Fish en papillote

I have been experimenting with fish en papillote (aka, wrapped in parchment paper)…they have been pretty tasty experiments! I first tried halibut (getting recipe inspiration from Food Network and Food & Wine) with some fennel, carrots, and onion. I left the skin on the halibut and included the fennel fronds and a slice of lemon in the packets, which ended up making things a bit messy and unnecessary. 

Halibut pre-wrapping

Next up was salmon, inspired by Julia’s salmon en papillote with shallots and tomato…and by inspired, I mostly used her recipe for the cooking temperature and times. I found it here, but looks like it was published in “Julia and Jacques Cooking at Home“. I learned my lesson from the halibut and asked the fish guy at Whole Foods to remove the skin, and just used lemon juice instead of a lemon slice. I forgot to take photos of the salmon, even though I liked it better than the halibut!

Salmon en papillote
Serves: 2-3

Halibut packages

Source: adapted from Julia and Jacques Cooking at Home

Ingredients
1/2 Tablespoon olive oil
1 garlic clove, minced
1 medium carrot, thinly sliced crosswise
1 leek, thinly sliced
1 pound skinless salmon fillets, cut into 2-3 portions
Salt and pepper to taste
Lemon juice (from about 1/2 lemon)
Butter, 2-3 small pats

Directions

Halibut, ready to eat

1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees F. Cut a sheet of parchment paper, about 20″ x 15″, for each piece of salmon that you plan to cook.

2. In a medium saute pan, heat olive oil over medium-high heat. Add garlic, carrots, and leeks, and cook 3-5 minutes until slightly soft. Remove from heat.

3. Place each piece of salmon on a piece of parchment paper. Season salmon with salt, pepper, and lemon juice. Top each piece of salmon with some of the carrot and leek mixture, then top with a pat of butter.

3. Fold each packet in half, then crimp the edges to seal the package completely. Set the packages on a cookie sheet and bake for 8-10 minutes (8 minutes if fillet is less than 1″ thick, 10 minutes if fillet is 1-1 1/4″ thick.

4. To serve, carefully open the parchment packages and transfer the fish (along with all of the juices) to a plate.