Poached Haddock

Fish is something I am really fussy about. As a teenager I was a vegetarian, I ate fish and dairy products but I didn’t eat meat. My father, the biological one bbq’d a fish for me once, but it was over cooked, dry and it had a really peculiar texture to it, on the outside, oh my goodness, it was just really foul. I don’t like the bones either, that’s more of a phobia though, and probably why I don’t like bones in general. In 1982, I was really young at the time but it sticks out in my mind like it was yesterday. At about the sametime as the Queen Mother, I got a fish bone stuck in my throat, fortunately for me, I was sick and it got dislodged and came back up again unlike the Queen Mother who required and operation to remove it. All fish bones put me off now, even the teeny weeny tiny ones, that you can eat. The moment that I feel them in my mouth, my gag reflex, which is sensitive at the best of times, works over time. I keep trying but I just can’t get passed it no matter how hard I try. So fish has to be filleted already, when I do it myself I enjoy it even less than usual, you can bet your bottom dollar that if there is going to be a bone it will be in my portion. I can eat fish in one of three ways, poached, ‘en papillote’ – which is a folded pouch or parcel, either out of tinfoil or baking paper, I usually use tinfoil because I have plenty of it in the house but the more traditional way is to do it in the baking paper/parchment. You can serve it on the plate still wrapped up, and then when the recipient opens it, they get a lovely waft of delicious smelling steam, it looks attractive too. I also like to smoke it on the bbq using one of those smoker planks. Poaching tends to be my method of choice though, less fiddly I suppose and faster, usually, plus you get the added bonus of using the liquid to make a sauce. Although I read one of Heston Blumenthals recipe books and he suggests poaching it in olive oil over a low heat, he says it’s even tastier. Basically his method is to bring the oil up to 50˚C/122˚F add the fish and then bring it back up to the 50˚C/122˚F and cook the fish that way, I can’t remember the times but I do know the core temperature of the fish should be 45˚C/113˚F, I think the only reason I remember that much is because I was surprised at how low that seemed. I’ll have to try it one day.

 

Poached Haddock in a Cream Sauce

2 smoked haddocks

2 tbsp crème fraiche

10g butter

150ml whole milk

Ground black pepper

1tsp dried parsley

1. In a skillet place your fish and pepper covering it in the milk, gently simmer for about 10-12 minutes, until the fish is cooked, it will flake easily once it is done, remove the fish and place it on a plate covering with tinfoil.
2. Increase the heat, add the crème fraiche and simmer for a few minutes, so that the sauce reduces and thickens slightly, whisk in the butter and return the fish back to the sauce, let it simmer gently for a little longer, sprinkle with the parsley and serve.