French🐟 Seafood

Normandy-Style Cider Poached Fish with Cream Sauce

Name: Normandy-Style Cider Poached Fish with Cream Sauce
Total time: 25 min
Yield: 2 servings
Cuisine: French
Ingredients: 2 Salmon fillet (skin removed); 250 ml Normandy cider; 2-3 tbsp Shallots, finely diced; ~2 tbsp Salted butter; 150-200 ml Cream; ~2 tbsp Fresh parsley, chopped; ~1 Lemon; to taste Salt; to taste Black pepper

⏱ 25 min🍽 Serves 2

A classic Normandy-style fish dish that swaps white wine for apple cider. The fillet is gently poached in cider, and the flavorful cooking liquid is transformed into a rich, velvety cream sauce. Simple enough for a weeknight yet tastes like it's straight from a French bistro.

Adapted from a video by French Cooking Academy

Stop Pan Frying Your Fish! Try This easy Normandy Poach Instead

Watch on YouTube

Ingredients

Salmon fillet (skin removed)Or use another firm white fish, such as mackerel2
Normandy cider250 ml
Shallots, finely diced2-3 tbsp
Salted butterUsed to grease the baking dish~2 tbspest.
Cream150-200 ml
Fresh parsley, chopped~2 tbspest.
LemonJuiced, for a touch of acidity~1est.
Saltto taste
Black pepper

Steps

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1
Remove the skin from the fish: lay the fillet skin-side down, then use a long thin filleting knife to slide between the flesh and skin, pressing down and pushing forward to cleanly remove the skin.
2
Preheat the oven to 200°C (about 400°F) and lightly grease a baking dish with salted butter.
3
Scatter half the diced shallots over the bottom of the baking dish, place the fish fillets on top, then sprinkle the remaining shallots and season with salt and pepper.
4
Pour in the cider until it comes about three-quarters of the way up the fish — it doesn't need to be fully submerged.
5
Loosely cover the dish with a sheet of parchment paper (leaving a small vent for steam), then bake for about 15 minutes to poach/braise the fish. Larger fillets may need more time — cook just until done, being careful not to overcook.
6
As soon as the fish is cooked, remove it immediately and transfer to a tray, spooning a little of the cooking liquid over it to keep it moist. Cover and keep warm in a low oven (50-60°C, or with the door ajar) while reserving all remaining cooking juices for the sauce.
7
Pour the reserved cooking juices (with cider, shallots, and seasoning) into a wide sauté pan and bring to a boil over medium-high heat, reducing for a few minutes to concentrate the flavor — this helps prevent the cream from curdling later.
8
Stir in the cream and continue to boil, reducing for about 5 minutes until the sauce reaches a spoon-coating consistency.
9
Taste and adjust the seasoning, add a few drops of lemon juice for acidity, stir in the chopped parsley for color, and add pepper to taste — the sauce is now ready.
10
Mix any juices released from the resting fish back into the sauce (briefly reboiling if needed), then plate the fish, generously ladle the sauce over it, and finish with a sprinkle of parsley. Serve with a lemon wedge on the side if desired.

Normandy-Style Cider Poached Fish with Cream Sauce

Ingredients

Steps

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