Poaching Nemo.

It’s the pictures. If the photo of the finished product doesn’t inspire me, then I just can’t get excited.

Poached Salmon Steak

The picture for this recipe has a half-in-the-water-half-out, picture of a u-shaped cut of salmon (I think it’s called a darne) floating with a bunch of insipid looking vegetables. Now look, I know that the vegies add to the flavour and I know that it’s pretty unlikely that Jamie is going to have a tasteless concoction is his book, but if it ain’t pretty, I’m just not convinced. Does that make me a superficial foodie?

Regardless, I knew it had to be done and as I had most of the vegies already in the fridge I decided today was as good a day as any. So, into a saucepan I put sliced carrot, fennel, tomato, celery and onion with thyme, parsley, a bay leaf, salt, black peppercorns, a splash of white vinegar and enough water to cover it all. Then I brought it to the boil and dropped in some peas and the salmon steak (of the normal fillet shape – not a u-shaped darne). I turned it down, left it to simmer for 5 minutes, then turned it off and left it to sit for another five.

Come on – you have to admit, it doesn’t look great.

Jamie makes a kind suggestion at the end of the recipe – other ways to eat the poached fish other than just as piece of poached fish with some vegies, one of which was mixed with mashed potato to make fish cakes. Which I did – well the mixed with mash part, but they didn’t exactly look like fish cakes.

Not to worry, it looked a lot better than the picture in Jamie’s book, that’s for sure.

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