Flounder en papillote

1
Points® value
Total Time
18 min
Prep
10 min
Cook
8 min
Serves
4
Difficulty
Easy
Cooking en papillote sounds fancy, and somewhat intimidating, but don't let the French term fool you or scare you off this super easy, ready-in-minutes mild white fish preparation. You gain a lot of flavor by cooking foods en papillote, which really means in parchment paper with the edges tied up to form tiny individual steam pockets for the fish and veggies nestled inside. Cooking this way locks in moisture, which means your fish will be fork tender and jam-packed with flavor. Flounder is typically breaded and baked because it's sold as a thin, filleted fish that can dry out quickly. With this recipe, you're assured moist fish in mere minutes. Don't have parchment paper? You can use aluminum foil packets, just be sure to spray them with cooking oil as foods can stick to foil.

Ingredients

Olive oil

1 tsp

Carrots

1 large, cut into matchstick-size pieces

Uncooked leeks

1 medium, white part only, cleaned and thinly sliced

Tomato

1 medium, chopped

Fresh thyme

1 Tbsp, chopped, fresh

Garlic

1 clove(s), minced

Table salt

¼ tsp

Uncooked sole fillet

1 pound(s), four 4 oz fillets

White wine

¼ cup(s), dry

Instructions

  1. Heat the oil in a nonstick skillet over medium-low heat. Add the carrot, leek, tomato, thyme, garlic, and salt and cook, stirring frequently, until the vegetables are very tender, about 10 minutes. Remove from the heat; set aside.
  2. Preheat the oven to 425°F.
  3. Fold 4 (12 x 16-inch) sheets parchment paper in half. Starting at the folded edge, cut each parchment into a half-heart shape. Unfold and spray the parchment paper with nonstick spray.
  4. Arrange the fish on half of each piece of parchment. Top with the vegetable mixture. Sprinkle with the wine. Fold the parchment into packets over the fish and vegetables, rolling the edges to make a tight seal. Place the parchment parcels on a baking sheet and bake until they are puffy and browned and the flounder is just opaque in the center, about 8 minutes.

Notes

Parchment parcels are traditionally made in heart shapes, but you can use 14-inch squares of parchment. Fill them, gather the edges to make a pouch, and tie the neck with string.