Tilapia Niçoise en Papillotte Recipe

Posted on 21st of July, 2010 by Lévana

A packaged meal. Only, not that kind of a package! Enclosing the fish and its toppings in foil or wax paper seals in all its flavors. Papillotte is a cute French word that means curl, flutter, blink. In the food world it refers to the frill that tented paper forms around an enclosed ingredient, which remains moist and succulent throughout the cooking process.
You can play with other vegetables (sliced zucchini, mushrooms, peppers, etc….) , but it is important to use very-quick-cooking vegetables to top the fish, and slice them very thin, so they are ready at the same time the fish is.
Try this recipe with any firm-fleshed fish such as snapper, striped bass, ocean perch or mahi mahi.

Ingredients:

4 black bass fillets, about 8 ounces each, thoroughly dried with paper towels

4 squares foil or parchment paper, about four times the size of the fillets

2 tablespoons olive oil

Ground pepper to taste

1 large tomato, sliced very thin

4 cloves garlic, sliced very thin

1/4 cup basil leaves, packed, sliced very thin

1/3 cup pitted niçoise or oil-cured olives, sliced thin

Vegetable spray

Instructions:

Preheat the oven to 425*f. Place each fillet near the center of a paper square. Drizzle each fillet with the oil. Sprinkle ground pepper over each. Top with tomato slices, garlic, basil and olives. Fold the paper squares to enclose the fish loosely but completely, crimping the paper as you go, forming packets. Leave enough room when shaping the packets to provide an outlet for steam. Spray the top of each closed packet with vegetable spray.

Bake for twelve to fifteen minutes. Transfer the packets to individual dishes. Let each guest slit open his own bag and eat out of it.

Filed under: Fish Recipes, French Recipes, Gluten Free Recipes, Kosher Food, Kosher Recipes, Pareve Recipes