Brittany's Pantry
Food steamed in parchment paper is one of my favorite ways to cook. Why? Well, besides the fact that it is an especially healthy method, there is no clean-up!!
The heat, steam, and flavor are trapped inside, resulting in a moist, healthy, and surprisingly quick meal. The fish melts in your mouth and the veggies are steamed until they are perfectly crisp tender. Utterly fantastic. If you are afraid of your whole meal tasting like fish, don’t be! Somehow everything ends up tasting flavorful, but the asparagus tastes like asparagus, the carrots are sweet, and the fish is tender and fresh.
Mix up your veggies and fish combos to suit what you like! Zucchini straight from the garden is wonderful here, as is summer squash. Green beans are great, and even sliced tomatoes on top is sweet and will remind you of summer no matter where you are. Use oranges instead or lemons or salmon instead of tilapia. It is the method here that is the key. Much like Hobo Dinners or Summer Salmon, we are keeping all the tastes of your dinner together to maximize the flavor, keep it healthy, and just make life a little easier.
Fish Baked In Parchment
My kids LOVE this meal because apparently, dinner is much more fun when you get to rip it out of a bag. You can easily prep these in the morning and bake them later making them perfectly hands off meal for company. Put a bowl of fresh bread in the middle of the table, pop open a bottle of wine, and you have the easiest, no time needed, clean-up free meal ever!
4 tilapia fillets, about 4 oz each, thawed or frozen
1 lb of fresh asparagus, woody ends trimmed
3 large carrots, peeled and cut into sticks
2 lemons, sliced into rounds
olive oil
salt and pepper
parchment paper
Here we go!
Tear off a sheet of parchment 1 1/2-2 feet long. This all depends on the size of your fish fillet. Fold it in half and crease it well, making a square of rectangle.
Starting at one corner, cut the shape of a half moon or half heart in to the paper with the crease in the middle. Just like you used to do when making Valentines in Kindergarten! Those skills are useful once again! That lemon in the picture was keeping my paper from curling….
Open up the parchment, and in the middle of one side-and a bit toward the crease-lay down your asparagus.
Layer your carrots on top…
…and season the veggies with salt and pepper and a drizzle of olive oil.
Lay your fish fillet on top. As you can see, mine was still slightly frozen when I made the packets. Totally fine. It only takes another five minutes or so to steam.
Season your fish with salt and pepper and a drizzle of olive oil.
Cover the top of your fish with the lemon slices in one single layer.
Now here comes the fun part! Close your parchment ‘book’ over the fish. Starting at one side (I have tried it from either end and it works equally well) fold over a section of parchment and crease it well. You want it at an angle so that the fold goes off the edge.
Fold it in 1 1/2 to 2 inch sections, again and again, almost making waves. This wraps the parchment in on itself, keeping it curled and folded so that it holds together, trapping the steam inside.
Continue around the edge of the packet, making sure to keep the two edges of paper together.
When you get to the end, you will have a tail sticking out that could unravel!
Fold it down, the opposite way of the your other folds, to crease and hold it in place.
See?! A thing of beauty!! Place it on a sheet pan and slip it into a 350 degree oven for about 15 minutes for a 1/2 inch, thawed fillet. If your fish is frozen or especially thick, it may take up to 20.
To serve, place one packet on each plate. I like to open the parchment up like I am opening up a lap top, but you can leave the crease in tact if you like and use a scissors or knife to cut a slit in the top. BE CAREFUL! That first blast of steam can be a doozy!
Serve as is, or with a bowl of steamed rice, quinoa, or couscous to soak up all the wonderful juices on the bottom. A hunk of whole grain, crusty bread is quite fabulous as well.
Enjoy!
I think Irish Soda Bread is one of those things that people always think is really complicated, when really, it couldn’t be simpler. I make soda bread year round because it is just so darn good, but given the impending Irish holiday-a heritage that my husband and I both share-I thought posting it now was apropos.
