INDIAN RIVER KITCHEN
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them the way chefs do, but I no longer fuss with that. A rectangle
works just fine, and if your folds aren’t tight enough,
staple them. There’s no worry of staples getting in your food,
because you slice open the packets across the top.
Cooking in parchment requires a leap of faith, because you
can’t take a peek inside or test for doneness. Most fish fillets
have a thick side and a thin side, but pompano fillets are
uniform all the way across, so they cook evenly. The parchment
puffs up and traps steam, so the fish doesn’t dry out.
Trust me, this method works beautifully every time. Or listen
to Mark Twain, who said pompano is “as delicious as the less
criminal forms of sin.”
Danielle Rose is a seventh-generation Florida
gardener and fisherwoman and descendant of the
prodigious Summerlin family. A graduate of the
University of Florida, she loves gathering friends
and family around the table for homegrown food.
POMPANO EN PAPILLOTE
DANIELLE ROSE
Ingredients
2 pompano fillets, patted dry
Salt and pepper
4 lemon slices
Several sprigs of dill or parsley
Instructions
Heat the oven to 375 degrees.
Cut an 18-inch sheet of parchment paper. Place a fillet
on one side of the parchment. Season with salt and pepper.
Arrange two lemon slices and half the herbs on top. Fold
the parchment over the top of the fillet. Starting at one
folded corner, crimp the parchment together in small, overlapping
folds to seal it all the way around and tuck the end
underneath. If it appears loose anywhere, you can staple it
together.
Repeat with the remaining fillet.
Place the parchment pouches on a baking sheet. Bake for
15 minutes.
Remove the baking sheet from the oven. Use kitchen
shears to snip a little hole in the top of each packet to
release some steam. Cut across the top of each packet and
peel back the parchment. Serve the fillets in the packet or
use a spatula to transfer the fish to each plate and spoon
any juices over the top.
/ocean-grill.com