Poach

We don’t do much poachin’ at the restaurant, but at home it’s another story. This is how I like to fix salmon. It has a light, almost brothy BBQ sauce flavored with a bit of dill.

Alexis and Eric Koefoed operate Soul Food Farm (see page 173) in a rural area of Solano County, Napa’s neighbor. The eggs from their pasture-raised chickens are so superior to conventional eggs that they inspired a cooking class at the winery. For the class dessert, Brian created this variation on floating island, a retro French dessert that deserves to come back into fashion. The “islands” are poached meringues that, in the original version, float on vanilla custard—a superb way to showcase first-rate eggs. The unusual caramel sauce flavored with Cakebread Cellars rosé is Brian’s addition.

All you need to have on hand to make this delightfully simple and relatively wholesome dessert are two ingredients—pears and sugar (plus water). A melon baller makes quick work of coring pears, but a small spoon can be used instead.

You can poach the eggs a few hours before composing the salad. Immediately place them in an ice-water bath to stop the cooking, then keep in a bowl of cool water (it should just reach the tops of the eggs). Reheat briefly in a pan of barely simmering water.

THIS RECIPE IS ESSENTIALLY A RIFF OFF Eggs Benedict using cheese sauce instead of hollandaise. The cheese sauce is richer, more flavorful, and easier to make ahead. It’s also a great way to use up any remaining bits of cheese from a cheese plate. The base is usually an English muffin, but you could use any kind of toasted bread. If you’re serving a crowd, offer eight or twelve small bowls of toppings that guests can choose from to customize their own egg creations, including leftovers from the night before.

THE DELICATE FLAVORS OF COD shine when the fish is cooked in a light and flavorful broth. Served chilled, it is perfect for a warm summer evening. When the cod is served with a grain or plain steamed rice, the vinaigrette becomes the sauce.

POACHING SEAFOOD IN OIL locks in its moisture and produces tender, juicy results. Here, adding fresh red snapper along with the prawns adds a textural contrast, but you could use either one, doubling the quantity. The oil from the poached seafood makes a flavorful sauce when studded with basil, tomatoes, and lemon zest. Delicate capellini, also known as angel hair pasta, rounds out an easy summer lunch or light supper.

GOOD TO KNOW Made by beating egg whites—no yolks—with sugar until stiff peaks form, meringue provides a versatile, fat-free base for all kinds of desserts. Here, scoops of meringue are poached until just firm, then chilled and served with raspberry purée.

GOOD TO KNOW Rotisserie chicken is a good shortcut (use only the breast meat) if you don’t have time to poach your own. Corn tortillas—crisped in the oven instead of fried—rovide a crunchy base for a filling salad packed with Mexican flavors. We’ve started with tomato, avocado, red onion, and cilantro, but you can add other favorite ingredients such as sliced radishes or corn—and perhaps a little reduced-fat sour cream in place of Mexican crema.

SMART SUBSTITUTION Mayonnaise—and the fat and calories that it imparts to chicken salads—is replaced by a vinaigrette in this slimmed-down version; using only poached breast meat also helps.

I usually poach more kumquats than I need for a particular dessert; they keep well in their poaching liquid in the refrigerator for 2 weeks or more. They are lovely combined with sliced fresh blood oranges or with other poached fruits, especially prunes (poach the kumquats, lift them out when they’re done, and poach the prunes in the same syrup, combining them when the prunes are done and the syrup has cooled a bit).

