Court-bouillon

A poaching liquid simmered and then COOLED before the fish goes in, which is the step that stops the skin tearing.

Vegan.

Ingredients

• 2 litres water
• 400 ml dry white wine
• 100 ml white wine vinegar
• 2 onions, sliced
• 2 carrots, sliced
• 2 celery sticks
• 1 leek, split
• 2 bay leaves
• a few parsley stalks
• 1 teaspoon black peppercorns
• 2 teaspoons salt

Method

1. IT IS SIMMERED FOR THIRTY MINUTES AND THEN COOLED, and the fish goes into COLD liquid. Dropped into a hot court-bouillon the skin tightens and splits and the outside overcooks before the middle is warm. Started cold and brought up slowly together, the fish and the liquid reach temperature at the same rate and it comes out whole.
2. THE VEGETABLES ARE COOKED FIRST AND THEN THE FISH, never together. The point of the thirty minutes is to get everything out of the carrot and onion BEFORE the fish arrives -- the fish itself needs eight minutes and would be ruined by thirty.
3. THE PEPPERCORNS GO IN FOR THE LAST TEN MINUTES ONLY. Simmered the full half hour they turn the liquid harsh, which is a small thing that shows up in a delicate poached fish and nowhere else.
4. Water, wine and vinegar into a wide pan with all the vegetables, the bay and the parsley stalks.
5. Brought to the boil, then down to a simmer for 20 minutes.
6. Peppercorns and salt in. A further 10 minutes.
7. HEAT OFF AND LEFT TO COOL. To room temperature at least, and it can be made the day before and chilled.
8. Strained if you want a clear liquid, or left as it is if the vegetables are being served alongside.
9. To poach: the fish laid in the COLD liquid, which should just cover it, and brought up slowly to about 80C -- a few bubbles at the base and no more.
10. Held there 8 to 10 minutes for fillets, longer for a whole fish, until the flesh parts from the bone at a touch. IT MUST NEVER BOIL.
11. The liquid keeps three days in the fridge and freezes well. Used a second time it is better than the first; used a third it is tired.

Our own recipe. This one was written for this site rather than taken from anywhere, so there is no source to point you at. The quantities and the order of the steps are choices, not the only way to do it.

Filed under France · All recipes