I know this sounds a little crazy, but I like making things like this bread because it makes me feel like I have stepped back in time. Everything about the way it looks, smells, and even the way it feels in your hands when you break it apart calls up images of green fields, rock walls, a heavy knitted sweater or two, and cloudy skies. You get a feeling that you are doing something, that at the root of it, is worthwhile. Meaningful. Rustic. Do you ever feel that way when you get your hands dirty? Wether it is digging in the garden or mixing a hearty bread with your fingers, you just feel like you have survival skills. Like you know you would make it in a post apocalyptic world. Assuming you survived the zombies, of course…
The basics of this bread, traditionally, consist of whole grain flour, baking soda, some sort of acid to activate the soda and make the bread rise, and water. It was plain and eaten with meals or on its own as a quick lunch. Different regions of Ireland have different variations on shape, cooking, and flavorings, but there are a few things that seem universal. Most include some sort of dried fruit, such as raisins or currants, and often have the shape of a cross carved in the top of the loaf to ward off the devil. Who am I to break tradition??
I really have nothing more to say about this fantastic recipe other than it is just fabulous. I have made a LOT of Irish Soda Breads in the last few years and all of them are good. I may even share a different one some other day. But as for a great, straight up, fairly traditional and classic recipe-this is it! I actually tossed out and deleted several of my other versions because they just don’t compare. And now I am one step closer to surviving the end of the world.
One Year Ago: Smokey Smoothie & Quick Peanut Noodles
Two Years Ago: Pineapple Upside-Down Cake, Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies, Strawberry Orange Pineapple Smoothie, & Chicken Tetrazzini
Three Years Ago: Two Kinds of Cranberry Sauce & Crock Pot Chocolate Mess
Irish Soda Bread
Recipe inspired by numerous places.
This bread is not sweet by any means. It is rustic and thick and heavy and lovely. It seems to have the best flavor and texture the day it is made, but toasted on day two is wonderful as well. Serve this with plenty of cold, salty butter.
3 c flour, plus more as needed
2 tsp salt
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
4 T (1/2 stick) cold butter, cut into pieces
1 c wheat bran
1/4 c caraway seeds
1 c raisins
1 2/3 c buttermilk or 1 1/3 c whole milk + 1/3 c apple cider vinegar
Preheat oven to 350. If you are using whole milk and vinegar in place of the buttermilk, combine them now and set aside.
In the bowl of a food processor, pulse the first four ingredients together until combined. Add the butter and pulse until mixture resembled course crumbs. Alternatively, cut the butter into the flour mixture using a pastry blender, to knives, or by rubbing the butter between your fingers. Dump into a large bowl and add the caraway, raisins, and bran. Mix gently to combine. Pour in the buttermilk and stir with a large fork until the mixture starts to come together and is just combined. Dough will be very sticky. Flour your hands and gently pat the dough into an 8 inch domed round on a large baking sheet covered with parchment paper or a Silpat. Score the top of the round with a large cross and sprinkle with a dusting of flour if desired. Bake for 1 hour, or until golden brown and toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Let cool on a wire rack. Slice, or break into four chunks along the grooves and then slice. Serve with lotsa buttah!
10 Simple Things I Do In My Kitchen That You Should Do Too: Part 1
Brittany wrote this on 13 March 2014
My kitchen. Quite possibly my favorite room in the house. I spend so much time in it, you would think that I slept there! Which I may or may not have done a time or two…
Speaking of kitchens, I am always intrigued how other people organize and cook in them. I am intensely interested in what they have learned along the way from relatives, friends, jobs, experience, and how they use that in their lives. For example, my Aunt mentioned to me that she saves the wrappers from her sticks of butter and tucks them in the freezer. Whenever she needs to ‘butter’ a casserole or dish, she just pulls one out and uses the paper to do it! Smart right? I do it now as well. I mean, really! Doesn’t everybody want to improve their technique and efficiency? Or at least get a little inside information on what works?
I thought so. I can practically see you nodding.
Which is why, you may have noticed, that this is only Part 1 of this blog post. I have a surprise of you in Part 2 which might include a giveaway and may include wisdom and inspiration from other favorite bloggers!! Be sure to check back soon!!
