Happy New Year! : Fish en Papillote

Happy New Year! : Fish en Papillote

I hope everyone's having as wonderful of a New Year as I am. Mr. S. and I rang out 2010 by making a spontaneous day trip to SF yesterday. We perused all the little shops in Nihonmachi (Japantown), slurped up some noodles at a ramen-ya and closed out the afternoon by exploring Fort Point out by the Presidio. We decided to spend NYE at home with his kidlets and leave the drinking and rabble-rousing to the amateurs; but we did manage to stay up until midnight and greet the New Year with horns, poppers and LOTS of laughter. 1/1/11 started out great as well...we all slept in (even the dog) and Mr. S. made an amazing breakfast of eggs, beef hash, thick bacon, SPAM, and OJ/milk/coffee. Mmm! And yes, I did say SPAM. Shhh, it's my dirty little secret! I would not eat green eggs and ham...but I sure as heck would eat fried eggs and SPAM!  ;)

Anyhow, what better way is there to start a new year than with a clean slate and a little "present."  Fish en Papillote aka Fish in Parchment Paper is delicious, easy and involves very little clean up (yay!). The nifty part is that you can use this basic cooking method and switch out the type of fish, veggies and/or sauce and each time you'll have a different dish. If you haven't had Fish en Papillote before, you're in for a treat! The first waft of aroma you inhale when you "unwrap" the package is heavenly. Now get to it, time's a wastin'!

(Right out of the oven)

(Unwrapped & ready to eat!)

Fish en Papillote


Ingredients

Parchment paper

4 (6 to 7-ounce) portions of Alaskan cod (low in fat and calories, high in protein)

Salt and freshly ground black pepper

1 bunch green onions, cut into 1-inch pieces

1/2 pound shiitake mushrooms, stemmed and sliced

1 large carrot (I like to use a vegetable peeler and "shave" long slices off, it looks prettier than chunks)

1 lemon, sliced or wedges

3 to 4-inch knob of ginger, grated

4-5 large cloves of garlic, minced

6 tablespoons honey

4 tablespoons rice vinegar

6 tablespoons Kikkoman soy sauce


Instructions

- Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.

- Rip off 4 pieces of parchment to form packets each about 12-inches long.

- Season fish with salt and pepper.

- Place a piece of parchment in a shallow dish then in the center of the paper stack 1/4 of the green onions/ shiitakes/ carrot peels, sprinkle with grated ginger and minced garlic and top with fish.

- Combine the honey, vinegar and soy sauce and pour 1/4 of the sauce over fish.

- Fold over the top of the parchment then roll the sides in tightly to form a sealed pouch.

- Repeat with remaining parchment sheets and ingredients.

- Arrange the pouches on a baking sheet and roast in hot oven for 20 minutes. (Sometimes the parchment paper will turn brown...no worries, it's fine as long as it's not burning)

- Serve on a plate with a side of lemon.

- To open: you can slice the packet open with a sharp knife or carefully unwrap it, your choice. Be careful, the steam will be very hot.

Makes 4 servings.


( Recipe adapted form RR's Ginger-Garlic Fish in Parchment )