Wednesday 18 February 2009

If you're afraid of cooking fish...

I have the technique for you! It's fast, easy, delicious, and as a bonus, there is little clean up after. Interested?

If so, here's what you need to make 4 servings:
1) 4 firm fleshed fish fillets (salmon, cod, mahimahi) about an inch thick and 4-6 oz (112 to 168 g)
2) 2 cloves of garlic, slivered or finely chopped, however you prefer
3) 1 lemon
4) butter
5) Salt
6) Four large sheets of foil

Directions:
1) Preheat oven to 450F.
2) Place one fillet in the center of each piece of foil. Top with some of the garlic, lemon, a couple pats of butter (I used 6g per packet, but you can use more if you'd like) and good sprinkle of salt. You can also had herbs like dill if you have them lying around. Yell at cat who is trying to sample bit of raw fillet.*
3) Lock cat in bathroom until finished with step 4.
4) Bring two of the opposite sides together and crimp them so they're sealed shut. Now crimp the other two ends until they're sealed shut. Make sure everything is nice and tightly closed.
5) Place packets on cookie sheet and slide into the over for 12-15 minutes (adjust time accordingly for thinner or fatter fillets).
6) Remove packets from oven, place on plate and slit open packets VERY CAREFULLY as there has been steam build up and nobody likes 2nd degree burns before dinner.
7) Enjoy your moist, perfectly cooked, no pan to clean up fish. Taunt cat, then take pity and slip a bit into his food bowl.

*Please note, some instructions apply only to cat owners.

This dish is what we had for dinner last night, along with sauteed cabbage as I completely forgot about my mushrooms (which will be on the menu tonight!) until after dinner ;)

3 comments:

Ade said...

Like this post! It's a technique I haven't yet used. Looking forward to trying it though. I pretty much usually pan fry (usually yields a burnt fillet) or steam, which is certainly my favoured option.

Presumably I could use this technique for sea bass too?

Judith said...

I usually pan fry also, and serve with lemon juice and melted butter. This looks like a good option with the bonus of no pan to wash. You could bung the sliced mushrooms in the foil packet along with the fish, I guess, which would also help to cut down on clean up time.

Anonymous said...

I'm always a little scared for fish in NYC- but when my dad sends fish from Alaska, I can always experiment with new ways to cook!