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| Let Your Palate be Your Guide |
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| Updated on :: [05.30.2004] :: by :: {CS
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Keep it under
wraps
(Filed: 29/05/2004)
Cooking almost anything en papillote brings out
the taste wonderfully, says Alex Mackay
Although it sounds like a closely guarded chef's
secret, en papillote is the simplest of cooking techniques. Roughly
translated as "in an envelope", it traditionally involves wrapping
ingredients in waxed paper and glueing the paper shut with egg
white. These days I use tin foil to do the same job, sealing the
edges tightly to trap the steam and flavours.
The way each taste is intensified has had me hooked
since my first exposure to the technique - a Raymond Blanc recipe
for red mullet with Provençal vegetables.
En papillote is a perfect way to get the pure,
natural flavour from a sparkling fillet of cod, bream, sea bass or
mackerel. Put your fish (chicken breasts also work well) on to a
strip of foil and add a dash of white wine or lemon juice, olive oil
or butter. Season well with salt and pepper. Fold over the foil,
seal it up and you're away. Red meat, which is always best when
fried or roasted, isn't suited to this method, but vegetables and
fruit work wonderfully.
Taking the technique one step further, I add
flavours that take on the taste of my main ingredient and offer up
their own. Ingredients that respond well to being cooked in parcels
include ratatouille, mushrooms, spring onions, soy, ginger and
honey. If I want to turn the dish into a main course, I add cooked
new potatoes, cannellini beans or chickpeas.
Everything from starters to desserts is possible en
papillote. Experiment to your heart's content, pack your parcel full
of things you love, and surrender to the pleasures of the papillote.
Sea Bass and Spring
Vegetables en papillote (serves 2)
Now spring is in full swing, I can't get enough
fresh broad beans, peas and asparagus. Cooked with sea bass and
plenty of good butter, this is perfection in a packet.
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Pass the parcel: almost anything benefits from
being cooked en papillote, including sea bass and spring
vegetables
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1 large white onion, finely sliced
2 fillets of sea bass, approx 6oz/170g
each, skinned
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
1 small bunch of asparagus (about 12
spears)
5oz/150g mixed peas and broad beans (or
whichever is the best on offer)
2oz/60g unsalted butter
2 fl oz/50ml white wine
Zest and juice of 1 lemon
Heat the oven to 190C/375F/gas mark 5. Cut two
16in/40cm pieces of tin foil. Spread half of the sliced onion over
half of each piece of foil. Season the fish fillets with salt and
freshly ground black pepper and put them on top of the onion. Break
off the hard lower stalks of the asparagus, cut each spear in half
widthways then in half lengthways. Blanch in boiling salted water
for 14 minute, then add the peas and broad beans for 30 seconds.
Drain well.
Put the blanched asparagus, peas and broad beans on
top of the sea bass, dot with butter, pour over the white wine, add
the lemon zest and juice and season.
Fold over the top half of the tin foil and seal the
edges tightly. Bake for 12 minutes and serve.
for the rest...
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