Cold-Poached Salmon

I've never poached anything before... and it's too cold and rainy tonight for the BBQ, which is how I have recently been preparing salmon.  So I decided to give it a try.  I read a few recipes and articles including one that recommended cold-poaching over regular poaching.  The author compared the results to sous-vide cooking and it sounded good so I decided to give it a try. 

.... and here we are so clearly the results were tasty enough that it's something I would recommend!

Ingredients

• Salmon fillet(s) that will fit in a flat-bottomed pan (I had 2 large fillets about an inch thick)
• 1/2 cup leftover white wine (we just happened to have some hanging around)
• 1/2 cup water
• 1 clove garlic, sliced
• Some herbs for poaching - I used dried dill, a couple of sprigs of fresh thyme, and some fresh parsley
•  Fresh herbs for garnish (in my case a few chives and some parsley)

Method

1. Start with cold fish from the fridge. That's how it usually is anyhow, so no problem.
2. Put the wine and water and garlic and herbs in a pan on the stove top
3. Place the salmon, skin side down, into the cold water/wine mixture
4. Oh, I just remembered that one of the recipes said to put some butter on top of the fillets but I forgot to do that.  Seemed like a good idea though!
5. Turn the heat on to quite low (I think I started around 3 or 4 out of 10 on the dial)
6. Allow the water to slowly come to a simmer (not a heavy boil)... turn the heat down even lower once it gets going (2/10) to keep things from getting too hot
7. I didn't know whether I should put a lid on or not. I didn't for a long time (like around 12 minutes or more) but then I thought maybe I should...
8. So after 12 minutes or so I put a lid on and then the salmon quickly got opaque on top within about 2-3 mins with the lid on.
9. Once the salmon is opaque, take it off the heat and gently lift the fillets out of the pan onto a serving platter
10. Top the fish with the fresh chives and parsley.

Topping

I think traditionally you'd have some kind of creamy yogourt-dill-type sauce on poached salmon, but that's just not my style.

Instead, I happened to have a pile of pomegranate seeds in the fridge so I cooked up a tiny batch of pomegranate-butter syrup which I drizzled over the fish.  I made that just by smushing the pomegranate seeds to get the juice out, discarding the seedy bits, and simmering it on the stove in a small pot for about 5-10 minutes to reduce it down to a syrup.  I added a bit of butter to the resulting syrup and stirred it together.  I think it was a good accompaniment (but strong, so it didn't take much!). 

That said, if you don't want dill-yogourt sauce either and you don't happen to have pomegranate to get rid of then a little squeeze of fresh lemon would surely be just lovely.

Good served with: oven-roasted baby potatoes + onions and a fresh green salad