Saturday, June 14, 2008

Oh I can't be arsed to cook - sea bass with lemon and rosemary

This one wins the prize for ease. I'm off colour this week end and so Him Indoors made this for dinner and it's one of the best and easiest recipes I know. It's based on the principle of cooking fish in a foil envelope - papillote - which is very healthy and easy to do.
Here's the recipe:

- Lay a small piece of sea bass on a large rectangle of tinfoil per envelope.

- Pull up the sides so you can put things in.

- Chuck in 5 or 6 whole cherry tomatoes, 4 or 5 chunks of lemon - cut into segments with the skin left on, 5 or 6 shallot bulbs just peeled and halved and a whole sprig of fresh rosemary

- Douse the whole lot with olive oil and freshly ground black pepper.

- Close up the envelope by scrunching the sides and stick in the middle of the oven at 190° for 20 to 20 minutes depending on the thickness of the fish.

- Open and serve with white rice or pasta. You can pour the 'juice' from the envelope over the rice before adding a knob (tee hee) of butter.

23 comments:

nilpferd said...

nice one FP, it's about time we had some more recipes. Now, how do I do this one in the microwave...

.... said...

Cheers - think it's Seebarsch in Cherman... Mood distinctly downbeat here after the 4-1 defeat yesterday. The Cherman's weren't expecting what happened to them either... Mal sehen. And if you microwave it - it will re-decorate your kitchen.

.... said...

Pretty sure you could do this on the barbecue actually - you'd just have to make sure the foil envelope is well closed!

goneforeign said...

FP, it works very well on a barbecue, we've done it quite a lot that way plus you can be very flexible in what you include in the stuffing, mushrooms and garlic are good and any medium sized fish like trout or salmon work well.
If we're going to have a recipe thread here's one I'd like to share, very quick, easy and cheap.
It's a recipe that I've created over some years, it was originally a casserole from a Greek cookbook using only fresh ingredients, but I wanted something very quick and easy so I came up with this. For ease and quickness I use only tinned items and I make a batch that will last me for a week of lunches, my wife's a teacher so I make this just for myself.
I start with a wok with a generous splash of olive oil over a very high heat, to that I add about a cupful of chopped garlic, 3-4 large heads, and one chopped onion, I season it with about a teaspoon of ground VERY hot African peppers and a good shake of herbs de Provence; give that a good stir and cook for a few minutes. To that I add three tins of beans, 16oz size and of different varieties, drain them so it doesn't get too sloppy, add two tins of similar sized chopped tomatoes stirring all the while and lately I've been adding a tin of cooked lean beef, chopped small it adds a nice touch. That will approx 2/3 fill a large wok, keep it on high heat and let it come to a boil and then simmer for 5-10 mins.
I serve it on a Mexican tortilla which is 10" dia, unleavened corn or flour. That I place in a cast iron frying pan with a little oil and cover one half with the above mixture and then fold it over and serve with a glass of red wine, that's a wonderful, quick and easy lunch. The above amount will make enough to easily make 5-6 lunches so I refrigerate it and then microwave just enough for a lunch and follow the frying pan bit: you'll have lunch on the table in about 5 minutes. I don't get bored with it and will make a batch about once a month. It would probably freeze OK also.
On a trip back to UK I made it once for my Greek relative, the one who gave me the cookbook, she was very impressed.
Who else has one to share?

Carole said...

I love things cooked en papillotte.

You can also do chicken breasts like it.

You grease the foil lightly, the place some diced onion and garlic and chopped tarragon, then put the chicken breast on top and season. Then put sliced mushrooms on top of that, ceps or chanterelles would be lovely but ordinary brown ones are OK, season again and add a knob of butter and make the foil parcel.

Before you seal it, pour in some dry white wine and then bake in the oven for about 30-40 minutes.

Serve with plain boiled potatoes or basmati rice.

ToffeeBoy said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
ToffeeBoy said...

fp - one of my favourite games that I like to play on this blog is looking at the title of a new posting and any accompanying picture and, before scrolling to the bottom, trying to guess the poster!

No problems with this one - it had FragProncess written all over it!

Feeling hungry now...

Anonymous said...

Evenin moy luvlies. Goneforeign has been peeking in the grocery bags- we've got the tortillas - yeyyy! - so we can try that recipe. I love anything vaguely Mexican so it will be tried! Thank you for that GF. Bonsoir Carole (by the way I've never asked this but....are you French? the 'e' on the end of your name might be a sign? I've never done poulet en papillotte but that's a fabulous recipe - thank you so much for that. And Toffee I also play that game. Tee hee. Have a lovely evening all. We couldn't get up any enthusiasm for Spain vs Sweden or Greece vs Russia so we've got a choice between Daniel Craig and Nicole Kidman chasing alien mutants or Christian Bale being rescued from Vietnam. Sounds like an action-packed evening (makes mental note never to send Him Indoors to DVD shop alone again)

goneforeign said...

