Anniversary Dinner: Chilean Sea Bass en Papillote with Bourboned Apples
Today’s recipe is sponsored by Anderson Seafoods.
The hubby and I celebrated our 33rd wedding anniversary on February 20th. We went out to a very lovely dinner at the Pearl Cafe in Missoula. I’m still thinking about the seafood stew that I had that night; it was so good. The broth was tomato based with saffron and orange. The reason I picked the meal from the menu was that orange – it intrigued me. It was delicious. The tomatoes were sweet, the saffron came through but not heavily and the orange was a perfect little surprise.
I still wanted to mark the actual day of our anniversary with a special meal so I turned to my stock of seafood. It is always a treat for us and it reminds us of our life in New Jersey. I wanted to make something that both of us would enjoy so I turned to Chilean sea bass. Now, I am a weird kind of cook. I’ll be going along and this idea will just pop into my head. I have learned to not ignore these ideas as odd as they might seem at the time which is why I ended up pairing Chilean sea bass with bourbon. And apples and raisins. I know – not usual flavors for fish but it was amazing! I also made a lovely dessert involving goat’s milk ice cream and I’ll post that tomorrow.
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Chilean Sea Bass en Papillote with Bourboned Apples
Serves 2
2 6 oz Chilean Sea Bass filets
1/2 green pepper cored and sliced
1/4 cup orange juice
1/4 cup bourbon
1 TBS soy sauce
1 tsp olive oil
salt
For the Apples
1 apple, peeled, cored and cut into cubes
2 TBS raisins
1 TBS olive oil
1/4 cup bourbon
1 TBS brown sugar
1/4 tsp dried thyme
pinch of salt
Preheat oven to 350°
Cut two large pieces of parchment
Mix the orange juice, bourbon and soy sauce. Set aside
Divide the olive oil between the two pieces of parchment and spread around.
Salt the fish and place on the oil on the parchment.
Top the fish with the green peppers.
If you cannot see the video you can watch it on YouTube HERE (This is a somewhat loud video due to the parchment paper so don’t have your volume set too high)
Fold the parchment in half over the fish and then close the packet leaving a small section open on side to add the liquid.
Add half of the orange juice/bourbon mixture and seal the packet closed.
Place the packets on a cookie sheet and bake for 20 minutes.
While the fish is cooking add the 1 TBS olive oil to a heavy bottomed saute pan over medium high heat.
Add the apple cubes and a pinch of salt.
Stir the brown sugar into the bourbon and add it to the apples. If you would like, CAREFULLY flame the bourbon for a few seconds and then blow it out.
Add the raisins and thyme and heat through.
Remove from the heat and set aside.
When the fish is done carefully open the packets.
Serve the fish over rice or orzo, topping it with the peppers from inside the packet, half of the cooked apples and some juice from the packages.
This was such a surprise. I’m glad I listened to the little voice in my head. The fish was moist and had a rich flavor fro the bourbon and orange juice. I can’t eat peppers so I made my packet plain and topped it with the apples. We both enjoyed our version of the meal. I put the fish on brown rice and served seasoned cauliflower as the vegetable. I realize these are really fall flavors but it worked for a lovely anniversary meal. As per usual the fish from Anderson was perfection.
