Submersion Cooking Methods

I poached tilapia today in white wine with star anise, scallion whites, fresh thyme and shallots cut into fine rings. I had meant to use salmon, but didn't realise until my poaching liquid was on the stove that I had forgotten to thaw it. So I used tilapia instead. It turned out soft and flavourful, but I would love some sort of a sauce to go on top of it next time. What sort of sauces go well with poached fish? I tried doing a butter with fresh thyme. It was good but not great. I used whole butter, and as the butter melted over medium-low heat, the impurities came to the surface and ended up on my fish, which spoiled its look.

I know people start by poaching eggs, but I really didn't want poached eggs for dinner. I will try poaching eggs for breakfast over the weekend.

Hi Swati, I believe that Tony answered your question here:
http://174.129.228.44/community/forums/12/topics/315?page=1#1770
but I wanted to add that you can emulsify by making a wine butter sauce (beurre blanc). Cook the fish, sweat some shallots in butter, add white wine, reduce by half to 2/3rds, then on very low heat, swirl in the butter. Try 1 cup of wine reduced to 1/3 cup and then whisk in two the three tablespoons of cold butter a bit at a time until fully incorporated. Do not boil or the butter will split. Squeeze in some lemon juice, season and then spoon over fish.

One other comment, thyme is pretty strong and might be too strong of a herb for this fish. Try dill or finely chopped chives next time.

I must express gratitude to all staff who worked on this lessons, this is really useful for me because i am just starting as a chef (finishing school any day now...wish me luck dough:) ) i am really surprised that they are so professionally done, must say some things are explained a lot better then in my catering school, anyway well done and keep up the god work!

What a pleasure to hear...thanks so much! Best of luck to you in your future with cooking.

Ok, so I'm all thumbs when it comes to basic recipe steps like "bring to a simmer." Especially when it's important to prevent the liquid from coming to a boil, I think I tend to put the heat too low. I also have an electric stove, so I'm always worrying what level to actually leave it at to prevent boiling, yet still keep at a simmer....

If you're making a 6L batch of stock, for example, approximately how long should it take to bring it to a simmer?

This will really depend on your stove, how cold the ingredients were to start with etc. (even where you live and the altitude will make a difference). If you are really curious about how long it takes to bring a 6 lt batch of stock to a simmer, I suggest you time it next time you make stock. Cheers!

I did time it, it came to a simmer somewhere in the 40-45 minute range, which feels too long. Isn't it quite long?

It takes longer than you may think to bring that much cold liquid and ingredients to a simmer. This doesn't sound too long to me.

It is funny when you take the time to do things properly (as you are with just bringing it to a slow simmer) you realize that not everything happens as fast as you or I may think they should :-) Cheers!

I want to poach some chicken breast tenders I got to use in salads during the week. After watching the lesson I understand the importance of using a flavorful liquid and the correct temperature.

How do I tell when they're done? Is it based on cooking time? Internal temperature of the poached pieces? Cutting into them? I'm wary of undercooked chicken for health safety reasons, but on the other hand I don't want to cook them to death!

Good question...because you are cooking chicken tenders, which are quite small, it will too hard to take the internal temperature using a thermometer. With practice one can start to determine doneness by touch but as I said this does take practice.

Your best bet is to take one of the tenders out of the poaching liquid (sooner rather than later) and cut into it. If they are not done just keep an eye on them to make sure they do not over cook. It's also a good idea to time the cooking of them so you will know for next time approximately how long they will take to cook. Hope this helps. Cheers!

I have been using Rouxbe for a few weeks now to learn how to better prepare individual elements of my meals, but last Friday I took the day to tackle a full lesson. I planned our dinner menu off the practice portion of the lesson and made poached salmon (but I used the sauce from one the halibut recipes instead of the suggested herb sauce as I thought my family would like it better), lemon-parmesian orzo, roasted asparagus (an old stand-by, so that there was at least one thing I didn't have to think about) and topped it off with the Poire Belle Helene.
It was incredible! I also made some dark stock during the day, for the simmering portion of the lesson, and because I knew my son wouldn't eat more than the required "bite-to-try it" of the salmon. I poached a chicken breast in the dark stock for him.

The best salmon I have ever made. It was so moist that I was even able to reheat the leftovers and it was still perfect! Everything went so well and turned out exactly as it should have. The pears were very different from anything our family has done for dessert before and it was so much fun to have a "fancy" dessert with just our family at the table for no special reason. And it was so easy! Just the kind of dinner I was hoping for.

Thank you, Rouxbe! I am looking forward to my next "Rouxbe Day" - which is going to include steak!

I am learning so much from all of these lessons. I have been cooking since I was very young, but with NO formal training. All of these lessons and especially this one on poaching, simmering and boiling is giving me much more information than I have ever had. Thank you so much for this wonderful opportunity!!!!

Thank you
Louise

Staff,

First of all, many thanks to a wonderful array of cooking lessons.

Please answer a simple question:

What is the boiling point for higher altitudes?

From the lessons, I have learned to identify (by eye) the way the water looks at the three stages.

Thanks,

jtt

There have been several discussions on high altitude cooking in the forum. Just search for "altitude" in the search bar at the top right of any page and click on Forum to review.

There are also several resources on the internet that indicate the boiling point of water at different altitudes. Cheers!

Never could make a great poached egg but this lesson taught me why.

I was just wondering if there is any relation between poaching and pickling? From what I've done some quick research on it seems that an acid or vinegar is used in pickling with no heat applied; however, it seems like some chefs use the terms interchangeably on a few cooking shows when it looks like they are poaching something in an acid and calling it pickling. Not sure if it is a different technique or just terminology used. Thanks for your help!

You are correct that many people seem to use culinary terms interchangeably; however, that does not really mean they are always right. Many chefs and cooks like to use terms to describe what they are doing or what they are cooking simply because certain terms sound more sexy and/or it makes them sound like they know more than you do.

I would say stick to what you know about poaching and what you learned from your searches regarding pickling and keep the terms separate. Hope this helps. Cheers!