Tomatillo salsa offers fresh approach to poaching salmon

The French love to cook fish by poaching it in a flavored liquid, usually a combination of white wine and water, leeks or onions, and some herbs. It's a notably lean way to roll because there's no fat involved. And the finished product is reliably tender because it's been cooked at a low temperature.

So, it's lean, tender and ... quite boring. I crave more flavor and texture. So here's a recipe for poached salmon that adds the missing elements.

Typically, poaching calls for a lot of liquid. The fish is supposed to be submerged as it cooks, after which the liquid usually is tossed. I wanted a way to poach the fish in a small amount of liquid, which then could do double duty as a sauce. Given that fish generally requires a spritz of acid to brighten it up, the ideal liquid needed to be acidic and intensely flavored. Green salsa - that is, tomatillo salsa with chilies and lime juice - struck me as a likely candidate.