Le Trout

I promise not to turn this into a food blog, but I had to share this.  Our dinner the other night was so pretty I felt compelled to photograph it (and post it here). Most of the inspiration was thanks to fresh ingredients from our local co-op.

Ready for wrapping up.

We joined a co-op that sources everything they distribute from local growers and producers.  They are Fair Shares, if you are an interested St. Louis-an. And I have to say they do a phenomenal job.  They are not only friendly and welcoming proprietors, but also well organized and knowledgeable.

Our dinner was Trout in Parchment (or "en Papillote" for those of you fluent in French).  90% of this came from our co-op share or our tiny herb garden.  Here's a quick description of the process.  Cut two generous sheets of parchment and lay one on top of the other on a rimmed baking sheet.  Lightly butter or oil the inside layer where the food will sit.  Lay thinly sliced zucchini in a slightly overlapping layer on the parchment in an area a bit larger than the fish. Scatter a handful of cherry tomatoes on top if you have them.  Salt and pepper this layer.  Place rinsed and dried trout fillets, skin side down on the vegetables.  Salt and pepper the fish.  Decorate with chives, parsley and thyme. Surround fish with lemon slices (over, under, around... I love lemon with fish).  Dot with butter or sprinkle with olive oil.  Pour about 1/2 a cup of white wine over the whole mess.

Seal up the parchment paper, keeping some "head room" for the fish (just don't make it snug). And then repeat with the second sheet of parchment so that you have a nearly air tight envelope of parchment enclosing the whole dish.  I read several recipes about how best to do this and it seems a brushing with egg white works well on folded parchment, but I took the lowbrow route and folded the parchment and stapled it.  (Classy, I know... probably not the Julia Child method, but it worked really well.)

Piping hot and smelling wonderful.

Once sealed, transfer the baking sheet into a 400-degree oven and bake for 30 minutes.  The rest is up to you.  We found it to be a really healthy and easy way to prepare a beautiful fish fillet.  And it was pretty to boot!