

For this week’s Sunday dinner, poached salmon is served in classic style with a white wine sauce (albeit updated into a low-fat version by enriching the poaching liquid with yogurt rather than cream) and served with a warm portobello salad and braised asparagus perked up with orange juice and zest, garlic and walnut oil and chopped nuts.

The main technique involved in making this week’s dinner is poaching — a great technique that’s easy to master.

After all, a pot of hot water is likely the most versatile cooking tool in a kitchen. Boost it to a rolling boil and it will cook an endless array of noodles, grains and potatoes. Stop it at a simmer and it becomes the vehicle for soups and stews. Coax it just beneath a bubble and it will poach the fragile fibers of fish or an egg with the care of a gentle caress.

Poaching is essential for cooking delicate proteins — like seafood and white-meat poultry — which can easily overcook and dehydrate if they are heated too harshly. Because temperatures are kept low and poaching liquids never bubble vigorously, poached foods literally warm to doneness. The exterior of the ingredient does not overcook before the interior is done, because the temperature of the poaching liquid is close to the temperature the ingredient will reach at full doneness.

Photo: Soy Sauce-Poached Chicken (Cookthink)

Such slow gradual cooking encourages an exchange of flavors between the poaching liquid — which can be infused with wine, spices, herbs and aromatics — and the poached ingredients. The poached ingredient absorbs flavor from the liquid — as in the case of this week’s salmon, which takes on the delicate essence of herbs and citrus as it poaches.

In addition to absorbing flavor, poaching food sacrifices some of its juices to the cooking liquid, so that the subsequent fluid from poaching fish becomes a potent fish broth ready to turn into a sauce.

Photo: Pears Poached In Red Wine And Cardamom (Cookthink)

How To Poach Anything

1. Combine the ingredients for the poaching liquid in a pot that’s just wide enough to fit the ingredients to be poached in a single layer — and tall enough so that the ingredients are almost covered by liquid. Heat until the liquid boils and turn down to a simmer.

2. Add the ingredients to be poached and adjust the heat so that the liquid barely bubbles. If the ingredients are submerged, there is no need to cover the pot. If there are portions of food sticking up above the surface, the food will either have to be turned during poaching, or the pot will have to be covered.

3. When the poaching ingredients are tender or cooked through, remove from the poaching liquid with a slotted spoon or spatula and drain. (If you are serving a poached food chilled or at room temperature, it is best to allow the food to cool in its poaching liquid.) If making a sauce from the poaching liquid, reduce it over high heat to the desired consistency or thicken it with a beurre manié or a slurry made from cornstarch and water.

Recipe: Poached Salmon With White Wine Sauce (Sunday Dinners)
Recipe: Braised Asparagus With Orange, Garlic And Walnut (Sunday Dinners)
Recipe: Warm Portobello Mushroom And Rice Salad (Sunday Dinners)

Posted by andy in techniques, sunday dinners | | Subscribe to this feed