Dinner with NO dishes!
Imagine a delicious dinner served right at home-with no dirty dinner dishes!
Give this Poisson au Papillote a go. All of ingredients are placed in a paper packet and backed in the oven. Dinner has never been so good-or easy!
Poission au Papillote
'au papillote' is the French method of wrapping raw ingredients in a parcel of parchment paper and roasting in a hot oven-allowing the steam to build and cook the food.
Always open your papillote in front of dinner guests for a dramatic reveal.
Yields about 6 servings
Ingredients:
2 sheets parchment paper, each about 16-inches long
1 whole fish, cleaned and scaled, about 2 pounds
Salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
½ cup olive oil
¼ cup fresh flat leaf parsley, rough chopped + 3 springs
6 large cloves garlic, thinly sliced
¼ teaspoon red pepper flakes
4 large Roma tomatoes, quartered
1 large red bell pepper, cut into strips
1 large lemon, sliced + 1 small lemon, cut into 8 wedges
½ cup Spanish olives with pimentos
8 fresh thyme sprigs
1/3 cup dry white wine
Directions:
Heat oven to 450*F.
Liberally season the fish, inside and out, with salt and pepper; set aside.
Combine the oil, chopped parsley, garlic, and red pepper flakes, set aside.
Place one sheet of parchment paper on a large baking sheet and add half of the oil mixture.
Place half of the tomatoes, bell pepper, sliced lemon, thyme, and olives on the oil mixture, put the fish on top.
Place the parsley springs and lemon wedges inside the fish. Pour the remaining oil on top of the fish and add the remaining tomatoes, bell pepper, sliced lemon, thyme and olives. Season with salt and pepper.
Top with thyme springs and pour wine over the fish.
To seal the papillote, cover the entire fish with the 2nd sheet of parchment paper and starting at one end, fold both pieces of parchment paper together along the outside edge; in tight overlapping folds. Tuck the last fold under the papillote.
Place baking sheet in preheated oven and roast 20-25 minutes, the parchment paper with rise as the steam builds inside the papillote.
Transfer the papillote to a warm platter, carefully slit to top with a sharp knife and serve immediately.
Recipe excerpt from Dinner Déjà Vu: Southern Tonight, French Tomorrow, by Jennifer Hill Booker, © 2017 Jennifer Hill Booker, used by permission of the publisher, Pelican Publishing Company, Inc.