The first thing to say before I go any further is do not be afraid of the French! This method of cooking delivers the tastiest result with the most minimal of effort. It is simple to master, and will impress with flavour time and time again.
So what is en papilotte? It literally translates as in parchment. It is a method of cooking where the thing being cooked is baked wrapped in a parchment parcel so it sort of steams in its own juices and the juices of anything else you throw into the parcel. It is most commonly used to cook fish and vegetables, but you can cook anything you like this way.
In practical terms, because I never have any baking parchment in the house, and I can never be bothered with the intricate folding needed to hold the parcel together, I always use tin foil. It works just as well. If I were using this cooking method for a dinner party, and wanted an impressive show stopper for the dinner table, I'd go with the parchment and serve it still wrapped up. However, as I never have proper dinner parties because dinner round mine always includes too much wine for fancy clothes or posh plates, I always just stick with tin foil.
So how do we make our parcels?
- Take a piece of tin which is big enough to make a loose parcel around what you want to cook, making sure you've got enough spare to fold the edges over each other
- Oil or butter the bottom of the foil to stop anything sticking
- Throw in whatever you want to cook, and whatever flavours you want to add
- Fold the tin foil up and around on all sides. Gather it together at the top and sides, folding one side over the other to make an airtight parcel. It should be fairly loose around the contents, but tightly sealed
- Put the parcel onto a baking tray and throw it in the oven
- Cook it for as long as you would if you we're baking/roasting it
- Once it's done, I usually put the whole parcel on the plate, carefully open it and tip everything out, including the beautiful juices that will have gathered in the parcel
- Job done!
Now, reading this, you might think it that it sounds like a lot of effort. I promise you that once you've done it for the first time and got your head around it, steps 1 to 5 will literally take minutes. If it takes you longer, you are welcome to come round my house and slap me.
Right, so what the heck can you cook like this? Tonight I'm going to be cooking smoked haddock, but any kind of fish is delicious cooked this way.
Smoked Haddock with Lemon and Chives
Ingredients
- Smoked haddock fillet - I am using undyed, but only because it was on the cheap!
- Lemon
- Chives
- Olive oil
- Butter
Steps:
- Preheat your oven to gas mark 6, 200 degrees C
- Lay out your tin foil as described above
- Drizzle a little olive oil over the tin foil
- Finely slice the lemon and lay them on the tinfoil, slightly overlapping
- Place the smoked haddock fillet on top
- Dot with salted butter
- Use scissors to snip fresh chives over the top of the haddock and butter
- Season with sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
- Seal your parcel up, plonk it on a baking tray and fire it into the oven
- Bang it in the oven for however long you want to cook it. My haddock went in for twenty five minutes, but just follow whatever the recommended time is. Please, please make sure whatever you are cooking is cooked through before you eat it!
- After cooking, leave to sit for a minute until the outer tin foil cools enough to touch. Now, this is the tricky part. I always tend to put the whole parcel on the plate, open it there, use something to slide out the contents and pour the lovely juices over tge top, that way nothing gets wasted. However, safety note here in the sense that it almost always ends up with me burning some part of my person, so be sensible!
- Eat and enjoy.
Trust me, once you have tasted this, you will never cook fish any other way! Except perhaps barbecued. Or deep fried. But you get what I mean. Delish!
