On Cooking Fish (Poaching)

100 !
This is the 100th post on elgeffe so i'll make it a special one explaing the superb technique of poaching fish. It is rather time consuming, but i gets the very best result, wonderful soft fish with maximal flavour! The secret is: you don't use high temperatures so no tender meat breaks down.

The protein in the fish will harden @ 67 °C, you want to accomplish that but you don't want to raise the temperature much further. How is this done ? We create a 'court-bouillon' (short, easy stock) cool it down, put the fish in it, put it in the oven and slowy let the temperature rise. Ideally you don't get over 70 °C, but practically you would go to about 80 °C.

This is how i create 'court-bouillon' for fish in general.

Ingredients
one carrot
one onion
one pascal celery stalk
one glass of white wine
one clove of garlic (crushed lightly with the flat side of the cooking knife)
500 ml water
bouquet garni: one bay leaf, a branch of thyme, some parsley.
black peppercorns
clove

Preparation
Carve the carrot and celery lengthwise.
Peel the onion, stick the clove in
Add all the ingredients in a pan, bring to the boil
Let it cook slowly for about an hour with the lid on then let it cool down in the pan
When cooled down pass it through a, pointy strainer and put it in the refrigerator

Wait until cooled down and read elgeffe tomorrow to for a the perfect salmon recipe !