Salmon en papilotte, with cracked wheat and herb salad

I knew it was an old, and popular method for cooking, but imagine my surprise when I found out that cooking things in paper bags was a classical French method.  This dish is a kind of mash up, as it features middle eastern flavours, with classical french cookery.  The result was fish cooked to perfection.  I have never had fish cooked as delicately as this.



Yoghurt and spice crusted salmon, with cracked wheat and herb salad

Yoghurt marinade

2 salmon fillets
1 cup greek yoghurt (Chris' brand Greek yoghurt is great)
2 garlic cloves, crushed
2 tsp ground cumin
1/2 tsp smokey paprika
salt and pepper to taste
1/2 bunch of coriander, finely chopped (include roots)

Cracked wheat salad

1/2 bunch each of parsley, mint and coriander
1 tomato, concasse
1 handful sultanas
1 cup of cracked wheat
1 tbsp olive oil
1 tbsp lemon juice
salt to taste

Mix all the marinade ingredients together, and coat the salmon.  Cover and refrigerate for at least one hour.

Preheat the oven to 170 deg celcius.

Put the cracked wheat in a small bowl, and cover with boiling water.  Top with foil and leave to stand for approximately half an hour.  Once softened, drain, and squeeze out any excess water.  Combine the cracked wheat in a larger bowl with the other salad ingredients.

Wrap the salmon fillets skin side up in baking paper envelopes, and scoop in as much yoghurt marinade as you like.  Seal the edges of your paper envelope by folding them over and place on a baking tray.

I think typically you cook fish in the bag until the bag puffs up, however I decided I wanted a bit of a crust on the fish.  I cooked them in the paper for around ten minutes, at which point I then opened up the top of the envelopes, and switched the oven to the 'grill' setting to form a slight crust on the top of the fish.  This only took around 2 minutes.