Poached

I've been a bad blogger this week. I've been busy, which is a good thing. But I should be reprimanded for neglecting my blogger duties.

Tuesday night Lucy and I went with some of my friends from work to see a free show of Shakespeare's "Comedy of Errors" on Boston Common. Lucy and I were actually in the play in high school, so it was fun to see it again and have all the lines come back to us. I packed a little picnic for us that included the blueberry cupcakes and lots of fancy cheese and bread. I also put together a pesto potato salad. It started with 3 different kinds of potatoes from our CSA, including some pretty purple ones.



I boiled these for about 10 minutes then added some green beans, cut into 1 inch pieces.


Those cooked a few minutes more, then were drained and tossed with an arugula pesto. In the food processor, I blended a big bunch of arugula with 4 cloves of roasted garlic, the juice of half a lemon, a couple splashes of champagne vinegar, and a handful of grated parmesan. Then slowly added a drizzle of EVOO until it was saucy. The big batch of salad has lasted me all week. It was delicious with some salmon - but we'll get to that later.


First I want to tell you about an amazing discovery I made, that was also part of the picnic - slow roasted tomatoes! I got this recipe from Molly Wizenberg's book, but adapted it to plump little cherry tomatoes. It could not be easier and the results are sweet, tangy, indulgent little bites that I cannot get enough of.

Slow Roasted Tomatoes

1 pint cherry tomatoes, halved

EVOO

ground coriander

salt & pepper

• preheat oven to 250º
• lay tomato halves, cut side up, on a large baking sheet lined with parchment
• brush tomatoes with a light coating of EVOO, the sprinkle with coriander, salt, and pepper
• roast for about 3 hours, until shriveled but not completely dried
  

Store in a jar and cover with good olive oil. Will be good in the fridge for about a week, if they last that long.


Now on to poaching. This month's Cooking Light magazine has a story about all different ways to cook fish. And I also just happened to read a fish poaching recipe in Amanda Hesser's book Cooking for Mr. Latte. I've never tried this method before - and I cook a lot of fish - so I was intrigued. I decided to try it out with a nice piece of wild salmon. I started by filling a big saute pan with a mixture of white wine, water, lemon juice, sliced shallots, a handful of fennel fronds and salt and pepper.

I put this on a low simmer for about 10 minutes. It smelled amazing! Then I tipped the salmon fillet into the pan.

I returned the liquid to a low simmer and after about 12 minutes removed the salmon and patted it dry. It was perfectly cooked - just barely cooked through and still a little pinker in the middle. I topped it with a sauce of yogurt, creme fraiche, whole grain mustard, lemon juice, and chives.

This is great way to cook fish. Super easy, you get lots of flavor from the poaching liquid, and its very healthy because you're not adding any additional fat in the cooking process. Unless, of course, you add a creme fraiche sauce on top.

But a little creme fraiche never hurt anybody, right?