In no particular order, here is my top list of things that I hope will make your time in the kitchen easier/smoother/more pleasant/more enjoyable. Some of them may change your life! Well, probably not, but…you know. A few of these you may already do or some just may not really apply to you and your life. Thats groovy. We all have our own way of operating. The point is, you should always keep learning; in the kitchen and in life.
1. Weekly/Monthly Meal Planning
Having some kind of game plan or strategy for what comes out of your kitchen not only makes your life easier but it saves you money too. Less trips to the grocery store equals more cash you aren’t spending on random things and more time doing…well…anything else. Curling your eyelashes, clipping coupons, or polishing your silver! It also streamlines your time in the evening when you have planned ahead to accommodate busy schedules. I recently discovered that I can’t assign different meals to different days. I tried it. I never stick to what I write and I always end up changing the roast chicken over to Friday because I don’t feel like chicken today but instead feel like salmon and OOPS! Mike brought home tacos for dinner as a surprise so we will have tonights soup next weekend…and on and on. Instead, what works for me is a master list of meals that I know I have the ingredients on hand to make.
My current list looks something like this:
I make a note if I need to reference a recipe on my computer (C) or a cookbook and page number. This is what works for me. Others prefer a weekly or monthly list that they can fill in and follow-no exceptions. Whatever your style, it could revolutionize your week and lower your stress at the same time. It is strangely empowering to have the age old question of ‘What’s for dinner?’ answered and taken care of! The web is FILLED with resources and free print-ables for organizing this, as well as free apps to suit any situation. If you need a place to get started, try here or here. Or simply make your own!
2. Read Your Recipe All The Way Through
It has happened to all of us. We start making something only to find out that we should have toasted the coconut before hand. Or soaked the beans overnight. Or zested the lemon before we juiced it. We are all guilty of beginning a recipe in earnest, only to get halfway through and shriek NO! when we realize the dough for those cookies you need to leave the house with in an hour needs to chill before baking. When I used to teach, this was the FIRST THING I MADE MY STUDENTS LEARN! It ensures that you are never without an ingredient you need and makes everything that much more efficient and enjoyable.
3. Wash Your Knives By Hand
Don’t argue with me. Just do it. Pairing knives in the dishwasher I will allow, but everything else needs some individual care. Your blades will stay sharper longer, the knives themselves will last, and less injuries will occur at clean-up time. Even if your knives are less than stellar quality, treat them with respect.
4. Own A Microplane
A microplane, or rasp, is one of my go-to tools in the kitchen. I use it all. the. time. You can get them just about anywhere and in a rainbow of colors. I grate parmesan cheese with it, zest every kind of citrus imaginable, and turn fresh ginger into lovely piles of grated fragrant spiciness. It is a major player in healthy cooking and you will find yourself reaching for it more than you ever thought possible.
5. TASTE YOUR FOOD AS YOU ARE COOKING
This was a hard one for me to get in the habit of doing, but after spending some time in professional kitchens, you realize how important it is to cooking. When you experience the flavor of your food during all stages of a recipe, you become aware of the WHY those certain ingredients are paired together in the first place, how they play off each other, and what your food needs at what times. I’m not talking about eating a bowl of cookie dough to determine if it has enough chocolate chips in it (although that is good too). I’m talking about tasting your pan sauce after you deglaze with red wine. Or dipping a big piece of romaine into your salad dressing to see if it needs more honey to balance out the acidity of the balsamic vinegar. Maybe all that parmesan cheese you added to the alfredo made your pasta plenty salty and it doesn’t need anything extra. And perhaps the strawberries you picked up at the market for shortcake aren’t as ripe as the ones from last week and you need to add a bit more sugar to get the flavor you want. No one wants to sit down to a meal after spending 15 minutes or 3 hours of time and energy putting it together, only to pick up your fork and say “Well, I hope its good!” Tasting your food and your ingredients is a simple and effective way to be a better cook. I am basically giving you permission to become a professional snitcher.