Simply poaching fruit—submerging it in a light syrup and gently simmering until just done—preserves its integrity: it retains its shape and its flavor is enhanced. The poaching liquid can be infused with spices and citrus peel, and wine can be added for flavor. Pears, peaches, plums, apricots, quince, cherries, kumquats, and dried fruit such as apricots, raisins, currants, prunes, and cherries can all be poached. A plain piece of poached fruit is a perfect dessert on its own, but dressed up with vanilla ice cream, a plate of cookies, and raspberry or chocolate sauce, it makes a fancy dish for a special occasion. Simple compotes made of a combination of poached fruits served in their sweet poaching liquid are delightful seasonal desserts. Poached fruit also makes a superb garnish for simple cakes and can be baked into delicious tarts. Fruit for poaching should not be soft, as you want it to hold its shape after cooking. In fact, fruit that is a bit underripe or otherwise imperfect is improved by poaching. And, conveniently, poaching preserves fruit for a few days, which is a boon when you have an overabundance of fruit that needs to be used. Before poaching, some fruits need preparation. Pears should be peeled: I leave them whole with their stems intact for decoration, but they can be cored and cut in half or into quarters. Bosc, Bartlett, and Anjou are good varieties to poach. Peaches and apricots can be poached whole or cut in half and peeled after cooking. Small flat white peaches are exquisite poached whole. (Crack open a few of the pits, remove the kernels, and add them to the poaching liquid; they add a flavor of almond essence.) Cherries can be pitted or not. Apples should be cored and can be peeled or not, as desired. Some good varieties to poach are: Golden Delicious, Pippin, Sierra Beauty, and Granny Smith. Quinces need to be peeled and cored before going into the syrup and they require much longer cooking. Dried fruit can go directly into the poaching liquid. Poaching liquid is usually a light sugar syrup. Start with 1/4 cup sugar and 1 cup water, adjusting the syrup to your taste and the needs of the fruit. Tart fruit will require a sweeter syrup. You need enough poaching liquid to fully submerge the fruit. Choose a heavy nonreactive pan large enough to hold the poaching liquid and the fruit comfortably. Bring the water and sugar to a boil, stir to dissolve the sugar, and reduce to a simmer. At this point add any flavorings you might be using. I like to add lemon juice and strips of lemon zest, regardless of what fruit I am poaching. A piece of vanilla bean cut in half lengthwise, a cinnamon stick, peppercorns, cloves, or other spices are all possibilities, as are herbs such as rosemary, basil, or thyme. Add more delicate herbs like mint or lemon verbena at the end of cooking to preserve their flavor. Ginger, orange zest, and tea leaves can make tasty infusions. Wine—sweet or dry, red or white—adds fruit and acid. Try a ratio of 2 parts wine to 1 part water. When using a sweet wine such as port or Sauternes, cut back on the sugar in the poaching liquid. If sweetened with honey, brown sugar, or maple sugar, the poaching liquid will be darker and stronger. Another way to flavor the poaching liquid is to add a fruit purée from berries such as raspberries or black currants. When the liquid is ready, add the prepared fruit. Some fruits brown quickly once they are exposed to the air (pears and quinces, for example). Add them to the poaching liquid one by one as you peel them. Before poaching, cover the fruit with a circle of parchment paper that has been pierced with a few holes. This will help to keep the fruit submerged while it is cooking. Any fruit sticking up above the liquid may discolor or cook unevenly. Press the paper down on the fruit now and then throughout the cooking. Cook the fruit at a bare simmer until tender but not mushy. Test with a sharp paring knife or toothpick at th...

