Day 151: Most Impressive Entry Yet?

I'm not sure how to say this without sounding like I'm bragging, but...  I cooked one kick-ass dinner tonight!!!  I am really quite impressed with myself.

As you may have read in Saturday's entry, our favorite neighborhood restaurant made the unfortunate choice to mess with one of their best dishes - butterfish baked in parchment paper.  Since that is no longer a dish we will be enjoying there, I decided to take matters into my own hands and figure out how to make it at home.

I conducted some research on Epicurious.com and polled some friends and gathered enough information that I was comfortable testing it out tonight with some halibut filets - fortunately, to great success.

Our inspiration for this dish was the herb rub that we used on our Turkey last week for Thanksgiving.  I used up all of our sage last week, but I still had lots of parsley, rosemary, and thyme on hand - and of course, we always have garlic, so I recreated the rub and coated each piece of fish with that.

For such an impressive looking dish, the preparation was actually quite easy.  Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.  Cut the parchment paper into heart shaped pieces and coat the area that will touch the fish with olive oil.  Place the fish in the center of one half of the heart and start to roll up the edges.  Start with the fat end of the heart and keep rolling until you get to the tip.  Just before you complete the rolling process, throw in a tablespoon of liquid.  I used white wine, but you could use lemon juice or broth or whatever you have on hand that will compliment the herbs, spices, or accompaniments you'll be eating with the fish.

Place the closed packets on a rimmed baking sheet and bake for about 18 minutes for a thick fish like halibut.  Obviously, if you are using thinner fish filets, the cooking time will be reduced, possibly dramatically.  As always with fish, you do not want to overcook it or you'll wind up with mush and the tricky thing with this preparation method is that you can't easily check on it since it's all wrapped up.  I was glad that my first attempt worked out, but I can see how a failure or two could be possible before mastering the technique.

Our side was a mix of steamed broccoli and sauteed fresh spinach & garlic.  The simplicity and familiarity was enormously appreciated considering how stressed I was that I might have been potentially ruining the main course.

Once in awhile, it is really fun to reach outside of your comfort zone and try something new.  When's the last time you did that and was it a success?