It’s salmon season! Celebrate with one of the simplest, tastiest baked salmon dishes I’ve ever come across… It’s fast, easy and virtually foolproof. And you probably have almost all the ingredients in your pantry. Except the fresh salmon filet…
This is a throwback to my childhood. My Dad used to go ice fishing ‘yup north’ every winter with a group of like-minded guys from work. He’d come home from the weekend with a big Styrofoam cooler full of lake trout or whitefish. And he – not Mom – would prepare one for us every Saturday thereafter for supper until they were used up…
A universal technique
His ‘Dad-proof’ method for cooking the fish perfectly every time was to wrap a whole fish in foil, stuf-fed with lemon slices, fresh herbs and butter, and bake for 20 minutes or so. Today’s recipe offering makes my heart ache for the ‘old days’, when Dad was still with us, and before I lost my innocence about cooking…
What you need
The technique is as simple as I’ve already described. The ingredients are also elegantly few and well-curated.
Get your salmon from a fish monger – not the supermarket. The guy behind the fresh fish counter at my go-to supermarket let me in on a little secret: all of the ‘fresh’ fish he sells comes in frozen and is thawed in the walk-in fridge before being set out on ice for customers to ‘oooh!’ and ‘aaaah!’ over. To the supermarket’s thinking, ‘fresh’ apparently means ‘not breaded-and-in-a-box in the frozen foods aisle’.
I’m lucky. I can drive to Lapointe’s Fish Market in under 10 minutes and get real fresh fish and sea-food, 7 days a week…
As for the other components of this classic en papillote dish, all you need is garlic, honey, lemons, salt & pepper, and butter. Recipe contributor Lauren Miyashiro recommends two specific herbs to complement the salmon: fresh thyme and parsley. Fresh is always best with herbs, but dried will also serve in this preparation.
‘En papillotte’?
It’s the traditional French term describing food cooked in its own aromatic steam in a closed packet. The ‘papillotte’ part refers specifically to a parchment paper envelope in which food was originally folded before being steamed. They only used parchment because the technique was developed cent-uries before kitchen foil was invented.
But you’ll still get a parchment paper packet when you order an en papillote dish in a fine dining est-ablishment. And you’ll have the fun of opening this ‘gift’ yourself, or having the server perform the traditional ceremony of opening it for you…
Critical differences…
Lauren’s recipe differs from classic en papillotte cookery in two crucial respects. She leaves the packet open, but with foil turned up high on all sides. And she first bakes the fish, then finishes it with a quick turn under the broiler. This twist adds an interesting top crust, with it’s own flavour contribution, which elevates the dish more than few notches!
My take
There’s no easier or more versatile way of cooking fish or seafood than en papillote. Y0u can add any aromatics you like. And any veggies you want to steam as sides. And there’s no safer way – if you’re afraid of overcooking or otherwise ‘ruining’ expensive fish or seafood. But the technique also works for many other foods. You could cook en papillote every night for a month, before exhausting the obvious possibilities.
I heartily recommend this cooking technique, not just for its aforementioned charms, but for it’s in-trinsic healthiness. Because you control what goes into the ‘package’: including the salt, fat and ‘added sugars’, if any…
~ Maggie J.