Fish is particularly good when poached; its fine flavor and texture are preserved in the gentle heat of the liquid. Submerged until done in hot, but not boiling, liquid, the flesh remains moist, tender, and light. Salmon, halibut, cod, sole, and trout are a few examples of fish that are well suited to poaching, whole or in steaks or fillets. Anything from plain salted water to a flavorful vegetable stock with wine (called a Court Bouillon; see page 335) can be used for the liquid. Because of its delicate flavors, poached fish is best served with a simple sauce such as a butter sauce, a mayonnaise, or a variation of salsa verde. Another way to poach fish, especially for a casual meal, is slightly different from the classic method of completely submerging the fish in the poaching liquid. I call it shallow poaching. There’s no special stock to make, the fish is in and out of the pan and onto the table in a matter of minutes, and a quick delicious sauce can be made from the liquid. Fill a low-sided heavy pan with an inch or two of water, or enough to come about halfway up the sides of the fish. Add a good splash of white wine (or a smaller one of wine vinegar); a sprig or two of parsley, fennel, or thyme—or a combination; and a large pinch of salt. Sometimes I float a slice or two of lemon in the water. Bring this to a boil and immediately turn it down to a barely perceptible simmer. Put in the fish, having seasoned it first with salt. Cook the fish for a few minutes on one side, carefully turn it over, and continue cooking until done. Be sure the water does not come back to a boil during the cooking. A thin fillet about 1/2 inch thick will cook in 5 to 7 minutes; a thick steak may take up to 12 minutes. Probe the fish to monitor the doneness. When done, remove the fish with a slotted spatula to a warm plate. To make a quick pan sauce, raise the heat and reduce the liquid by half. Have ready two generous pats of butter cut into small pieces. Whisk or swirl in the butter, bit by bit. Turn off the heat and remove the pan from the burner when the last bit of butter is added, and finish incorporating it off the heat. Taste the sauce and add, as needed, a squeeze of lemon or a pinch of salt or both. Pour the sauce over the warm fish and serve. Very thin fillets such as sole can be cooked in even less water, with butter already added. Pour 1/4 inch of water into a heavy pan, season with salt, and add a sprig or two of fresh herbs. Pour in a splash of wine or wine vinegar and about 2 tablespoons of butter. Put the pan over medium heat and when the liquid is just below a simmer, add the seasoned fillets and cover the pan. Cook until done, for 4 to 5 minutes, checking occasionally to monitor the heat. Remove the fish, raise the heat, and bring the sauce to a boil to thicken it. Taste and adjust the seasoning as needed. Pour the sauce over the fish and serve.

A poached egg is easily cooked, incredibly nutritious, economical, and easily served at any meal. Poached eggs perched on a buttered toasted slice of tender bread is a perfect breakfast; a shimmering bowl of chicken broth served with an egg poached in it is a nourishing lunch that can generate a warm sense of well-being; and curly endive tossed in a warm vinaigrette with bacon and topped with a poached egg is a favorite dinner salad of mine—the egg enriching the vinaigrette as it coats the leaves. A poached egg is cracked from its shell and cooked in water, stock, or, sometimes, wine until the white has just solidified and the yolk has heated through. The poaching liquid should be very hot, but without any bubbles breaking the surface. This gentle still heat keeps the white tender and helps the egg keep its shape while cooking. Fresh eggs are best. A fresh egg cracked onto a plate has a thick, jellylike white that clings to the deep orange yolk, which stands up plump and high. As eggs age, their flavor dissipates and their whites thin out to the point of being watery at the edges, making it difficult to poach one with any success. Use a heavy pan for even heat dispersal, which helps keep the eggs from sticking to the bottom. If a heavy pan is not available, use a flame tamer. A relatively shallow pan will make it easier to remove the eggs from the hot water. I use a low-sided saucepan. Fill the pan with water 2 to 3 inches deep, add a large splash of vinegar, and put the pan over a medium fire. The vinegar speeds the coagulation of the whites, keeping them from billowing out into the water. Use good-tasting vinegar, as you will be able to taste it slightly. I add about 1 tablespoon to 4 cups of water, but if you particularly like the flavor of vinegar on your eggs (and it is delicious), add more. When poaching eggs in soup or broth don’t use the vinegar. Carefully, without breaking the yolks, crack the eggs into individual cups or small bowls. This way you can easily remove any fragments of eggshell and it will be easier to slip each egg gently into the water; and if you do break a yolk, you can set it aside for another use. When the water is very hot, but not bubbling, hold the cup right at the level of the water and carefully slide the egg in. This gentle entry into the water will help the egg keep its shape. After a minute you can gently stir the water a while to discourage the eggs from sticking to the bottom of the pan. Use care, though; the eggs are very delicate until the whites are set. Lower the heat if the water begins to simmer. The cooking time will vary depending on the number of eggs, their size, and the temperature they were when they went into the water. On average, a single large egg straight from the refrigerator will take about 3 minutes to cook. The white will be set but the yolk will still be soft; for a firmer yolk allow up to 5 minutes. Test for doneness by gently lifting the egg with a slotted spoon and pressing it gently with your finger to feel how set the white and yolk are. Carefully remove the cooked eggs and drain for a moment on a towel, blotting the top very gently to dry. When cooking for a crowd, freshly poached eggs can be kept for a few minutes in a bowl of warm water or stock while another batch is being cooked.