6. Use Commercial Sheet Pans
I don’t know what I would do without my sheet pans. I use them for absolutely everything. I use them to bake, roast, broil, toast, and to place under a pie I am slipping in the oven. They are made of 18 or 19 gauge aluminum and they last forever. As a relatively inexpensive piece of equipment, they are, I believe, one of the best investments you can make in your kitchen. Any restaurant supply store will have them and most good kitchen stores will. I have four, I use them ALL, and they are still like new eight years later. If ordering is your thing, check them out here or here.
7. Be Flexible
I get asked about substitutions in my recipes all the time. Can I use brown sugar for white? Applesauce instead of eggs? Pecans instead of walnuts? Usually my answers are yes, as long as the result would still be edible.
Quick story: A friend of mine is notorious for switching out ingredients to accommodate what she has on hand but occasionally misses the mark. When she told me she changed out the white wine in a recipe and used white wine vinegar instead, she scoffed, “They are basically the same thing.” I nearly fainted. And we aren’t talking about a tablespoon or so in a salad dressing, which would have been fine. No, we were talking about several cups used in a marinade. When I stammered and sputtered and tried to explain why those two aren’t universally interchangeable, she rolled her eyes. “Close enough, Britt!”
The point is, using spinach instead of kale in soup, adding extra carrots to a salad, or skipping cilantro in a casserole because it makes you gag are all great. Make recipes your own and know that it is OK to just do what you have to do. But be willing to do it as well. It is less stressful and much more fun to lose that rigidity. Forgetaboutit.
8. Cook And Freeze In A Practical Manner
I am always surprised when people tell me they halved a recipe for soup or made a half batch of muffins. You should utilize your freezer to make your life easier, friends! If you know a dish holds over well or freezes great, make a double batch! It is so easy to tuck a meal or two away every week or so and keep a rotating menu of good food available.
On that same note, if you are chopping carrots for stew that night, chop up what you need for the stir fry you are making in a few days. If you have a bottle of clam juice you needed for a recipe, search for other dishes using that same ingredient so that you use what you have. There are dozens of tools and apps out there that let you search by ingredient. Don’t forget to go through your pantry and freezer regularly and USE what you have purchased and clean out your supply, instead of just shopping new all the time. It is a practical way to cook that is both economical and makes the most of your precious time.
9. Freeze Leftover Lemon Juice
I am constantly telling people to do this. I am all for using bottled lemon juice if I have to, and I try to make sure to specify in any recipe I post that has it, wether or not you can cheat and use the fake, not fresh. But no matter what, fresh is ALWAYS better to use. I don’t always have fresh lemon juice on hand, so when I do pick some up or the are on uber sale, I plan dishes that week that use them up, and I freeze what I don’t use. I make sure to juice any leftover lemons-that may be in danger of shriveling to little yellow lumps of rock-with a hand reamer. I pour the juice into ice cube trays, but only fill the wells half full so you get 1 or 2 tablespoons at a time. Once frozen, I pop them out and store them in a freezer bag. If I only have a tiny bit of juice, I freeze it in my teeny tiny rubbermaid container that is so small I can’t use it for anything other than sorting a days worth of vitamins. Then I always have a supply of fresh lemon juice on hand for sauces, glazes, marinades, dressings, and I even throw them frozen into my smoothies for an extra antioxidant boost. One little block and mug of hot water with a spoonful of raw honey is about as good as it gets when you are sick. And is super cleansing to boot!
10. Have Fun
This may be my most important tip. I know firsthand how stressful time in the kitchen can be; wether you are cooking for one person or ten. But I implore you to find your groove to make it more enjoyable! Flip on the 80’s station on Pandora or make your own culinary playlist filled with upbeat, groovy music! Or a relaxing list so you can chill while you chop. Put a favorite movie on in the background (The Princess Bride is perfect for this) and quote lines as you go. Relax and have fun. If all else fails, order pizza.
What are YOUR best kitchen tips?! Add them to the comments below so that everyone can benefit from your wisdom!
Love a Good Recipe?
Then you’ve come to the right place! I’m Brittany, and I share tested, trusted recipes you’ll love. I prepare & photograph food, obsess over the perfect recipe, and enjoy grins of delight when I serve up something awesome. Enjoy!
