French in a Flash: Cod en Papillote Recipe

I was having lunch with an old friend this week who is incredibly successful, and recently engaged. She looked at me over lunch with wide eyes and admitted that she had absolutely no idea how to cook, but wanted to make something for her fiancé maybe once a week that was healthy, light, took very little skill, and could be thrown together in about twenty minutes—something quick that she couldn't mess up.

Cod en papillote is that recipe. I realize now that I never heard the word "papillote" outside of the culinary term "en papillote," and when I looked it up, I found that it meant curlpaper—for curling hair. Very quaint. But in culinary terms, it means wrapping and sealing food, using fish or poultry, in parchment and putting it in the oven so it steams in its own juices. Parchment requires fancy folding, so I switched to foil. This recipe is seamless, impossible to get wrong, and requires no clean up.

I take thick slices of boneless skinless cod and nestle each on a sheet of foil along with some fennel fronds, marjoram, other herbs, white wine, and crème fraiche. Seal the package, pop in the oven for 15 minutes, and out comes individual portions of tender, flaking, steamed fish drenched in the flavors of herbs and wine. The great thing about this recipe is you can change the herbs to whatever you want—chervil and lemon or basil and tarragon in the summer, rosemary and thyme in the winter. You could use salmon or sea bass or halibut—any thick, flaky fish. Just pile the herbs on top, seal it up, and it comes out perfectly every time.

Then all you have to do after dinner is crumple up the foil, and toss it in the recycling. Perfect for a girl who works a full time job and is planning a wedding, while trying to put dinner on the table!