The twenty-seventh recipe I made for French Fridays with Dorie, from Dorie Greenspan's Around My French Table cookbook, was Salmon and Tomatoes en Papillote found on pages 302-303.
When the Whisk Chicks were doing Whisk Wednesdays (Le Cordon Bleu French cooking) I learned all about en Papillote and discovered how easy and satisfying this method of cooking can be, so I was very happy to see this recipe appear as one of the choices for the group. It's just such fun to put these little packets together, shove them in the oven, and ten minutes later: dinner! Best of all, they can be made several hours ahead, what's not to love about that, especially if you are going to serve them when you have dinner guests.
Ingredient list: salmon filets, grape tomatoes, lemon, olive oil, salt, white pepper, fresh basil leaves, and fresh thyme springs. I know, I know, Dorie said to use foil to make the little packets but I just couldn't do it. I always have parchment paper on hand, learned how to make the classic heart shape, how to fold the edges just so, and I love the look of it's little self when it is all finished. Foil just doesn't give me the same pleasure.
And truthfully, there is something about the way acid reacts with foil (from the tomatoes and the lemons) that always seems to impart a tin taste to me in the food cooked in it. It's probably just me, but the foil thing was not happening.
Other than that, I stuck to the recipe as written and the results were excellent. The salmon was nicely steamed, juicy, tender, cooked through, the herbs scented the packet and the salmon nicely, and the lemon gives just a nice little tang to the salmon, not to mention that the thin slices cook and are tender and sweet so you can eat them as well if you are a lemon lover like me. The tomatoes were easy to roast a little in a saute pan before including in the packet, as Dorie recommends to bring out a roasted flavor in them...those were great and I will do that again as that made a huge difference in the enjoyment of the little tomatoes in the packet. Nice to learn these new techniques, isn't it?
Will this be a repeat? Absolutely...Dorie has all the right ingredients in all the right amounts and it couldn't be easier. Delicious! Definitely a repeat.
