Last week, the other Gourmaniac and I were doing a walk through rehearsal for one of our upcoming TV cooking shows. The show’s theme was “en papillote”, and I had just purveyed a whole black sea bass. After filleting the fish, we got into – how shall I put it – a heated discussion about what to put in the parchment paper with the fish. Now, I’ve been cooking “en papillote” since shortly after Charlemagne’s reign; Rosaria, however, was in a virgin forest in terms of “en papillote” experience. In a huff she declared we’d each make our own versions.
FINE!
Ingredients:
1/2 lb Black Sea Bass Fillet
4 fresh asparagus tips
1/4 sweet red pepper julienned
1- swiss chard leaf blanched and refreshed in iced water
6 shiitake mushrooms thinly sliced
1 small shallot finely chopped
2 cloves garlic minced
a dash each of fish sauce, mirin, rice vinegar, ponzu sauce, white wine
2 tablespoons olive oil
salt & pepper to taste
pinch of white pepper
1 piece of parchment paper 12″x20″ folded in half to 12″x10″
Method:
Quickly blanch the swiss chard in boiling water and immediately refresh it in a bowl of iced water. In a small saute pan, heat the olive oil and add the shallots. After a minute or so, incorporate the garlic. Wait a minute or so, and add the sliced shiitake mushrooms. The idea is to coat everything and to slightly cook the ingredients. When done, take the pan off the heat and set aside. Take the parchment paper, fold it in half, and with a sharp pair of kitchen scissors cut the outside edge like you would a Valentine’s Day heart. That’s right, I said a Valentine’s Day heart; when you open the cut folded piece of parchment, it looks like a heart. Place it on a work surface and generously brush the inside surface with olive oil. (Tip: place the heart shaped parchment “curl” side down, that way it won’t curl up on you when you brush it with the olive oil,)
Take the swiss chard, pat it dry with a paper towel, and wrap it around the fish fillet, and place it on the parchment paper close to the folded edge. Next scoop the shallots, mushrooms and garlic onto the fish wrapped fillet, then add the asparagus tips and the red peppers slices. Give a small dash directly from the bottle of the fish sauce, mirin, rice vinegar, white wine, and ponzu. Finally give it a couple of grinds of fresh black pepper and salt, and then a pinch of fresh ground white pepper.
Now for the arts & crafts moment: fold the other parchment layer over the fish and other ingredients. Starting at the top of the heart, start folding the edges of the two layers over and over in little tiny folds, “double folding each fold”, kind of like folding it once, and then folding it again. That helps lock the edge and seal the pouch. Keep folding around the fish “package” until you get to the tail or bottom of the heart. It should been a longish piece of parchment which you twist several times, and presto…en papillote. Place your en papillote on a baking tray (some people prefer to preheat the tray suggesting that it will encourage the cooking process. I, personally don’t see the need.) Zip it into a preheated 425 degree Fahrenheit oven for 10-12 minutes. When you take it out, the pouch will be inflated, and the parchment paper should have just begun to color a bit.
Plate and snip the top of the parchment paper pouch with scissors and open up the ”package”. Steam will escape and the aroma will be intoxicating.
I finished my “en papillote first, and I rushed it over in front of the camera to be photographed. When Rosaria’s came out of the oven about fifteen minutes later, I photographed her effort with the same earnestness as mine. Of course, she didn’t use the heart shaped parchment paper technique; she simply folded hers in half and crimped the edges, resulting in a finished en papillote that resembled a Pashtun Pakul. We traded tastes, graciously acknowledging the other’s effort. But we each secretly knew that his or hers was better.
So, from the photographs, you decide. We’d love to hear which one you think looks better.
Black sea bass in parchment paper.
RMA
