Salmon Foil packets

Clyde and I try to have salmon once a week.  It is very fresh here and we enjoy our meal prepared this way.

Salmon Packets
Spray a piece of aluminum foil with cooking spray.  You need one square of foil for each packet.  Place 1/2-3/4 cup cooked rice in the middle of the foil.  Pour 2 tablespoons of chicken broth on the rice.  Place the salmon on the rice and sprinkle with lemon pepper.  Slice a lemon and place slices down the salmon.  Seal up the edges on the foil and back for 30 minutes at 375 degrees.

Lemon - Thyme Shrimp

I wanted something a bit different for dinner last night, so I  wandered around in my daughter's Pinterest accounts.  I found a recipe in Carianne's that I liked but knew I had to fix to fit Clyde's and my tastes.  Here is what I came up with.  It is really good.
Lemon-Thyme Shrimp
1/3 cup olive oil
1 lemon zested, then halved
3-4 fresh thyme sprigs
Pasta, couscous or rice
2 Tablespoons butter
1 pound medium uncooked shrimp, deveined with the tails off


Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.  In an 8x8 glass baking dish, combine the olive oil, lemon zest and thyme sprigs.  (The olive oil should generously cover the bottom of the dish).  Season with salt and pepper.  Bake in the oven for 10-12 minutes, checking every few minutes.  If it looks like it is getting too brown, remove from the oven and proceed to the next step.  Meanwhile cook the rice, pasta or couscous.


The next step after you remove the pan of oil from the oven is to add the 2 Tablespoons of butter to the oil.  Mix it in well.  Add the shrimp and bake it for 6-8 minutes or until the shrimp turns pink and begins to curl.  Don't overcook.  


To serve, remove the shrimp from the oil and drizzle with the juice of 1/2 lemon. Serve with the starch of choice.  Clyde love it with couscous. 
So good!


Note:  I didn't add the extra butter to mine and didn't miss it.  I just gave this recipe to a friend and she used the leftover olive oil as a dipping sauce for French bread that she served with her meal.  Sounds heavenly.  What I eliminated from the original recipe Carianne had found was 5 cloves of garlic, finely minced in the oil. Clyde and I do not do well with garlic or onion so it just seemed prudent to eliminate that.  My friend added it to her oil and it burned - so she started over and eliminated it too.  I think if you were doing this that whole cloves of garlic would be the way to go. It also said to strip the stems of thyme of all of the leaves.  I didn't.

Lemon Pepper Salmon Packets

You will see I have pattern here.  There is lemon pepper in all of the fish meals.  Maybe that is how it makes them tasty to us - but we sure like it this way.  I like the foil packets because they are just roll up and toss away to clean up.  We have this recipe at least twice a month.  We try and eat salmon once a week.

Lemon Pepper Salmon Packets
4 sheets 9x9 inches each of heavy duty aluminum foil
1 pound salmon fillet
1-1 1/2 teaspoon lemon pepper
1 Teaspoon salt
1 lemon, thinly sliced
1 red bell pepper, thinly sliced
2 medium carrots, cut into thin strips

Preheat oven to 475 degrees or preheat grill to medium high.  On each of the 9x9 square sheets, spray with non-stick cooking spray.  Cut the salmon into four serving sizes - if necessary.  Place skin side down on foil squares. Sprinkle lemon pepper and salt over fish.  Place lemon slices on each piece of salmon.  Divide the bell pepper slices over the salmon.  Divide the carrots over the salmon.  Fold top and edges.  Pinch tightly to seal.  Leave room in packet for heat circulation.  Bake 15 minutes in the oven on a baking sheet.  Grill 8 minutes per inch of flesh on the grill - covered (15-20 minutes is usually more than enough time).  Carefully open packet to check to see if fish flakes easily.

Note:  This too is very 'juicy' so we remove it from the packet to eat it.  We always get out salmon with the skin on because we think it tastes better.  We find the skin stays behind in the foil pouch 80% of the time but otherwise just peels away.  This is truly one of our favorite ways to eat salmon.  My other favorite way is just grilled on a plank.  But since we cannot have grill - it makes it difficult to do that for the time being.

