Happy Sunday! I need to make this quick because I’m seeing a play with my mom tonight, but I wanted to check in and share a cool trick I learned for preparing fish. I don’t cook fish that often because Mitch doesn’t like it, but I love fish so I’m glad my new meal plan calls for it. I’ve had trouble in the past cooking fish so that it didn’t dry out, and I think I’ve learned the method that works for me: foil cooking!
Now, it’s not the most “green” method of cooking, but I found that wrapping the fish in aluminum foil before baking provides the moisture that it needs without a ton—or any, actually—oil or butter. I’ve heard that it’s unsafe to cook with foil, that it can cause Alzheimer’s, but that appears to be disproven, or at least inconclusive, says the Washington Post among other sources. I think it’s ok, so I went with it.
I got a decent-sized piece of foil and layered my veggies on the bottom half of the sheet. I used one leek, a tsp of garlic, and half a sliced tomato.
Then, I placed the fish on top of the vegetables, put some black pepper and a few basil slices on top of the fish and topped it all off with sliced lemon.
I folded the top half of the foil over the fish, and wrapped up the whole thing fairly tightly. I baked the packet in a 450-degree oven for 15 minutes. When I made this for Mitch (I put butter on his fish so he’d eat it!) I made two separate packets. But I think you could also make one large fillet and then slice it when it’s done.
Note to self: clean oven.
After carefully taking the packet out of the oven, I cut open the foil and let the steam out. Yesterday, the fish didn’t quite flake easily with a fork, so I should have stuck in back in the oven for a few minutes. I was starving though, so I microwaved it until it was done. If you make this, don’t do that, ok?
While the fish was baking, I cooked some whole-wheat pasta. I served 1/2 cup of the cooked pasta with the fish, tomatoes, and leeks. Now, at this point I was way too hungry to worry about presentation. And that’s why I’ll never be a famous food blogger.
But I did have a tasty, healthy, and filling meal on the table in under 20 minutes, and now I have a go-to method to cook fish. The tomatoes, garlic and basil combined nicely to make a flavorful sauce for the pasta. I think even after my 12-week bootcamp/diet is done, this is a meal I’ll recreate.
Do you like eating/cooking fish? What’s your favorite/most reliable method?
This is a big week in bootcamp land. They are switching up our meal plan and I have my first weigh-in and body-fat testing. I hate surprises so I just want to know what I’m going eat for the next two weeks (before they change it again). I already have some reflections on what this process is teaching me about myself and my relationship with food, but I need to organize my thoughts some more before I blog about it.
Ok, off to the theater! I am so cultured (ha, ha). “See” ya’ll later!