COD FILLETS BAKED IN PARCHMENT PAPER
Easy summer dinners mean as little preparation as possible when the days are steamy and you’d rather spend them at the beach. This technique, called EN PAPILLOTE, sounds fancy but is as simple as creating parchment paper (or foil packets) around a stack of ingredients and baking them. Creating an envelope seals in flavor and is guaranteed to yield moist fish.
This recipe combines mild cod fillets with summer vegetables, sliced lemon, and garden-fresh herbs. The variations are endless. Feel free to switch in snapper or salmon for cod, spinach, or broccoli for potato slices, sun-dried tomatoes for fresh. Build this simple summer meal to suit your family’s tastes. It’s quick and easy.
Serves 4
Gluten-free and kosher
Recipe: Liz Rueven, www.kosherlikeme.com and on Instagram @kosherlikeme
Ingredients
- 1 Potato, sliced very thin lengthwise* Salt and freshly ground pepper to taste
- 4 Cod Fillet, 4-6 oz. each
- 2 Lemon, cut into 4-5 slices each
- 2 Tomatoes, (red and yellow heirlooms are especially beautiful here), cut into ¼ rounds
- 2 Zucchini, small, cut in half and then sliced lengthwise
- 4 tsp. Olive Oil, 12 sprigs fresh thyme or basil leaves
Directions
- Preheat the oven to 450 degrees Fahrenheit.
- Tear parchment paper or heavy-duty silver foil into 4 pieces, approximately 1-foot square.
- In the center of one piece of parchment, stack a slice of potato seasoned with salt and pepper, followed by 1 fish fillet.
- Continue building your stack with a slice of lemon, tomato, more salt and pepper, zucchini, fresh herbs. Drizzle the stack with 1 tsp. olive oil.
- Bring 2 sides of parchment paper into the middle of your piled ingredients and fold over 2-3 times until the package is tight. Twist or fold ends of paper and tuck under your stack so the ends are on the bottom.
- Repeat and seal the remaining packages. Place 4 envelopes into a baking dish.
- Bake for 30 minutes or until fish is opaque.
- Serve closed parcels to each diner to bring a little drama to the table.
Note: Cooking time may vary depending on the thickness of the fish fillet. Red snapper is thinner than cod so reduce cook time to 20-25 minutes. *Be sure to slice potatoes thinly so they cook through.