Tilapia in Parchment Paper

Hello, everyone!!  Happy Tuesday!  As you're reading this, I'm on a little bit of a vacation, just for a few days, but I thought I would leave you with one of my favorite fish recipes.  It looks pretty impressive, and it really couldn't be much easier.
I put the entire thing together while my husband was putting our daughter to bed the other night.  It took about 15 minutes to assemble, and another 20 or so to cook!

Cooking fish in parchment paper is a great way to go, because it keeps the fish moist, and locks in the flavors that you wrap up with it.  For this fish today, I used white wine, lemons, some dried herbs, and fresh dill, but you can easily swap it out for some fresh thyme, or oregano.  If you don't have any fresh herbs, you can use all dried, or you can just use lemons...the options are pretty much endless, to whatever fish you want to use, or however your tastes run!  Let's get started!

Here's your grocery list for this one:
Fish of choice, I used tilapia fillets

1 lemon per fillet

Seasonings of choice.  For this, I used:
1 tsp dried oregano per fillet

1 tsp dried parsley

4 sprigs of fresh dill

1/2 tsp Kosher salt (again, per fillet)

1 Tbs butter per fillet

Dry white wine of choice

Parchment paper

To start off with, slice your lemon(s) very, very thinly.  I used a mandolin to slice mine, but you can use a knife pretty easily, just be careful.  Lay your lemon slices out on the parchment paper (about a 15"x12" rectangle....its better to have a little more than to need a little more!) - I laid them out just so that the fish would lay on top of the slices.

Lay your fish fillet down over the lemons, and sprinkle with your seasonings, and Kosher salt.  Try to make it an even covering.  

Lay down the fresh dill, or herb of choice, top with the butter, and wrap the parchment paper up tightly.  To start off with, with the long side, fold the paper together, a few times over, like a lunch bag, so that you have a tight seal.

Holding the seam down, fold the ends up, so that the fold wraps under the fish packet, again like a lunch bag.  This will keep the packet from unfurling in the oven, and trap the steam in the packet.  Fold up one end, and before you fold the other end, pour in about 1/2 C of the dry white wine; don't worry, if you've wrapped it up properly, the wine will stay in the packet.  Once the wine is poured in, wrap up the other end the same way.  

Place your packets of fish on a baking tray, place into a preheated 400* oven, and bake for 20 minutes.  This will smell amazing, and make for a very impressive presentation - it's so fun to open these at the table!

This fish is moist and flaky, and full of flavor!  It's fun to try different fish with this, and you can really shake it up with the different flavors!  Add olives and diced tomatoes for a more Mediterranean take, or some soy sauce, sugar peas and shredded carrots for a more Asian take!