"A Thing In A Bag"

For some reason, this recipe called to mind a fabulous Strong Bad short: Lookin' at a Thing in a Bag.  :) It's called: Fish in a Bag (from Saving Dinner--great book!), slightly modified à la Annie.

Serves 2

ingredients: 

2 fish fillets (any kind of fish will do)

2 small potatoes, parboiled for 10 minutes (until just fork tender) cut into quarter-inch slices [you can do this ahead of time and keep the taters in the fridge until ready to slice for dinner]

1 carrot, sliced thinly

1 tomato, diced

1/4 c. white wine

1 tsp thyme (fresh or dried)

2 tsp dried onion (or a quarter of a fresh onion, chopped finely)

salt and pepper to taste

olive oil

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. 

Place each fish fillet on a piece of tin foil (about 12 x 20).  Spread sliced potatoes on top of fish. Drizzle olive oil over potatoes and fish. Sprinkle carrot pieces, tomato, thyme, onion, salt, and pepper over potatoes. Pour half of wine over each fish "bag."  Pull oposite corners of foil together and crimp. Crimp and seal all seams of foil and place bags on a baking sheet. Place in preheated oven and bake for 20 minutes or until fish flakes.  When ready to serve, carefully remove contents from "bag" and arrange on plates. 

I served this with wilted spinach and sour cream. Turned out really well--and VERY quick, very clean prep work.  Dinner was ready in (literally) 30 or 40 minutes from getting home to sitting down to the table. 

The other neat thing I like about this recipe is that it's so easy to modify.  You can use sweet potatoes instead of golden or yellow. You could even use fingerling potatoes and slice them "hot-dog bun style."  You could use soy sauce and more exotic veggies for an Asian taste (serve with rice and miso soup!).  You could mix and match with any number of vegetables and (as long as you parboil tough veggies or give them time to become tender) it will be really easy and quick.  

If you want to do this for a big dinner, use a big fish fillet and add all the vegetables with the fish and accoutrements in one "bag" (might need multiple pieces of foil, making it very important to firmly seal all seams--especially those on the bottom).  

Happy Ash Wednesday!