This morning I was fortunate to have an opportunity to do a cooking segment on Fox 8 Cleveland’s “That’s Life with Robin Swoboda“. The segment was a “Dads Who Cook” spotlight focused on making something quick, easy, and delicious for Valentine’s Day. First off, I want to thank everyone from That’s Life. I’d never done a cooking demo on television before, but they all made it easy and fun!
The segment was 4 1/2 minutes, so I had to prepare something that could easily be demonstrated beginning to end in that time frame. I had to show how to assemble the dish, plus have a finished dish ready. I had all my mise en place done and a prepared dish ready to go in the microwave when I got to the studio. It cooked while Robin and I talked about the recipe.
As I mentioned in my Sunday in the Kitchen post, I chose a salmon dish called Salmon en Papillote. En papillote means “in the paper”, which means this dish is cooked inside a parchment paper pouch. It’s akin to cooking fish on the grill inside an aluminum pouch, except we’re using parchment. There are several things that are great about this method of cooking:
1. It combines the techniques of baking, braising, and steaming to thoroughly cook your ingredients while extracting flavorful juices that bring the ingredients together. The salmon will be tender and the vegetables will be crisp.
2. It’s fast. Start to finish, you can prepare this dish in under 30 minutes.
3. The clean up is minimal. Since the dish is prepared and cooked in the pouch, you can cook and serve on the same plate.
Here’s the recipe (this is per serving, so double quantities to serve for 2):
- 1/3 cup julienned fennel bulb
- 1/3 cup julienned leeks (white part only)
- 1/3 cup julienned carrots
- 1/3 cup julienned snow peas
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1/8 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
- 1/8 teaspoon ground coriander
- 1 8-ounce salmon fillet
- 1 orange, peeled and sectioned into wedges with white membrane removed (or 1 can of mandarin orange slices)
- 1 tablespoon dry French vermouth
Begin with a 15″ x 30″ piece of parchment paper and fold in 1/2 like a book. Cut out a large half heart on paper, with fold of paper being the center of the heart, and lay it open. Place fennel, leeks, carrots, and snow peas on the parchment in center to one side of the fold. Mix together salt, pepper, and coriander and sprinkle vegetables with 1/2 of seasoning mixture. Lay the salmon on top of the vegetables and season with remaining seasoning mixture. Top with the orange wedges and sprinkle with vermouth. Fold other side of heart over fish and starting at top of heart shape, fold up both edges of parchment, overlapping folds as you move along. Once you reach the end, twist several times to secure tightly and fold in under. Place on microwave safe plate and cook for 4 minutes on high in microwave. (You can cook this in the oven at 425 degrees F for 12 minutes, but I think it cooks better in the microwave.) There will be some steam, so open the parchment carefully and enjoy!
This couldn’t be easier to make, plus it has a high chichi factor that makes it special for a Valentine’s Day dinner for two.
UPDATE – One thing I forgot to mention: be sure to have everything as close to room temperature as you can before cooking. Otherwise the fillet may require additional cooking time. (If you have an instant read thermometer, you want the internal temp of the fillet to be 140 degrees.)