Thursday, August 14, 2008

Fish is not intimidating, wrap it up!

Not the best of pictures but it gets the message across. However much I like a piece of nicely grilled fish or pan-fried in butter, this is absolutely a winner when you have people over for dinner or when it's just too darn hot outside to stand over a pan coaxing fish to golden brown perfection.

Wrap it.

Almost any fish is friendly to this kind of cooking. It enables you to add herbs and spices, cream, whine or sauce. The best part of it is that you can make it ahead of time, keep cool in the fridge until you're ready for dinner and within 15-20 minutes you are ready to feed a crowd.

This one is particularly simple; individual fillet of salmon, dressed with a slice of lemon, fresh pepper/salt and dill. Fold a rectangle aluminum foil in half (you get a double layer so it's sturdier), place fish in the middle and bring ends of foil together and pinch to seal. I aimed for a nice fillet without too much juices staying around so I left the top open a bit to evaporate.

Oven setting: 175C, 10-12 minutes. (which actually depends on the size/thickness of your fish).

You could wrap the fish in parchment paper and make nice even folds on top (use a paperclip in the oven and remove just prior to serving), it looks nicer. For an informal family dinner alu foil is just as good.

Flavourings:
White wine sauce:
100 ml cream,
2 tbs white wine
3 tbs chives,
pepper, salt, ground chilies/paprika, parsley, or dill
1 or 1/2 slice of lime for each package
optional: 1 tbs capers

Mix well and add 1 or 2 tbs in each package. Will create a steamed fish with sauce to go nicely with pasta or crusty bread. Make sure you close the wrapping this time, you'll want the lovely juices to stay in!

for sturdy white fish (the cheaper kind hehe)

sorta kinda Indian fish curry (feeds 5):

2 tbs lime juice
3 tbs red curry paste
1-2 tbs nam pla (thai fish sauce)
2 tbs yoghurt or cream
500 grams of mixed chopped veggies, blanched to soften (peas, broccoli, carrots, leek, corn etc.)
600 grams of white fish (amount needed if you use chunks of fish eg chopped while frozen)

In a small bowl, combine and mix liquid ingredients well. In a second large bowl mix veggies and fish and add sauce, mix to combine. I use my hands to combine to not damage the fish.
In case you like to use individual fish or fillet just mix veggies and sauce.

Prepare paper or alu individual casings and place fillet in the middle and distribute vegetables evenly over the fillet.

When using chunks of fish, everything is already combined and you simply divide the mixture over the individual casings. Wrap up tightly and cook till tender.
Oven 160-175, approx. 20 minutes.

I like to serve this with pasta or whole grain rice, plain or with a dash of sweet chili sauce. When there are small children in your party you might like to add some more cream or yoghurt to take a little bit of the heat off.

6 comments:

  1. Da's ook toevallig :)
    I can confirm that wrapped fish tastes fantastic!

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  2. Now that is funny! I'm sitting hear eating haddock I wrapped in foil with tomatoes, olives, and basil and threw on the grill while reading your post.

    I'm going to try that curry next week though.

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  3. I love cooking fish in this way. It's almost impossible to mess it up and the results are always grreat.

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  4. I absolutely love fish made this way. YUM!

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  5. I've never made fish this way... But the cream and white wine...YUM!
    That I have to try!

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  6. This is how I always ate fish growing up, just after my dad caught it. We'd wrap it tin foil with a bit of butter and throw it on the coals. Fish never tastes as good now.

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