This Halibut in Parchment Couldn’t Be Easier to Prepare at Home!

Yesterday my wife and youngest daughter went for manicures and while sitting there getting their nails done, they watched Rachel Ray on TV prepare Ginger-Garlic Fish in Parchment. It looked so good she stopped at a local fish market and picked up some fresh halibut to try a variation of the recipe at home.

My wife adapted Rachel’s recipe that you can find on the Food Network for Ginger-Garlic Fish in Parchment because she didn’t think the kids would enjoy all the ingredients for the cooking sauce. She also switched the fish from sea bass to halibut, a fish that we as a family enjoy more.

To me, this recipe is more about the technique of cooking in parchment paper than the actual recipe itself. Changing ingredients like this goes with everything I try to teach on my web site and cooking blog – if you learn a few basic cooking techniques, you can cook just about anything and don’t need recipes. Recipes are great for ideas and suggesting combinations of ingredients but you know best what’s flavorful to you.

This is a great weeknight meal because it only takes about 30 minutes to prep and cook. It’s also a great dinner party recipe because you can prepare the fish packets in advance and have them ready to pop in the oven when your guests arrive.

We served this dish with baked potatoes that my wife started 30 minutes before getting this dish ready and a salad of mixed greens.

Here’s my wife’s version of Fish in Parchment:

Ingredients

• 1 to 1.5 pounds of halibut (sea bass, cod, scrod or any meaty white fish would work)
• Parchment paper
• Seasoning  - we like Fisherman’s Wharf by Urban Accents but salt and pepper work just fine too.
• 1 leek, sliced thin and cleaned in cold water
• ½ pound mushrooms, sliced thin – we used cremini but button mushrooms would work fine too.
• 4 cloves garlic, peeled and minced
• 12 cherry tomatoes, sliced thin
• Extra virgin olive oil to drizzle over the fish

How to Cook Fish in Parchment Paper

Start by preheating your oven to 375°F.

Cut or tear off 4 pieces of parchment paper from the roll that are about 12 inches long.  Lay them down on the counter so they flatten out a bit.

Prep all your ingredients and have them ready to assemble. The halibut should be cut into 4 equal sized pieces.

Position a piece of parchment paper in a shallow bowl – I used a shallow soup bowl and started adding a quarter of the sliced leeks, mushrooms, garlic and tomatoes to the center of the paper. The bowl is there to keep all the ingredients together in the center.

Next add a piece of fish on top of the vegetables and drizzle some olive oil over the top of the fish

Season with salt and pepper or your favorite fish seasoning and you are ready to start folding the paper. Make a pouch with the parchment paper by folding the paper in half and then fold it over on itself several times to secure it shut. Then fold up the sides of the paper to make a pouch.

You’ll repeat this process with the remaining parchment and ingredients and arrange on a baking sheet.  Roast the parchment pouches for about 15 minutes. How long will depend on the size & thickness of the fish and the accuracy of your oven. If you want, you can pull one out and check it for doneness. The fish should flake when you test the middle with a fork or knife.

Wine Suggestions

We served a 2006 Kunde Estate Reserve Chardonnay that was delicious with this meal.  I think a lighter wine would have worked as well but this Chardonnay definitely didn’t overpower the meal.

Final Comments

This dish turned out as well as could be expected. Couldn’t be easier! Both my kids loved it but my oldest daughter would have liked more mushrooms and less leeks. I would like to experiment next time with some additional flavors by preparing individual packets based on each person’s likes and dislikes.

What will make the difference in this dish is the quality of the fish. Try and find the freshest fish you can find. Saying that, most Chilean sea bass comes to the market frozen and the market thaws it out in their refrigerators. You would be surprise at how much fish you by at the market comes in frozen. I always ask Andy the Fishmonger what’s fresh and what’s fresh frozen.

Andy the Fishmonger from Ardmore Seafood Market

Get the vegetables prepped - mise en place

Add the prepped vegetables on parchment

Add the halibut to the vegetables

Fold the parchment to create a packet

Here's what it looks like after cooking

Related Topics

Tips for Buying Seafood

Buying Seafood Can Be An Adventure

Venison Stew

I feel very lucky to live just a couple of miles from the historic Harriton House, located just outside of Philadelphia. Harriton House was built in 1704 by a Welsh Quaker named Roland Ellis, but its most famous resident was Charles Thomson  who retired  there  in 1798 after serving 15 years as the Secretary of the Continental and Confederation Congresses. He lived on the estate until his death in 1824.

