CALORIE COUNT: 215
Our friend Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall is something of a fast day fan, having lost 11 pounds in the month following Christmas. Here, then, is the kind of thing he might rustle up for a fast day supper: “Baking fish scrunched up in a foil parcel with a handful of aromatics is an easy and delicious option,” says Hugh. “Fillets of gurnard, lemon sole, bream, mullet and line-caught bass all respond well to this treatment, as well as thick fillets of pollock. And it’s not just fillets that benefit from the foil parcel approach. In fact, this is one of my favorite ways to cook small-to-medium fish.”
Serve with wilted greens (7 ounces/200g per person), such as spinach, bok choy, or choi sum.
Serves 2
1 tablespoon peanut oil
2 bulbs fennel, trimmed, quartered, and sliced fairly thin
2 cloves garlic, thinly sliced
1 teaspoon finely chopped fresh ginger
1 small red chile, seeded and thinly sliced
2 large (5- to 7-ounce/150g to 200g) or 4 small (3- to 4-ounce/80g to 120g) mild white fish fillets
Salt and pepper
2 teaspoons soy sauce
Preheat the oven to 375°F. Heat half of the oil in a pan, add the fennel, and cook gently for a few minutes. Add the garlic, ginger, and chile and cook for a few minutes more, so everything starts to soften and release its flavor. Remove from heat and set aside. Take two pieces of foil, each roughly 10 inches square, and oil well with the remaining oil. Pile the fennel mixture in the middle of each one. Season the fish fillets generously and curl around the fennel mixture—either 2 small fillets or 1 large per parcel. Sprinkle a little soy sauce and black pepper over each pile, then bring up the sides of the foil and scrunch together tightly to form well-sealed but baggy parcels. Place in a baking pan, and bake for 15 minutes. Open up the steaming, fragrant parcels and pile the contents, including all the lovely juices, onto warm plates.
NB
STEAMING “EN PAPILLOTE” SEALS IN FLAVOR AND REQUIRES VERY LITTLE ADDED FAT.