To poach food is a common cooking technique; think runny poached eggs for breakfast, delicate poached fish for dinner and retro poached pears for dessert. Learn more about the foods you can poach, and then try out these 10 recipes, from poached potatoes to poached quinces.
What is Poaching?
Poach
[pohch](v.) cook by simmering in liquid
From the Old French meaning bag, or pocket, poaching is a technique that cooks food gently and slowly in liquid, and is great way to retain moisture in food.
The low temperature makes it a better cooking technique than simmering or boiling for more delicate foods that would otherwise fall apart if cooked in rapidly boiling liquid.
Properly poached food retain their shape, which is again different to boiling or stewing. Poached food can also be ingredients in themselves. For example, a poached chicken breast can be shredded to make a chicken salad or pulled chicken sandwich.
How to Poach Food?
The ideal temperature for poaching food is between 70 and 80°C, as opposed to boiling water, which happens at 100°C (at sea level anyway). There are two different poaching methods you can try. Shallow poaching partially covers the food in liquid, whereas in deep poaching, the food is completely submerged in the poaching liquid.
The method you choose depends on what you’re cooking. For example, shallow poaching wouldn’t work for ingredients like eggs, but works well for chicken or fish, and even vegetables. Once you have decided on the method, it’s time to think about the poaching liquid.
What’s a Poaching Liquid?
Poaching liquids can be water, stock, butter, milk, even wine!
Typically, eggs are poached in water (with a splash of vinegar), seafood in broth, white wine or even butter, chicken and meat in stock, vegetables in butter, milk and white wine, and fruits are poached in red wine, dessert wine, or spiced-infused water.
Another popular savoury poaching liquid is a court-bouillon, a seasoned ‘short’ broth (as opposed to a more complex stock). It’s typically made from water, an acid (white wine or vinegar), a mirepoix (onions, carrots and celery) and a bouquet garni (herbs and aromatics).
Simple syrups and fruit juice are other interesting poaching liquids for fruits and sweeter ingredients.
What Food can you Poach?
You can poach any food that will hold its shape during a longer cook time submerged at lower temperatures. This includes foods like:
Asparagus, chicken, eggs, leeks, meat, peaches, pears, plums, potatoes, quinces, salmon, scallops and white fish. Poaching can even reconstitute and plump up dried fruit for a compote!
Interested in learning more about poaching food? Here are some recipes and ideas to get you started:
Let me know what your favourite food to poach is in the comments below!
