Poached Salmon
20/07/2008
Before I got really sniffly and gross-out sick, I was actually having a pretty good time knitting and cooking.
On Wednesday, I poached myself a couple of salmon steaks – in an effort to re-create that dish that I loved eating at SG Ikea.
We’ve been heading the the Palo Alto Ikea – it’s slightly further than the Emeryville one, but we don’t have to cross the bridge, and we usually make a little stop over at A and R’s to drop off their order of preserved beets. Though slightly larger than the ones I’m used to back home, the cafeteria quality is nowhere compared to ours in SG. If that can even be possible.
The little old cafeteria ladies at the Alexandra Ikea were always pretty pleasant, and the food was astonishingly normal. Not the gourmet feast, but the salmon seemed pretty fresh – not like yesterday’s leftovers – and the chicken wings had a healthy turnover. I mean, there is usually a line to get in come lunchtime!
The cafeteria at Palo Alto Ikea – is how cafeterias are usually depicted in US movies or TV shows. Unhappy, unfulfilled kitchen staff wearing ridiculous white showercaps doing the same mundane thing over and over again, and food that looks like Rover’s leftovers. It’s not even funny.
So, when I saw a couple of salmon steaks at Safeway the other day, I decided it can’t be all that difficult to poach salmon. I mean, people do more to poach halibut! Well, they pretty much have to, halibut is just boring whitefish.
A quick search off my still favourite Search Engine, and I found this recipe: Dill Poached Salmon. It seemed easy enough. Chicken stock, salmon fillets, dill. As expected of a real hardcore cook like me, I had no chicken stock, no dill, but at least I’ve got the salmon! We’re ready to rumble.
So, in a shallow pot went my two fillets of salmon, enough water to cover half of it, some sliced ginger, four nubs of garlic, some kaffir lime zest and juice. When the water started to boil, I just put it on low and simmered the fish gently. Took all in all about 15 minutes with the pot covered. The fish came out fantastic – juicy, tender and soft. Just a teensy tad fishy. Maybe next time I try more ginger, or a butter-dill sauce like at Ikea. But really. What kind of half-assed cook would I be if I had dill around the house. I’m raising some mint and parsley, by the way. And basil. So perhaps when they grow up, I might actually make a decent meal.
Boiled some potatoes, then tossed them with olive oil and garlic. Yay. Done.
