So the whole fusion came to me when I read this article on Betty Lui and her blog called le juice d'orange on Facebook. I follow her and the article, found here is about fusing her Chinese and American identities and heritage into into her food life. This fusion is found in her beautiful and unique recipes, see her Facebook page here. I have shared number of her recipes on my Facebook page found here, as well she has some really neat fusion recipes with some ingredients that you wouldn't think we'll go together. So that was my starting off point I was going to make a salmon en papillote and I decided to change it up a bit and try something a little different; the flavours sounded a bit weird but in the end it tasted wonderful.
I used the classic French flavours found in en papillote, call it a sort of salmon nicoise-ish flavours like olives, tomatoes, onions and citrus and then I added an Asian twist with the lemongrass, sambal oelek and changing the citrus from a lemon to using a lime.
So don't be afraid to try new flavors sure it may not always turn out that great but you won't know if you don't try; sometimes you may think it sounds a bit weird but in the end your taste buds may disagree; and really it's a taste buds that matter not your brain.
Fusion Fish En Papillote
- 1 – 350-500g whole fillet of salmon or individual portions totalling about the same
- Couple of tablespoons (aka a good glug) olive oil
- 5 sundried tomato halves, coarsely chopped
- 1 med onion thinly sliced into rings
- ¼ cup pitted Kalamata olives (or your favourite variety)
- 2 cloves of garlic, thinly sliced
- 2 tsp sambal oelek (chili paste) – or to taste
- 2 medium limes, thinly sliced in rounds
- 2 pieces of lemongrass, outermost husk removed and lightly split (bang it against the counter)
- Fresh herbs – Thai basil would be my first choice, pictured I used thyme and sage, as that was all I had on hand
- Salt and pepper – to taste
Directions:
- Preheat oven to 425°F.
- Set out your cut parchment paper on a baking sheet (if you are doing the individual packets, divide all the ingredietns amongst each packet), add one of the sliced limes onto the middle or slightly off-centre of the parchment.
- Add the fish fillet on top of the lime, then layer on the onion across the whole fillet, scatter on the garlic, olives and sundried tomato and remaining lime slices.
- Place the lemongrass pieces on either side of the fillet.
- Dot the whole thing with the sambal oelek, sprinkle with salt and pepper to taste.
- Finally dredge on the olive oil across the whole fillet.
- Roll up the packet by starting at one end and folding over and across until you have a nice covered packet, folding the ends under.
- Bake at 425°F for about 20 minutes, depending on the thickness of your fillet (if thicker bake for 5-7 min more.) Let it rest out of the oven for about 5-7 minutes before you open the packet. Open carefully as hot steam will be released. Enjoy!
I had a whole salmon fillet in the freezer and by the time I'd defrosted it (safely in the fridge, then in the sink with cold water) it had gotten slightly mushy and wasn't ideal to cut it up into individual serving sized fillets, so I simply used the whole thing and made a whole large en papillote out of it! See great directions for wrapping fish en papilotte (and a bonus recipe) from Canadian Living here.
Sambal Oelek - a fresh chili paste type of sauce - it's very spicy, use sparingly, or at least try it first before slathering it on!
The next day I put together a fried rice stir-fry-fry sort of deal with edamame and plenty of vegetables along side the salmon, which I drizzled with a bit of hoisin sauce- and that turned out really nice too.
