Eat. More. Seafood.
Chef Daniel Pliska teaches us a very easy, foolproof method for cooking (almost) any type of fish.
We learn how to cook fish like a chef
NEW: Podcast!
Recipe of the Week: Oven-Poached Salmon
The Weekly Plan (March 8-13)
March is National Nutrition Month. It’s also Lent time (Harvey grew up Catholic), so what a great time to incorporate more seafood into our dinners! Cooking fish can be intimidating, for sure. But I spoke with my friend Chef Daniel Pliska, a former executive chef for clubs, fine-dining restaurants and hotels who currently teaches culinary arts at Ozarks Technical College in Springfield, Missouri, who shared with us a very easy, virtually hand-free, foolproof technique for cooking many types of seafood: Oven-poaching!
Oven poaching is just how it sounds—the combination of low and slow cooking fish in a liquid. Chef Pliska often reaches for white wine to make a fish fumet, the base of a classic lemon beurre blanc (as in his recipe I shared below). But if you don’t have wine or vermouth on hand or want go NA, you can use a little broth, a little clam juice or even just some good quality extra-virgin olive oil to create the “bath” for the fish. Add to that shallots, herbs and aromatics, and you’ve got an elegant, flavorful and nutritious dinner awaiting.
“Just take a casserole dish, put a little bit of soft butter on the bottom and some chopped shallots, then a nice piece of salmon or flaky whitefish like halibut or cod, add about a quarter inch of wine, cover with foil and put it in the oven,” Chef Daniel says. “The liquid cooks the fish and releases a lot of flavor, while also creating a flavorful broth you can turn into a sauce. The technical term is called cuisson, which means ‘cooking liquid.’ It’s a very healthy way to cook.”
“Normally around 325°F is good because you don’t want to cook the fish too fast; if it boils, the fish becomes tough,” Chef Daniel says. “For more tender fish like sole or flounder, 10 to 15 minutes is about all you need. When I take it out of the oven, I look at the fish. Sometimes it’s cooked on the outside and the inside is still a little rare. You can touch it—if it’s soft in the middle and firmer outside, it’s not done.” Pull the fish when the internal temperature gets between 125°F and 130°F for just cooked doneness (temperature will continue to rise when resting).
To build the sauce, Chef Daniel says to transfer the cooking liquid to a saucepot, reduce it by about half or ¾, add some herbs, turn of the heat, and stir in cold butter for a beurre blanc. You can also stir in a little cream or sometimes I’ll do a tablespoon of Dijon mustard for a dairy-free version.
Chef Daniel doesn’t recommend the oven-poaching technique for meatier fish like tuna and swordfish—those are best pan-seared like steak. But oven-poaching works for any flaky fish and even shrimp and scallops!
I often keep a bag of wild-caught shrimp and scallops in the freezer to have on hand and asked Chef Pliska how bad would it be if I took it straight from the freezer to the oven. I wasn’t surprised by his response. “I wouldn’t do that because it can get rubbery, but it doesn’t take long to thaw shrimp,” he says. “Just put them in a bowl and run some cool water over them and let them sit while you prep other things, maybe refreshing the water once.”
For herbs, “dill and tarragon work very well with fish; chives are good, and fennel and tarragon go well together, but I would stay away from rosemary and thyme as they’re too strong,” Chef Daniel says.
I asked Chef Daniel how to repurpose any leftover fish and he suggested making fish cakes! I often do this, I actually included a recipe for them in yesterday’s The Weekly Plan newsletter here. “You can make also make a seafood stew or chowder,” he says. Here’s a recipe for that, and I always love a good cioppino.
Here’s a cheat sheet for oven-poaching fish.
Chef Daniel’s Oven-Poached Salmon! I included some suggested sides.
I started populating the podcast page with my interviews with my chef friends. Here’s my “Cook Like a Chef Conversations” episode with Chef Daniel where we talked about the oven-poaching cooking method and about seafood! You can also learn about him more on his website and blog here. Here’s the written version if you’d rather read the full Q&A.
This week’s plan included another round of buy/cook once, use twice, a solid way to save money, time and effort. I included the oven-poached salmon above, a fish cake recipe using the leftover fish or tinned fish, a hot honey chicken recipe and a couple recipes using ground pork/chicken/turkey! Click here to get the plan!
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