Salmon en Papillote
Ok, I’m throwing some fancy french vocabulary your way in the next two recipes, but I promise they only sound complicated. “En papillote” simply means to cook in a sealed little parchment package. It seals in the moisture and allows food to cook in its own steam. Salmon is easy to overcook in the oven (which is my preferred method so I can clean up in a jiffy) which makes this cooking method ideal for moist salmon! It is so incredibly easy to seal up the filets in their cute little packages and it can easily be done earlier in the day so they can be popped in the oven right at dinnertime (or melt down time if you have toddlers). Our kids adore salmon because they’ve been eating it since toddlerhood, so don’t be discouraged if it takes a few tries to get past any complaints!
Ingredients:
4 salmon filets (we love buying frozen wild caught salmon and thaw them in the package in cool water before cooking)
2 tablespoons butter
salt and pepper to taste
thinly sliced lemon (you can use the other half of the lemon from the horseradish aioli)
Directions:
Preheat your oven to 400 degrees F. Cut large squares of parchment paper, about 1 foot long. fold in half and cut into a large half circle. Unfold and you should have a rough circle shape. Repeat until you have 4 circles. Lay one circle on the baking sheet and place the salmon on one side of the circle. Place a bit of butter, salt and pepper, and a few lemon slices over top. Fold the parchment over top and roll the edges up together to seal it closed. That’s your first papillote! Keep going until all four filets are packaged up. Bake for about 12 minutes for a perfectly cooked salmon! Be careful opening the package since some steam will escape. The fish will flake easily away from the skin. We tend to remove the skin for the young eater in our house! If you are cooking this at the same time as the potatoes below, add them after about 25-30 minutes and they should finish at the same time.
