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8 July 2003, 10:41 AM

Recipe: Halibut Baked in Grape Leaves
8 July 2003, 10:25 AM

Okay, so I have two enormous jars of grape leaves in water that I bought a while back at Phoenicia. (I'd wanted to make stuffed grape leaves and never got around to it, then forgot I had one jar and bought another one.) I was wondering when I was ever going to use them all! Naturally, when I saw a recipe for baking fish inside a pouch of grape leaves I decided to try it.

Boy Howdy! That was *fantastic*. If you can get grape leaves - fresh or in a jar - I highly recommend this. It was quick, easy and absolutely delicious. The fish was moist, tender and full of flavor.

You can use just about any fish, but I used halibut as the recipe recommended. You'll need about 3 or 4 fresh grape leaves (or 5 or 6 canned/preserved) for each skinless fillet. It's easiest if you do this on a cutting board.

First, preheat the oven to 400 degrees, then lightly oil a baking dish. Lay out the leaves on a cutting board, overlapping them to create an 8 inch round circle. Sprinkle with some olive oil, a teaspoon or so of fresh chopped thyme, and a bit of salt and fresh ground pepper. Lay the fillet down on this and wrap the leaves around it to close it up. Lay the package, seam side down, into the baking dish and bake for 20 minutes or until the fish is cooked through. (The grape leaves will crisp up.) I cooked mine for twenty minutes, then turned off the oven and let it sit in there until I'd finished some pasta (about another 5 minutes). Carefully transfer to a platter and peel away the leaves.

This is great plain, but the recipe also included a fantastic vinaigrette to serve it with:

3 Tablespoons fresh squeezed lemon juice
1 teaspoon dijon mustard
1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
1 teaspoon chopped fresh thyme
salt and pepper to taste

Just blend 'em all together and pour about a tablespoon or so over each fish.

Yuuuuuuuummmmmm.

Damnit
8 July 2003, 10:05 AM