Some of you might be wondering, “Who was this Charles Thomson guy?”  Well, if you’ve ever looked at the back of a dollar bill, you have seen his work.  He created the final design for the Great Seal of the United States.  He was also the one who traveled to Mount Vernon in April of 1789 to let George Washington know that he had just been elected the first president of the United States under the new constitution.

Today, the 1704 structure has been faithfully restored to the “Thomson years” period and is furnished with a collection of fine 18th-century American decorative arts, including some objects owned and used by Charles Thomson himself. The estate is surrounded by a spacious park, complete with gardens and a stream and is home to Steady the horse, three sheep, and two goats who live in the former dairy barn.

Bruce Gill and Chef Walter Staib

The curator, Bruce Gill, is a friend of mine and a wealth of knowledge when it comes to life in the early nineteenth century.  He manages the communal garden, raises honeybees, teaches school children about life on a farm and has taught me a lot about agriculture.

He also introduced me to Chef Walt Staib, another neighbor to the Harriton House and the proprietor of The City Tavern, Philadelphia’s historic restaurant where Benjamin Franklin, John Adams, Thomas Jefferson and George Washington once dined and discussed the future of our young nation.

Chef Staib is an amazing person. He was born in the Black Forest of Germany where he began his culinary career at age 4 in his uncle’s restaurant and has been working in the restaurant world for more than four decades. He has also written numerous cookbooks including:

City Tavern Cookbook

City Tavern Baking and Dessert Cookbook

Black Forest Cuisine

City Tavern Recipes from the Birthplace of American Cuisine

A Feast of Freedom: Tasty Tidbits from the City Tavern - an illustrated children’s book that tells the story of City Tavern and its role in shaping the nation. I can’t wait to check out this one and share it with my kids.

I could go on and on about Bruce and Chef Walter, but let me get to the point of this post and that point is venison stew.   A couple of weeks ago, Bruce called me up and told me some hunter friends of his had dropped off a couple of deer that were ready for skinning and butchering. He told me chef Walter was going to show them how to butcher the venison meat properly and asked if I wanted to come over and see how it was done.

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Hey everyone, it’s Valentine’s Day on Monday. Where will you be dining on this romantic holiday? Going out to a favorite restaurant or will you be preparing a special meal for the love of your life?

Me, I’m going to be coaching my 13 year old daughter’s basketball team because both regular coaches will be out of town. I expect I will then come home and make some of my wife and kid’s favorite dishes which usually have something to do with lobster, steak, steamers and artichokes or some combination of them all.

I have posted several posts for this holiday in the past and even created a Squidoo lens called A Romantic Valentine’s Day Dinner which was just updated with four new recipes including:

• Raspberry Champagne Vinaigrette
• Cream of Wild Mushroom Soup
• Pan-Seared Duck Breasts with Plum Sauce
• And for dessert – Berries and Rose Pavlovas for Two

There are also some fun polls you can take including:

• What Are Your Valentine’s Day Dining Plans?
• What’s Your Favorite Romantic Film Of All Time?
• What’s Your Favorite All Time Most Romantic Album?

So here are a few links with some of the previous posts with Valentine’s Day in mind. I hope you all have a wonderful day and enjoy a incredible meal with that special person (people) in your life.

And please be sure to tell me what you are planning to do this Valentine’s Day in the comments section below.

Here are those posts specific to Valentine’s Day but there are many great recipes on my site and blog that you might want to try too.

• Romantic Valentine’s Day Meal Suggestions
• How To Prepare A Romantic Table Setting
• Romantic Cheese Course
• Lobster Bisque Recipe
• How to Make A Great Salad For Valentine’s Day
• Pork Medallions with Apricot Glaze Recipe
• Steak with Wild Mushroom Sauce
• Fish en Papillote or Fish in Parchment Paper
• Sautéed Sea Scallops On Grilled Pineapple
• Chocolate Souffle
• Chocolate Dipped Strawberries