The Daring Kitchen: Cooking "En Papillote"

I've been a little bit slack with the whole blogging/cooking thing of late. Part of it is that I've been quite busy, and other parts are because it just hasn't seemed all that important to me. I think Joelene over at DeterminedUncensored said it well - living more and chronicling less. I do enjoy blogging, but I sometimes find that I won't be present in the moment because I'm thinking about clever little phrases to use, and forming a blog post in my head as I do something. Does anyone else do that??

Anyway, I thought I'd post about this month's Daring Cooks challenge before I forgot and the deadline passed me by again!

Our July 2012 Daring Cooks’ host was Sarah from All Our Fingers in the Pie! Sarah challenges us to learn a new cooking technique called “Cooking En Papillote” which is French and translates to “cooking in parchment”.

So basically what we had to do is cook food in the oven in parchment paper. This is best achieved by adding some sort of moisture (e.g. stock or wine), or to select foods that will release moisture, so that it kind of steams in the paper. I have come across this method of cooking before in various Donna Hay cook books, amongs others, and you may have encountered recipes including the phrase "paper bag " or similar. I don't know why I never tried it because it really is dead simple, and healthy to boot. You know, provided your moisture doesn't come from butter... *whistles nonchalantly*

Sarah gave us a few ideas to get us started, but I decided to try something she hadn't even suggeted and cook pork.

First, I bought some pork medallions - they're basically pork fillets about the length of your palm but skinner, with no bone or fat on them.

Actually, first I preheated the oven to about 190oC. There I go again, running before I can walk!

Next, I washed and halved some raw beetroot. I also washed and chopped up parsnip into inch-thick lengths. These went on a baking tray on baking paper and were sprinkled lightly with olive oil, salt and pepper. They went in the oven and spent about twenty minutes there before anything else went in.

Okay, back to the pork. I placed the fillets flat on a cutting board, and inserted a knife and sliced them along one side to form a pocket that went almost all the way through to the other side but not quite - it needs to hold together on three "sides" when you stuff it.

I then got a Granny Smith apple (I believe they're known as cooking apples elsewhere in the world - a bright green, crisp, tart apple that I LOVE to eat as an apple, but other people can't stand), peeled it, and diced about two thirds of it up into fine cubes (I cut straight down beside the core three times so there was an oblong piece remaining, one side of which was apple and the other side of which was core... buuut that may have just confused you more!). I added about an inch of fresh ginger, finely sliced into tiny matchsticks; a little under a teaspoon of crushed garlic; about half a teaspoon of soy sauce; and a heaped teaspoon of honey, then mixed it around.

I stuffed this mixture into the pockets I made in pork medallions and secured it with a toothpick, tucking the toothpick carefully into the meat because for some reason I was paranoid it would burn, even though I was basically steaming it. Then I placed each medallion into a square of baking paper the longest side being on the diagonal of the paper; squeezed a fat slice of lemon on it (8mm thick or so, half a longitudinal lemon wide - this was my moisture, plus the water in the apple which I knew would ooze out as it cooked) and then placed the slice on top, along with a piece of star anise; and secured the paper by tightly rolling down the opposite diagonals on the short side of the pork (i.e. so that you're rolling the longest pieces of paper), then twist the end pieces tightly to finish the package off.

Note that the beetroot has now been in the oven for about twenty minutes. I put these stuffed pork medallions on a tray in the oven and set the timer for fifteen minutes.

Next, I took some baby carrots, fresh green beans and fresh asparagus; topped and tailed and halved the beans, took the leaves and tails off the carrots, and snapped the woody base off the asparagus and then cut them in half. I used five baby carrots and three asparagus spears per person plus enough beans to complete a serving. I washed them all and didn't dry them because I hadn't thought the moisture through and figured it wouldn't hurt.

Same deal with the paper - place the vegies on a square of baking paper, add some moisture (in my case, about half a tablespoon of chicken stock and a wee pat of butter), do the foldy-twisty thing with the paper and bung them in the oven. I think I set the timer for about twenty minutes (which had just gone off from the pork's first fifteen).

So, if you're confused (and, frankly, I can't blame you if you are), it went a little something like this:

Beetroot & parsnip + olive oil, salt, pepper: 55 minutes

Pork + apple, soy sauce, honey, garlic, ginger, lemon juice, star anise: 35 minutes

Carrots, asparagus & beans + chicken stock, butter: 20 minutes.

The beetroot and parsnip were good. I'd probably turn the parsnip half way because it started to go a bit brown on the bottom side. It was also a little soft but in a good way.

The pork was probably a little over-done, but with pork, better to over-cook than under-cook!

The carrots and beans were a little on the crunchy side but the asparagus was perfect. But they were definitely edible.

All things considered, I will definitely cook "en papillote" again!