Parchment baked fish with thyme and olives

 

It's finally nice enough today to open up the back door and let in some fresh air, just one week after there was a heavy blanket of snow outside. With any luck winter may have given up and in a few weeks we can start moving the overwintering herbs back outside. They don't always survive the transition, so we figure we should make liberal use of them just in case. This dish takes advantage of the now spindly but growing lemon thyme plant. 

Parchment baked fish with thyme and olives

Adapted from Better Homes & Gardens, February 2019

Ingredients

½ pound fingerling potatoes, halved lengthwise

½ tablespoon water

2 tablespoons olive oil

2 small fish fillets (firm whitefish like halibut or cod work well), about ¾ pound total

8 to 10 sprigs of fresh thyme (lemon thyme is extra nice, but not necessary)

Pitted black and green olives (a mix of marinated olives from the deli olive bar is dandy)

Method

Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Place potatoes in a microwave-safe dish along with a ½ tablespoon of water. Cover and microwave at full power for 5 minutes. Let cool slightly.

Cut 2 15-inch squares of parchment paper. Drizzle the center of one half of each sheet with a bit of olive oil. Place half of cooled potatoes on top. Place the fish fillets on top of the potatoes. Top with several sprigs of fresh thyme. Sprinkle with salt and pepper. Arrange olives around fish. Drizzle remaining olive oil over the top.

Fold the other half of the parchment over the top of the fish. Starting at one corner at the fold, start folding both layers of parchment up toward the center, pleating and pinching as you go, kind of like crimping a pie crust. Fold the last corner under to seal.

Transfer packets to a baking sheet. Bake at 425 for 10 minutes on convection or 15 minutes in a conventional oven. Fish should flake easily. Watch for steam when you peel open the packets. Serves 2. 

Rating: Really quite nice, and reasonably filling without being heavy. It's fast enough for a weeknight supper and cleanup is easy. Dave was quite taken with it. I think the olives you pick make a big difference; we used a mix of marinated and unmarinated olives and it added quite a bit of nice flavor as well as color.