Tilapia en Papilotte

I was going to start this off by saying I don’t really cook very fancy things, but my Macbook punched me in the nose when I started typing the sentence. I love fancy things, and after watching an episode of French Food at Home, I was inspired to try this fancy recipe, tilapia en papilotte. They did it with salmon on the show, but when I went to the fishmonger’s, the tilapia was just too good to pass up. I can be touch and go with fish at times, but this is hands down my favorite fish dish that I’ve ever cooked. The recipe is for two people, but it can be easily doubled, tripled, so on. And don’t forget to clean your leeks! They’re little dirt magnets!

Ingredients

2 tilapia fillets

2 leeks

2 carrots

1 medium zucchini

2 tsp fennel seeds

2 tsp garlic

2 pinches chinese five spice

salt and pepper

Directions

1.     Preheat your oven to 375 degrees. Clean and prepare your leeks. To do this, slice off the tops and about a quarter inch from the bottom. Slice them down the middle and rince under cool water, then leave on a paper towel to dry.

2.     Julienne the vegetables and sauté lightly in a bit of olive oil and the garlic. You don’t want to cook them through, just give them a bit of color.

3.     Get some wax paper and cut out two pieces large enough to have an inch or so border around the edge after you fold it in two over the fish. Martha Stewart recommends making a heart shape, but I found a regular old rectangle easier to fold.

4.     Fold your papers in half. On each piece, spread half of the vegetable mixture. Lay your fish on the veggies and season with the salt, pepper, fennel, and five spice. I recommend grinding the fennel in a mortar and pestle first.

5.     Fold the paper over the fish and veggies, then fold the edges of the paper over as tight as you can.

6.     Cook for 20-25 minutes, or until the fish is flaky and cooked through.

7.     You can serve it in the paper (just open a slit in the top, and watch out for the steam!) or open up the packages and move the contents to a plate.

As a side note, the updates for this blog will be a little sparse over November. This is the busiest month for me school wise, so I won’t have as much time.