Low-Carb Lesson #21: Packet Up Fish Fillets Dijon

Low Carb Cooking 101: Low-Carb Lesson #21: Packet Up Fish Fillets Dijon

When it’s hot out (and it’s been HOT out!) I don’t feel like cooking. I don’t feel like cleaning up afterward, either. But I have to eat, and my family has to eat, so I have to do something. And since they refuse to eat off the floor and with their fingers (picky people that they are), I have to come up with new ways to minimize the cleanup.

I’ve been fooling around with “packet” meals, one-dish meals that are cooked in (and, for the less-than-fussy, consumed from) homemade foil packets. You can buy pre-made foil packets now, but I’m just too darn cheap to spend the extra money. I make mine from heavy duty aluminum foil. Here’s how:

• Center the recipe ingredients on a 12-inch by 18-inch sheet of heavy duty aluminum foil.
• Bring up the sides of the foil evenly. Double fold the sides of the foil together. Repeat the double folding at each end. (Do not fold the foil too tightly over the food. You need to leave room for heat circulation.
• Repeat the process with each packet.
• Place the packets on a cookie sheet and bake in a preheated oven on a cookie sheet in preheated oven. (The temperature and baking time will vary from recipe to recipe.) OR grill on medium-high in a covered grill.
• After the food is cooked, open the end of foil packet away from you first to allow steam to escape, then open top of foil packet. (It is particularly important to do this for children and impatient husbands so they don’t get burned.)

So tonight’s dinner is simply:

• Packet Up Fish Fillets Dijon
• Simply Strawberries

You can, of course, add a salad or some low carbohydrate cooked vegetables, but I wouldn’t bother. Each packet has vegetables in it, and you already do enough, don’t you? Anyway, it’s too hot to eat, remember?

Here’s the shopping list for the meal. You may very well already have some of these things on hand:
heavy duty aluminum foil

• 4 8-ounce fish fillets (2 pounds total)
• butter
• nonstick olive oil spray (optional)
• heavy cream
• 4 small plum tomatoes
• 2 small zucchini squash (1 package frozen, chopped broccoli can be substituted for the zucchini)
• 1/2 yellow bell pepper
• 1/2 small onion
• fresh parsley
• 1 lemon
• 1 pint strawberries
• DaVinci Sugar Free Raspberry or Orange Syrup
• 1 teaspoon lemon juice (or to taste)
• Worcestershire sauce
• Dijon mustard
• salt
• pepper

Here’s the game plan:

Prepare the Simply Strawberries either the night before or in the morning and store them in the refrigerator to give them time to marinate in the DaVinci sugar free syrup.

About 30 minutes before you want to serve dinner, turn on the oven to 450 degrees. Prepare the vegetables and rinse the fish. Combine the ingredients for the butter mixture and set aside.

Put the fish and vegetable packets together and fold up the foil, placing each packet on a cookie sheet as you finish with it. Slide the cookie sheet in the oven and set the oven timer for 10 minutes. (I HATE it when I forget to set the timer, which is about half the time.)

While the fish packets are baking, set the table. Take the Simply Strawberries out of the refrigerator and give the container a good shake to make sure all the berries are freshly coated with the sugar free syrup. Serve the strawberries in small custard cups and put them on the table.

Take the fish packets out of the oven. Open one up carefully to test the fish to make sure that it is completely cooked. (It should flake easily with a fork.) If the fish is not done, close up the packet and put it back on the cookie sheet. Bake the packets for another 2 to 3 minutes until the fish is completely done.

Open the packets carefully and slide the contents onto a dinner plate. Sit down to a relaxed, well-deserved meal.

And, finally, here’s the recipes:

Packet Up Fish Fillets Dijon

• heavy duty aluminum foil
• softened butter or nonstick olive oil spray for the foil
• 4 8-ounce fish fillets (2 pounds total)
• 4 small plum tomatoes, seeded and chopped
• 2 small zucchini squash, sliced in 1/4-inch slices
• 1/2 yellow bell pepper, julienned
• 1/2 small onion, thinly sliced
• salt (to taste)
• pepper (to taste)
• 4 tablespoons butter, melted
• 1 tablespoon heavy cream
• 2 teaspoons Dijon mustard
• 1 teaspoon fresh lemon juice (or to taste)
• 2 teaspoons Worcestershire sauce
• chopped fresh parsley (optional)
• lemon wedges (optional)

Preheat the oven to 450 degrees.

Cut 4 12-inch by 18-inch pieces of heavy duty aluminim foil. Grease the dull sides of the foil sheets with either softened butter of nonstick olive oil spray.

Rinse the fish fillets in cold water and pat them dry.

Place one fish fillet on each piece of foil. Divide the chopped tomatoes, sliced zucchini, and julienned yellow bell pepper over the fish fillets. Season with salt and pepper to taste. (Use the salt and pepper sparingly. You can always add more at the table.)

Blend the butter, heavy cream, Dijon mustard, lemon juice and Worcestershire sauce in small bowl. Drizzle the butter mixture over each fillet, dividing the butter mixture equally among the fish fillets and vegetables, covering them thoroughly.

Fold the foil around the fish and vegetables according to the directions above. Place the packets on a cookie sheet.

Bake the fish packets until just cooked through, about 10 to 12 minutes. Open the packets carefully and, if you insist, slide the fish fillets and vegetables onto a dinner plate.

Sprinkle each servings with the chopped parsley and garnish with lemon wedges.

Makes 4 generous servings.

Variation: I have never been pleased with frozen zucchini. It gets mushy when frozen. But you can substitute a thawed package of frozen chopped broccoli for the zucchini in the recipe and prepare the recipe ahead of time and freeze the packets for a quick meal later on. (Use any frozen packets within 2 months.)

Simply Strawberries

***Note: Leftover Simply Strawberries will keep 2 or 3 days in the refrigerator if tightly covered, but don’t count on them being there that long. These are good! Try some of the leftovers over low carb pancakes in the morning, or in a salad with a raspberry vinaigrette salad dressing for lunch tomorrow.

***Variation: Sugar-free DaVinci orange syrup is also very good on strawberries, too.