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2. When all the leeks are added, cook for another minute. Add salt and pepper to taste and stir, then add the fish. Cover and turn off the heat or keep the heat at an absolute minimum. Uncover and check the fish after 3 minutes; it is done when a thin-bladed knife encounters no resistance. Continue to check every minute until the fish is done.

3. Serve the fish with the leeks and some broth spooned over it; top all with a sprinkling of coarse salt.

VARIATIONS

• Use any aromatic vegetable you like in place of the leeks, alone or in combination: shallots, onions, scallions, garlic, celery, or carrots (cut carrots into very small pieces or shred them on a grater or in a food processor so they’ll cook quickly).

• Add fresh herbs, especially parsley, chervil, or dill, alone or in combination.

• Add spices, alone or in combination. For example, for a North African-style dish, use a few coriander seeds, a small piece of cinnamon, and a little cumin. Or add a couple of teaspoons of curry powder to the broth.

• You can also use this technique for thicker fillets, like red snapper, sea bass, or cod. After you cover the skillet, keep the heat on low and, after about 6 minutes, check the fish every minute. When a thin-bladed knife encounters no resistance, the fish is done; when it begins to flake, it’s overdone—but only slightly, and it will still be juicy.

SPARKLING CIDER-POACHED FISH

MAKES 4 SERVINGS

TIME: 15 MINUTES

THIS IS A simple marriage of butter, shallots, and mushrooms, splashed in a dose of hard cider (the dry, sparkling kind from France or England, sold nearly everywhere you can buy beer and wine) and used to poach fish in a hot oven. The fish may be haddock, cod, monkfish, halibut, red snapper, or any other white-fleshed fish. The cider provides a distinctively sour fruitiness, not at all like white wine, and the completed dish has complementary textures: crunchy shallots, meaty mushrooms (portobellos are good here), and tender fish.

1 tablespoon butter

½ cup sliced or minced shallot

1 cup roughly chopped portobello or other mushrooms

1½ pounds white-fleshed fish fillet, like cod or red snapper, about 1 inch thick, in 1 or 2 pieces

Salt and freshly ground black pepper

1 cup dry sparkling cider

1. Preheat the oven to 500°F. Smear the bottom of an ovenproof skillet with the butter; sprinkle the shallot and mushrooms around the sides of the skillet. Season the fish with salt and pepper to taste and lay it in the center of the skillet. Pour the cider around the fish.

2. Bring to a boil on top of the stove, then transfer to the oven. Bake for about 8 minutes; it’s highly unlikely the fish will need more time than this unless it is very thick (or you like it very well done). Baste with the pan juices and serve.

VARIATIONS

• The lone improvement you can make to the main recipe is to add more butter. Although I stopped at 4 tablespoons—½ stick—I realized that there really was almost no upper limit as far as my taste buds were concerned. But the dish is awfully nice when made on the lean side, too.

• Substitute any aromatic vegetable, or a combination, for the shallot: onion, leek, carrot (cut very small), celery, fennel, scallion.

• Use a mixture of mushrooms, or fresh mushrooms combined with reconstituted dried mushrooms. A little of the strained mushroom-soaking liquid added to the poaching liquid is nice, too.

• A teaspoon of thyme leaves added to the poaching liquid is great; also good is parsley (a small handful of stalks), chervil (a small bunch), or dill (a few stalks). Garnish with chopped fresh leaves of the same herb.

• Some seeds are good in the poaching liquid, too—try caraway, coriander, or fennel.

GRILLED FISH THE MEDITERRANEAN WAY

MAKES 4 SERVINGS

TIME: 30 MINUTES

THIS IS ONE of those recipes in which the shopping may take you longer than the cooking, because fennel stalks—or those from dill, which are nearly as good—are often discarded by grocers. When you buy a bulb of fennel, you’re buying the bottom, trimmed of its long stalks;