Moscato is not well known in this country, but this sweet, fizzy wine is very often served at the end of Italian meals along with dessert or just some cheese and fruit. Here I use it to poach beautiful whole pears; the cinnamon poaching liquid is then reduced to a syrup. It’s the perfect ending to a Thanksgiving dinner because it’s not too sweet or too heavy, and it’s absolutely gorgeous on the plate—not to mention how it fills the whole house with holiday fragrance. Serve flutes of chilled Moscato alongside for a very elegant finish to a fancy meal.

Serve the meat with a variety of garnishes, which you and your guests can combine any way you like.

This traditional Chinese dish is simple to make: You boil the soy and wine along with some water, ginger, and crushed sugar and add star anise and scallion for flavor. The chicken is boiled too—not simmered, really boiled—but only for ten minutes; it finishes cooking in the liquid with the heat turned off. There are unusual but inexpensive ingredients that make this dish slightly better: mushroom-flavored soy sauce, which is dark and heavy; yellow rock sugar, a not-especially-sweet, lumpy sugar that must be broken up with a hammer before use; and mei kuei lu chiew, or “rose wine,” a floral wine that smells like rose water and costs two bucks a bottle. But don’t knock yourself out looking for any of these—I give substitutions in the recipe. But if you can easily acquire them, do, because this sauce can be used time and again, as long as you freeze it between uses (or refrigerate it and bring it to a rolling boil every few days) and top up the liquids now and then.

Thin fish fillet can be tricky to prepare, mostly because they fall apart the instant they’re overcooked. But the fact that quarter-inch-thick fillets of flounder, sole, and other flatfish take so little time to cook can be an advantage. By poaching them in barely hot liquid, you slow the cooking and gain control. By flavoring the liquid first with a quick-cooking aromatic vegetable, you create a dish that needs only bread or rice to become a meal. Unlike with broiling or sautéing, the fish never dries out. The traditional liquid for poaching fish is court bouillon, a stock made from scratch using fish bones, onions, carrots, and celery enhanced with white wine and herbs. Assuming you don’t have any court bouillon on hand—and who does?—my poaching liquid of choice is chicken stock, and the canned variety is fine, because you’re going to add flavor to it, and quickly, in the form of leeks and fish.

This is a simple marriage of butter, shallots, and mushrooms, splashed in a dose of hard cider (the dry, sparkling kind from France or England, sold nearly everywhere you can buy beer and wine) and used to poach fish in a hot oven. The fish may be haddock, cod, monkfish, halibut, red snapper, or any other white-fleshed fish. The cider provides a distinctively sour fruitiness, not at all like white wine, and the completed dish has complementary textures: crunchy shallots, meaty mushrooms (portobellos are good here), and tender fish.

You can buy peeled shrimp, but shrimp poached in their shells have more flavor (as do shrimp poached in salt; the water should taste salty). If you’re going to peel the shrimp yourself, as I recommend, it pays to buy larger shrimp and cut down on the work. Go for those in the range of 30 to 40 per pound (sometimes labeled U-40 as in “under 40”), or even larger if the cost is not prohibitive. To subtly improve the flavor of the shrimp, add other seasonings to the poaching liquid—the easiest thing is to grab a handful of pickling mix, which usually contains peppercorns, allspice, bay leaf, and coriander and dill seeds. Throw in a couple of cloves of garlic or a piece of onion if you like.

This is a nearly traditional salad in which the grapefruit plays a leading role, complementing mild shrimp and allowing you to make an almost ridiculously easy dressing, made up of nothing more than fish sauce (called nam pla in Thailand and nuoc mam in Vietnam), or soy, lime, a bit of sugar, and some water. Use good shrimp—Pacific or Gulf whites are the best, though the less expensive and widely available tiger shrimp are acceptable—and buy them big, because you’ll have fewer to peel.