Butter Poached Trout

This is the butter poaching mixture I used for poaching my trout yesterday. I love butter poaching, especially for fish, as it is an easy, fast, and gentle way of perfectly cooking fish and gives a wonderful flavor. Straight butter can be used (I always use salted), but here I flavored it. I used this recipe for trout but it may be used on a variety of other fishes and even vegetables and other proteins. The herbs and spices may also be varied to better suit the flavors. 

Butter Poaching Liquid
3 pounds salted butter
1 cup white wine
splash apple cider vinegar
3 bay leaves
2 star anise
fennel seeds
crushed red chili flakes
dill weed
dried tarragon
peppercorns

Melt the butter in a medium saucepan over low heat. Add in the remaining ingredients and leave mixture to steep until just lukewarm. 
For service the way I recommend is doing it is to keep the batch in the pot, then ladle some into a small pot to poach individual portions of fish. The butter can be used a few times until it goes brown, then it should be discarded.
If poaching multiple pieces of fish at one time, just use the big pot.
Poaching time is only a couple of minutes, depending on size. Gently lower the fillet into the pot then turn heat to high. Boiling will cook the fish more quickly but will also cause the butter to brown quickly. A more gentle simmer is better.