Do you wish your fish is full of flavor and still cooked so light that it can fly? Try this or any other recipe for fish en papilotte. En pappilotte is a common name for pouch cooking, essentially ensuring that food is not directly exposed to heat and the juices do their job. The pouch can be of parchment paper, which traditionally was, or a paper bag or, as in this case a home made aluminum foil pouch. It is the steam, it is the herbs, it is that aroma which gets sealed in the pouch which does the trick.
Why do I call my fish exotic? There has to be a reason, and the reason is custom made mix of Indian spices which I want to do the trick for me. I marinated the fish with curd, turmeric, black pepper and kept it aside for about an hour. While the fish was going through all this, I created my paste which would go in each pouch. For the paste I used, cloves, cardamom, white basil, rossemary, kasuri methi, oregano and a host of other Indian spices and standard ingredients like ginger/ garlic paste. Once I was satisfied with what my flavor mix was, I added olive oil to it and mixed it very well.
Oven was preheated at 200 degrees. Thick aluminum foil pieces were laid out, approximately 4 inches longer than the size of the fillet they were to cook and three times the width of the piece. Marinated fish was laid out in the center and herb mix was rubbed on one side and then the slice was turned over and the process repeated. The pouches were carefully sealed. My past experience told me that whatever I may do, some juices still may flow out. I decided to keep a tray under the mesh for catching the juice and not spoiling the oven.
Pouches were placed in the oven for 40 minutes, yes 40 minutes at 200 is not bad, we have a layer of protection and it worked for me. As there was a protective tray underneath the mesh, turned the pouches over once after 20 minutes. Some juices found their way out, but aroma, yes, it was getting itself out and I was finding it difficult to control my instincts. Puleld out one pouch at 30 minutes on the pretext of checking it, it was great, needed a bit more cooking though. Pulled them out in 40 minutes and we were home.
It came out so light that I could have had few more kilos of it.
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