Go for Christian Bale if that's the Hertzog film and then look at his documentary on the same subject.

Anonymous said...

Nice one GF. It is - I like Mr Bale and Mr Herzog very much. The Kidman and Craig was quite interesting actually - a modern take on 'invasion of the body snatchers'. Nicole charges round for a week avoiding sleep and receiving frantic text messages from her son. And she never once re-charges her mobile. Choh! Technology, eh?

Carole said...

A Fragproncess - non, je ne suis pas francaise, malheureusement.

Carole said...

Acksherly, I did a Mexican thingy tonight.

I made enchiladas stuffed with a minced beef filling, topped with creme fraiche and grated cheese and then baked and guacamole.

It were gert lush!

The beef filling had a lot of dried and soaked chillies; chipotles, pasillas, cascabels, anchos and some fresh red chilli too, plus oregano, pimenton, cumin, tomatoes, red peppers, onions and garlic, all cooked down for about an hour.

Anonymous said...

Evening fp,

You didn't miss mutch with the Russia v Greece game but Spain v Sweden had a 'you should've kept watching till the end' sort of denouement.

Anyway your recipe reminds me of something I've been doing for years with Trout. It's slightly different in that I stuff the (cleaned) innards of the fish with a mixture of garlic, rosemary and butter (the butter is just to hold the garlic and rosemary together) before wrapping it up tight in foil and baking. I usually serve with only vegetables (I class it as a light, summer meal), either steamed sliced carrots with olive oil and ground cumin or steamed broccolli with olve oil and grated Parmesan cheese.

And finally, football fever is reaching fever pitch in this household what with a last minute penalty on Thursday night meaning that it all comes down to a straight Austria v Germany play off. Will it be Cordoba or will it be Konniggratz? We'll find out on Monday!

Abahachi said...

Wonderful; ages since we had a good recipes thread. My cooking was very basic last night, as I'm desperately trying to get a paper finished; grilled lamb with laver sauce, but at least all the veg was fresh from the garden. Will definitely have to try the fish recipe. Meanwhile, yes, history suggests that Germany-Austria will be interesting - at least it shouldn't be another 1982...

Anonymous said...

Donds to Carole for her very good mastery of French and lovely Mexican cooking. Gordon - thanks for the trout recipe and football news - indeed it will be interesting for the Austria vs. Germany. Still think the Dutch must be in with a winning chance after the way they barnstormed France. Cheers Abahachi - what's the laver sauce? Curious about that...

Anonymous said...

BTW GF - you were right abour 'Rescue Dawn'. Beautifully acted, directed, great script, wonderful.

Abahachi said...

Laver sauce. Have you encountered laver (often referred to as laver bread), stewed seaweed that's delicious as an accompaniment to bacon and fried bread, a delicacy from south-west Wales (Mrs Abahachi's part of the world). Best bought fresh, but for everyone out of reach of Llanelli or Cardiff markets it can also be bought in tins. Anyway, it is also delicious mixed with meat juices and a bit of water to make a gravy for roast or grilled lamb.

Anonymous said...

Nice one - I had heard of laver bread. Interestingly enough, we serve spring cabbage with bacon and new potatoes in Geordieland. Kind of the same principle...

nilpferd said...

Seeing as you mention Cordoba, it's worth taking another look at that famous occasion thirty years ago.. here a short precis by a local commentary team for the German speakers amongst you..
http://de.youtube.com/watch?v=vddAowVLV7E

TonNL said...

Another great way to fill the fish en papillotte: thickly sliced shiitake mushrooms with finely sliced red onions with some lemon juice & sprigs of thyme added, spiced with a little black pepper

Anonymous said...

This post would not have been complete without TonNL's variations. Thanks for that.

TonNL said...

Thanks fp!

Small piece of advice on your recipe: keep some kind of fire extinguishing liquid at hand while eating, those sherry tomatoes can be scaldingly hot (has something to do with heat capacities...) and can badly burn your tongue.

For that fire extinguishing liquid TonNL recommends a nice cold 2007 Verget du Sud Chardonnay/Viognier (white, Vaucluse)

Anonymous said...

Donds for TonNL's fire extinguisher!