Poaching Fish

I'm at my mom's house right now in L.A. The weather's beautiful, but I wanted to write a quick blog post about an easy, fool-proof way to cook fish. It's called poaching. Poaching means that you cover food with liquid and simmer it. I like poaching because the fish cooks up quickly and stays moist.

To poach fish, simply put it in a pan and cover it totally or mostly with water. If you want, you can add good things to the water, like onions or other veggies, as shown above. Simmering means gently boiling so that small bubbles appear in the water but not big bubbles. Leave the pan uncovered. If there's a portion of fish that's above the water, like you see above, turn the fish over partway through the cooking.

To test if the fish is done, just see if it flakes, using a fork. The cooking time varies, but the good thing about poaching is that the fish generally won't overcook.

Also, you can simmer fish that's frozen and it will turn out good. The water moderates the temperature of the fish so that it cooks evenly.

I just usually use water without any vegetables. I may be missing out by not putting things in the water, but I like plain fish, so I don't mind just tasting the fish and nothing else.

Once the fish is cooked, you can always top it with a sauce, salsa, herbs, or pureed vegetables.