If you don't have bell peppers or carrots - do this anyway.  It really just needs the lemon and lemon pepper to taste good.

Baked Fish Fillets

When you choose fish, you want it not to smell like fish.  That sounds odd but you are looking for a fresh outdoor smell when you choose fish.  Don't take it if it smells fishy or has a rainbow sheen to the flesh.  It has been there too long.  It should feel firm and never slimy.  This is a really tasty way to serve fish.

Bake Fish Fillets
1 pound of mild-flavored fish, about 3/4 inch thick
3 Tablespoons butter, melted
1 Tablespoon lemon juice
1 teaspoon lemon pepper or lemon zest
1/4 teaspoon salt or 1/2 teaspoon sea salt

Heat oven to 375.  Grease bottom of a rectangular pan, 11x7x1 inches (or cover with foil and spray with non-stick cooking spray).  Cut fish fillets into 4 serving pieces, if need be.  Place pieces skin side down, in the pan, folding thin ends unders if necessary for even thickness.

Mix together remaining ingredients and drizzle over the fish.  Bake uncovered for 15 -20 minutes or until the fish flakes easily with a fork.

Note: Some mild flavored fish include flounder, cod, perch and catfish.  Flounder is very thin but I just shorten the cooking time - you can do the same if you have thin fillets. 

I have substituted lime juice and lime zest for a slightly different flavor.  Our common menu with this is lima beans for Clyde, oven roasted asparagus for me, tossed salad and rice.

Lemon Pepper Halibut Packets

I am finding more and more that I only really like fish cooked a few ways.  I do love it deep fat fried, but I am not going to do that at home - we will save that for a restaurant.  I am also seeing repeats of the same kinds of recipes in my patterns of cooking fish - which makes me laugh.  I am trying really hard not to eat fish covered in cocktail sauce or tartar sauce, so here are few recipes of how Clyde and I have come to enjoy our fish pretty much straight up.

Lemon Pepper Halibut
1 pound halibut, 1/2 ot 3/4 inch thick (see note at bottom)
1 teaspoon lemon pepper without salt
1 1/2 teaspoons sea salt
1 medium zucchini or summer squash, cut into 2x1-inch strips
1 medium red bell pepper, cut into 1-inch strips
1 lemon, sliced thin
2 Tablespoons olive oil

Preheat oven to 475 degrees or heat coals or gas grill for direct heat.  Cut four foil sheets into 18x12 inch pieces of heavy duty foil. Spray with cooking spray.  Cut fish into 4 servings, if necessary.  Place 1 piece of fish on each foil square.  Sprinkle fish with 1/4 teaspoon of the lemon pepper on each square and divide the salt equally among the squares.  Lay lemon slices over fish - however many you want on each fish (I usually use three slices per piece).  Arrange the squash and peppers over each piece of fish so it is evenly distributed.  Drizzle with the olive oil.  Seal edges tight -  making a 1/2 inch fold and folding again.  Allow space on sides for expansion and air circulation of packets.

Cooking time in the oven is 15 minutes.

Cover and grill packets over medium heat for 15-20 minutes or until the fish flakes with a fork and vegetables are tender.  Place packets on plates.  Cut an X across each packet and fold back foil.  You can remove the fish and vegetables to your plate or eat from the packet.  (Clyde and I like to remove our fish and vegetables because the squash has broken down at this point and it is swimming in liquid - but the choice is yours).

I serve this meal with a big tossed salad and fresh green beans in the summer in the winter I use canned green beans.  It is really good with a good loaf of French bread (but I am trying to be good and eat less white flour).

Note:  This is good with any good quality white fish.  I have made it with flounder but have cut the cooking time back to about 10 minutes on the oven (without the vegetables) and no more than 15 on the grill because the fillets are so thin.  When I use flounder, I cook the vegetables in a separate pouch.  Another favorite of ours is orange roughy.  It is a very mild white fish that is not very expensive.  Clyde is not a big fan of squash and he can no longer eat bell peppers.  He doesn't mind scraping off the vegetables and just enjoying the fish - hence why I serve another cooked vegetable he will eat.