A Packet O' Fish! Purity Abounds.

Happy New Year to y'all. So, did you overeat, over-drink, over, you know, everything this holiday season? Because I sure did. As penance, oops, I mean as a delightful cleansing mechanism, I've decided to make January a dry month. Aaaaaaand it's only the 7th. Frig.

Anyway, irrelevant, I'm here to talk about fish in a foil packet. This is mega-easy, and a good technique for most any kind of fish...you can also completely mix up what you put in with the fish in the foil packet, to your heart's content. I used sole here, but you could also use any whitefish (halibut, tilapia, cod, etc.) or salmon. For the toppings (accoutrements is a better word to describe what I mean here, but I wrote it and thought it looked a bit frou frou so I took it out, then added it to the bracket, and replaced it with 'toppings' - genius), I used thinly sliced lemon, cilantro, olive oil, garlic, and salt and pepper. But it would also be super nice with any other fresh herb, or you could do some asian flavours, say soy sauce, ginger, a little orange juice, cilantro and sesame oil.  Or basil and chopped olives and grape tomatoes and a little white wine (I mean, if you drink wine - but like, I don't drink, so I wouldn't know). Point is, this fish packet here is your playground. Doesn't that sound so fun???

Virtue, thy name is fish in a foil packet.

Fish is kind of special in our house - I find it's too pricey to eat that often, at least if you're getting stuff that's decent, and I'm not that into, I don't know, Alaskan pollock or similar, to put that jazz in the rotation with any regularity. So I got pretty excited making last night's dinner. But look how pretty and fresh it looked pre-oven (look to your right)? So nice-looking, right? So healthful! So me in 2012! Ha.

Foil Packet Fish with Lemon and Herbs

1 pound of any fish you like      (I had four very thin fillets, so I actually just layered two fillets for each serving - and slammed in more lemon slices and herbs to really jack up the flavour - but if your fish was thicker, no layering would be necessary.  But really, don't trouble yourself with fish thickness.  Because your fish will be firmly ensconced in a little bath of moisture from the lemon and olive oil and tomatoes, it's pretty damn hard to muck it up.  Also, I use about a half a pound of fish per person, so this served two people)
one small lemon, thinly sliced
a few tablespoons of chopped fresh cilantro
olive oil
a big clove of garlic, thinly sliced
a big handful of grape tomatoes, halved
salt and pepper

Packet of soul.

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees F.  Lay down two big sheets of foil (about the length of a baking sheet). Place the fish in the middle of the foil, and then layer/sprinkle all the ingredients over top. C'est tout. Fold up the foil packet on all sides - I usually pull the top and bottom in, and roll them together, and then pull in the sides, rolling and scrunching them tightly as well. It should look like the foil packet you see on your right. I made two of these, one for each person.

Pop those puppies in the oven, and leave them in there for about 12 to 15 minutes. Let it rest for a few minutes before serving. I served the packets directly on the plate, with quinoa and asparagus. Because my body is a friggin' temple.

This would have tasted really good
with a glass of white wine.