Simple, vegetarian recipes found for and cooked at our Co-op.

Thursday, April 22, 2010

Do you know: What cooking en papillote is?

En papillote is french for "in parchment" and its a cooking method where you literally bake food in a parchment pouch. Although usually actual parchment is used you can also use aluminum foil. Cooking en papillote is so awesome because it keeps all the moisture entrapped in the parcel during cooking. Although this is usually used to cook fish, you can also use the technique to cook really random things like fruit.

I'm not really sure where this recipe is from but it's wonderful:


This is how the fish looks when its nestled into the vegetables





Swordfish en papillote

You'll need:
• 2 swordfish steaks
• 1 large white onion, sliced
• 1 large green bell pepper, sliced
• 1 large red bell pepper, sliced
• 1 tablespoon lemon juice
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 1/4 teaspoon dried dill
• 2 large red tomatos, cut in half

Directions:
1. Thaw the swordfish steaks according to the package instructions. Prehead the oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit.
2. In a large mixing bowl: combine mushrooms, onions, peppers, lemon juice, olive oil and dill.
3. Line a baking pan with aluminum foil
4. Spread half of the vegetable mixture on the bottom of the pan
5. The hard to explain part: you want to use your tomato halves to make a “sandwich” with your swordfish. Put half of the tomato on top and half on bottom of each swordfish steak
6. Nestle each “sandwich” into the vegetable mixture and spread the leftover vegetables on top of the sandwiches.
7. Cover the baking pan with another sheet of foil so it makes a pouch.
8. I always bake mine for 45 minutes but make sure to watch it. Nothing is worse than overcooked fish. You want your swordfish to flake apart easily with a fork but be cooked completely through.

Please note: Fish continues to cook even after you take it out of the oven. Many people make the mistake of cooking if for too long because they don’t take this into account. Thankfully, with the en papillote method, this is less likely to happen.

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