06 Nov Flounder En Papillote
You like opening up presents? Of course, who doesn’t!
How about presents filled with succulent fish filets, perfect al dente vegetables and the scent of wine with the first piercing of your package?
This preparation is one of my favorite single person go to meals. It’s also the equivalent of the ‘one pot meal’. Almost no clean up. It involves preparing, cooking and eating in the same container. Which in this case is parchment paper. If you have never used this baking paper, you really need to run and get some immediately. It’s one of the staples of a properly stocked pantry.(It’s also a great last minute substitute for gift-wrapping paper) It’s a wonderful product because no food will ever stick to it. You could also certainly use foil instead of parchment, but you would have to make sure you lubricate your foil, or use a nonstick.
So basically what we’re going to do is put a piece of thin fish filet, some thin cut vegetables, and some wine (you could use chicken stock) in a pocket of parchment paper. You can use any type of fish, as long as its pretty thin. If you have a think cut of fish then you would just slice it lengthwise just to insure it gets cooked through. We will fold it up and bake in the oven. This will steam the stuff inside our pocket leaving us with a delicious and quite impressive meal that can be done in less than twenty minutes! Once cooked you have your own Pocket o’goodness to place entirely on your plate and feast.
Using en papillote is an extremely healthy cooking preparation because of the lack of oil used in the process. Any ingredients you put inside the pocket will steam together along with the help of the liquid you add. I love using wine because it adds big flavor without doing much. This is a great recipe because you could play with it so many different ways. You could use almost any vegetable you have laying around your kitchen; squash, onions, potatoes, broccoli, green beans, peppers, anything! Since you’re only cooking this meal for 15 minutes, it is important to cut your vegetables think and small enough to insure you properly cook them through. Some recipes call for cooking some of the vegetables a little bit before you assemble the pockets, but I don’t do this. I simply like my vegetables with a little crisp. Plus, the difference in taste is not significant enough for me to take that extra step and sauté my vegetables before I assemble my pockets.
8 oz filet of fish. (Flounder in this recipe)
1 small potato
½ Red Pepper
2 Leaves of Swiss Chard
1 Stalk of Celery
Lemon slices
A tab of butter
A Few Basil Pieces (Any herbs at hand)
Splash of White wine
Salt and pepper
Here is my method:
Preheat your oven to 400 degrees
Slice vegetables into thin matchsticks
Slice potato as thin as you can
Chop Swiss Chard
Cut a large rectangle piece of Parchment Paper, fold in half and unfold
Place your fish over a bed of your vegetables
Lay your lemon slices, butter and splash with your wine
*Make sure you season each layer
Fold the parchment over and start crimping the edges creating a pocket and folding the end under so the liquid doesn’t escape
Place in oven for fifteen minutes, or until the pocket have puffed up
Place on your plate and Serve immediately
Oooh and ahhh as you tear open your gorgeous pocket and top off your glass with some of the wine left from the recipe.
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