Herbes de Provence

Walking along Provence’s back roads on a summer’s day you can’t get away from the scents of lavender and wild thyme. Passing by a kitchen so tantalizing with smells of fresh herbs on the grill, it’s enough to make us brave some bad French just for a small bite. Using a dried herb blend called herbes de Provence here at home helps recreate those idyllic wanderings. Dried rosemary, thyme and bay leaf are always the base of the mixture; basil, lavender and fennel are usually added in small amounts. Historically, home cooks grew the herbs in their garden, or gathered them from the mountainside and threw them on the grill alongside meat or fish. Rumour has it that the herbes de Provence blend was packaged in the 1970s for the benefit of tourists. And, indeed, everywhere a tourist looks in Provence there are terracotta pots and bags of herbes de Provence for sale. The bags usually contain more seasoning than the average home cook could use in a year—the time it takes for your herbaceous souvenir to go stale. The following recipe is light, flavourful and a perfect summer dish—no pots and pans required. We like rainbow trout, but any mild fish fillet would be equally deli-cious. We’re even using a French technique to prepare the fish. En papillote is a simple and healthy cooking method that uses parchment paper or tin foil to create a cooking pouch for food. The paper seals in the moisture and steams the fish and vegetables with very little cooking liquid or added fat. Cut up some baguette to go with it, and when you open up the packet, the aroma will be reminiscent of those beautiful summer Provençal days.

Provençal Trout En Papillote

The fresh fennel enhances the flavour of the herbes de Provence, and when sliced thinly cooks through in the same time it takes to steam the fish. This dish can also be prepared on the barbecue, on medium or indirect heat.

INGREDIENTS

1 small fennel bulb, tops removed, and bulb thinly sliced (fronds reserved)
2 cups cherry tomatoes, halved

1½ lbs rainbow trout fillets (4 small fillets)
1 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil
2 tsp finely chopped garlic

1½ tsp herbes de Provence Salt and freshly ground pepper to taste
2 tbsp dry white wine
2 tbsp chopped fennel fronds

TO PREPARE

1 Preheat oven to 400°F.

2 Lay 4 square sheets of parchment paper (about 40 by 40 centimetres) on your counter. Place ¼ of the sliced fennel bulb in a thin layer in a row along the middle of each sheet and top with cherry tomatoes. Place one trout fillet on top of each portion of vegetables.

3 Combine olive oil, garlic and herbes de Provence in a small bowl, rub oil mixture over each of the trout fillets and season with salt and pepper to taste. Drizzle 1½ tsp white wine over each of the fillets and top with fennel fronds.

4 Fold parchment paper as if you were wrapping a sandwich, fully enclosing fish and vegetables and securing seams so that the steam and cooking liquid will not escape. Place parchment packages seam side up onto a baking sheet and place in the lower third of the oven.

5 Bake fish for 10 to 12 minutes or until white juices appear and fish is just cooked through.
Serves 4.

Give our recipe a try and tell us what you think—“two forks up” or “two forks down!”
Send comments to food@outpostmagazine.com.
And if, during your travels, you sample a delicious dish and are able to snag the recipe, send it to the same email address and we’ll consider it for publication.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, September 23rd, 2009 at 3:27 pm and is filed under Gourmet. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a comment, or trackback from your own site. Add to del.icio.us.