If there is one fish recipe you should know, it’s this one – baked fish en papillote. It’s delicious, fool-proof, healthy, easy, budget-friendly, and fun. Does that check all the necessary boxes? Oh, did I mention it’s easy? There is minimal prep and then it all goes into the oven, out of your sight for 10 minutes. You can use this time to sip a glass of wine, de-stress while enjoying the new smells emanating from your oven, or make a quick salad or vegetable side.
If you’ve never made chicken or fish en papillote, I highly encourage you to give it a try. It’s actually more fun than fussy. All you’re doing is creating an air-tight pouch with parchment paper (“en papillote” literally means “in parchment” in French) or aluminum foil. You remember arts and crafts hour during kindergarten where you got to cut up big pieces of colored paper and then fold it into cool things? Well, this will be a throwback to those days. If you have kids, invite them into the kitchen to help. They’ll be able to teach you a thing or two about cutting along the lines and folding I’m sure.
Alright, back to our recipe . . . I like to make this dish with tilapia because it’s available at any grocery store and not an expensive way to include fish in your diet (just make sure your tilapia is from the right places for the best benefits). Since tilapia is rather bland, it’s perfect for baking en papillote. It gets infused with the flavors you put into the pouch and ends up juicy and tender. You can doctor this up with lots of different flavors, but the recipe I’m sharing today features a classic French vinaigrette consisting of Dijon mustard, shallots, sherry or red wine vinegar, and olive oil. Double the vinaigrette portion, and you have a salad dressing that goes well with just about any type of salad. Tres intelligent?
If you’d like to see a video demo on how to fold the parchment pouches, click on the video below:
For more en papillote recipes, click here
View Comments