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To Poach or Not to Poach

Written By: Alexandra Perez-Urbina on Tuesday, June 10, 2008

You've heard of boiling, simmering and frying...but what about poaching?

Poaching is an excellent option for cooking healthy AND tasty, and wine, one of the best tools in your kitchen, could bring your dish to a whole new level!

For starters, what is poaching? Poaching isn't boiling or simmering. The temperature for poaching is probably lower than most of us think: 160-180°F. At this temperature, one should see slight movement in the liquid and no bubbles. One of my instructors told my class that poaching is like "a Jacuzzi for your food," evoking the image of a little salmon relaxing in a pot, quietly sipping on some white wine while listening to Mozart. Let your food relax while it poaches -- your food needs the time to absorb all of the flavors anyway!

The best kind of liquid to use for poaching is a flavorful liquid -- not just wine. In general, it's wine, water, and some herbs and spices. I like to make a court bouillon, and rough chop mirepoix (2 parts onion: 1 part carrot: 1 part celery), add chopped garlic, lemon juice (I squeeze it and add the rest of the lemon), Kosher salt (the best to use while cooking as it gives you, the cook, more control), and a bouquet garni -- or "garnished bouquet" (parsley, with stems, thyme, bay leaf, and peppercorns -- you can add, or remove whichever flavor you wish). You can also use stock as your flavorful liquid. You can leave it as is, or add more flavors. The bottom line is, if you want a flavorful dish, use a flavorful poaching liquid.

Poaching fruits can be a delicious, healthy, and a great solution to sweetening unripe fruit. There almost an endless variety of taste combinations depending on what herbs, spices, and liquids you use.

I learned from my instructors that with fruits like pears, it's best to start with a cold liquid and then gradually increase the heat. They said that this will produce the best texture, and that the longer cooking process will allow the fruit to absorb more flavor. The poaching liquid should be on the sweet side in order to complement the fruit's natural sweetness. If the poaching liquid isn't sweet, it should be sweetened. My favorite sweetening agent is probably honey, since honey has a bit of a complex flavor, and liqueurs. The liquid can be wine, juice, water, or a combination of some or all. As far as wines go, fortified wines, like Port, are a favorite tool for chefs poaching fruit -- just make sure it's sweet.

The spices you decide to use should be whole, since the flavor of powdered spices is not as intense as whole spices. The flavoring agents I've seen used most are whole cloves, cinnamon sticks, lemon zest, and pepper corns, but as I said before, you can use almost anything! With lemon zest, be careful not to zest with too much bravura, or some of the bitter rind could make it your poaching liquid making the final product bitter.

Before I started school, I didn't think highly of poaching. I thought that it would yield dull food -- boy was I mistaken! Poaching isn't only extremely flavorful, but it's also healthy, and it's not a method of cooking that you need to police and stir often. Poaching has become my best friend in the kitchen, and I hope it can become your's, too! Happy cooking!

F.Y.I., powdered spices go stale after a few months, so try to buy spices in small amounts -- buy small, keep fresh!

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