Poached Salmon For All Seasons

This summer, when my sisters and I had our cooking weekend in the Hamptons, one of the courses was Poached Salmon. It's a specialty of my sister who lives in Florida and the recipe is more 'feel' than 'formal', usually the best kind! Growing up on Long Island our family ate a lot of fish, some of it self caught, but I've gotten away from cooking fish at home instead ordering it when we dine out. Watching the preparation however made me aware of how easy the poaching technique is and I wondered why I had gotten away from making it myself. 

Salmon is great in any season. It's a great course for Easter dinner and in the summer it's light and delicious served with salad greens and corn on the cob. When fall comes around, salmon is just as pleasing served with roasted potatoes and green salad or other green vegetables. I think it's the color that makes it a great autumn offering. Salmon is usually on the menu for our family Christmas dinner making it an attractive alternative to the non-carnivores in our large family. 

When poaching fish make sure that your stove temperature stays low and the liquid does not come to a boil. This makes the fish less likely to break apart when transferring to a serving dish. Poaching is also a much healthier way of cooking. This dish takes about 10 minutes to cook and not long to prepare...what could be better than that? The  salmon used here was purchased fresh from a fish store but just a note that Costco and other large warehouse stores have excellent fresh salmon  that wold work well for a lot of people. 

Poached Salmon

Ingredients

1 and a half pounds fresh salmon

1 cup white wine

salt/pepper 

fresh parsley chopped

1 onion chopped

1 lemon thinly sliced 

1 tablespoon olive oil

Directions

In fry pan:

• Lightly saute sliced onion in olive oil without browning
• Add white wine and salmon simmering without boiling
• add chopped parsley, salt and pepper to taste
• Add sliced lemon
• Simmer for 10 minutes or until salmon i not translucent.
• Transfer fish to platter and sprinkle with 1 tablespoon chopped parsley arranging sliced lemons on top.

Just a note: The leftover salmon was served cold for lunch the following day. Chopped celery and just a small amount of mayonnaise were added. The lemons were discarded but the flavor added just a touch of citrus to the salad. Nothing went to waste!