Wild Alaskan Salmon Poached In Vinho Verde with Garlic Scapes:

When you have a beautiful piece of fish, you really don’t need to do a whole lot to it.  Rather, restraint is really the rule of the day so that the subtle flavors really shine.  As such, poaching is a great way to cook a special piece of fish.  There’s no browning, crisping the skin, etc.  It’s just a very simple and fairly quick way to prepare the fish, imparting slight flavors from the poaching liquid but really still keeping things simple.  Here, I chose to poach the salmon in a Vinho Verde and I chose it for a couple of reasons.  First, this type of Portuguese wine is relatively inexpensive, which makes it a great choice to use as a cooking wine.  Secondly, it is a young wine that doesn’t have too much complexity in terms of taste.  It just has a nice straight forward taste that has nice acidity.  It’s easy to drink and, when cooking it adds just enough flavor to a dish without completely overpowering the dish.

Garlic scapes, also called garlic shoots, are pretty great.  They look interesting in that they are bright green and have a curly shape.  They possess a garlic flavor that I think is slightly less dramatic than regular garlic cloves.  Scapes can be found right around this time and for a few more weeks moving forward at farmer’s markets and certain specialty stores.  Here, I kept them whole but you can chop them up as finely or as coarsely as you like and you use them just as you would a regular clove of garlic.  Since they are only available for a few weeks, if you find them, I’d suggest stocking up…they freeze pretty well!  Recipe follows after the jump… Continue reading →