A blogger friend, from Switzerland has been telling me to soak fish in Japanese cooking sake for a while now. Yesterday I finally ran over to the Asian store. I found out they carry no Japanese sake, but the lady assured me that Chinese cooking wine is exactly the same as Japanese sake. So I got a bottle of this Chinese equivalent. I went home and soaked two sockeye strips in Chinese cooking wine. Then I ran down to the garden for shallots, got some parsley and a bit of dill. I made a bed of green in a non stick fry pan, laid the salmon strips on top, added some water, covered the pan and quickly poached the most delicious salmon strips ever! For the first time last night I made salmon that didn’t smell up the entire house. The texture was lovely and the taste was delicious. For a fish hater like me, preparing fish with Chinese cooking wine opened up a whole new world of possibilities. The lady said to just pour in a tablespoon of this stuff into every fishy stir-fry and it will take the fishiness away. I just might begin to look forward to Fridays.
PAN POACHED SALMON
2 salmon strips or fillets 1/2 cup Chinese cooking wine or Japanese sake
1 Tbsp olive oil
2 shallots or green onions including stalks
sprigs of fresh dill and fresh parsley
3/4 cup of water
• Soak the salmon in for 1/2 hour in Chinese cooking wine.
• Peel and chop the shallots, wash the fresh dill and parsley and chop into 2-3 inch lengths.
• To a non stick fry pan add 1 Tbsp olive oil.
• Add the shallots, dill and parsley and turn on the heat.
• Lay the marinated salmon with skin side down over the greens.
• Season the fish with salt and pepper.
• Pour the water beside the fish, cover and poach for 4-5 minutes.
• Start checking for doneness early, the fish will be ready rather quickly, and there is a fine line between just done and overdone. I still can’t believe how good this turned out to be.
