Poach

Editor's note: This recipe is excerpted from The 2nd Avenue Deli Cookbook, by Sharon Lebewohl and Rena Bulkin. Gefilte fish, today a prized delicacy, dates from the Middle Ages in Germany, where it was conceived as a fish stretcher — an ancient relative of Hamburger Helper. Religious Jews embraced it as a highlight of Friday-night dinners, because it solved a spiritual dilemma: though the Talmud suggests eating fish on Friday nights, it is forbidden (because it's considered work) to separate fish from bones on the Sabbath. We've found that most people who say they don't like gefilte fish have only tasted the supermarket variety, sold in jars, which is like saying you don't like filet mignon when you've only tasted beef jerky. Happily, preparing authentic gefilte fish from scratch is not an arcane skill possessed only by Jewish great-grandmothers. With today's food processors, it's not even especially difficult. Our recipe is sweet, in the Polish tradition; Russian gefilte fish is more peppery.

Poaching fish in olive oil — a popular restaurant technique — is surprisingly easy and well suited to every-night cooking.

Among the many stories regarding the origins of this dish, the one we deemed "most likely, and most likely to succeed" came to us in 1944. E. Clarke King of Dayton, Ohio, sent us "the original recipe," which he claimed had been invented by George Greenwald, head chef at New York's Brighton Beach Hotel, for his parents (who owned the hotel) in the early 1900s. This time, we've lightened Greenwald's dish with stock and added red, yellow, and orange bell peppers. Even with the changes, though, the dish will likely evoke childhood taste memories for those of a certain age.

Originally introduced in our pages as "an ancient Provençal way of dressing up little green peas," this soup may not qualify as a true bouillabaisse (there is no seafood in sight), but it is comfort in a bowl. And since it uses frozen rather than fresh peas, it can be made at any time of year.

The leftover peach-poaching liquid makes a delicious sweetener for iced tea.

In Mexico, this breakfast dish is called huevos ahogados, meaning "drowned eggs," since the eggs are served in soup bowls with a lot of sauce.

Editor's note: This recipe is excerpted from Eric Ripert and Michael Ruhlman's book the A Return To Cooking. To read more about Ripert, click here. Here salmon is poached simply in salt water and served very rare with mushrooms and a mushroom broth, along with creamy polenta. The polenta adds a starch that the salmon needs, but it is also delicate and won't overwhelm the flavors of the fish. Mushrooms and polenta are a great classical pair, and a sturdy, satisfying match for the meaty salmon.

Editor's note: This recipe is excerpted from Eric Ripert and Michael Ruhlman's book the A Return To Cooking. To read more about Ripert, click here. This is a hugely luxurious dish, with the sweet flesh of the scallops enhanced by a sauce flavored and thickened with caviar. The dish is rich and creamy, sweet and salty. And it's very easy to make. The sauce base is clam juice, cream, and butter. The scallops are poached for just a minute or two, and caviar is added to the sauce just before serving. That is the only tricky and critical part of this dish: You must be careful to heat the sauce gently once the caviar has been added, bringing it just up to heat without letting it boil. It is, after all, an egg-thickened sauce, and you must be careful of overcooking eggs in this sauce or the caviar will turn hard and white. Treat it as the delicate product it is. Or, as Eric would put it, "Don't whisk it like an idiot. You must be extremely gentle."

Pipérade is a dish from the Basque region of France that features tomatoes and green peppers cooked in olive oil. Serve with: French country bread, and baby greens in a Sherry wine vinaigrette.

Rice sticks turn up in soups in many parts of Asia. This recipe was inspired by an aromatic soup offered at Bo Ky, a Vietnamese noodle parlor on Bayard Street in New York City.

Can be prepared in 45 minutes or less.

Can be prepared in 45 minutes or less.

Can be prepared in 45 minutes or less.