I first had this wonderful dish at the Red Lion Pub in Bimini, Bahamas. It’s amazingly easy to make, dirties no pots or pans and simply tastes heavenly! Cooking the fish in a foil pouch makes for fast cooking times; cooking it with wine in the pouch creates a moist environment that makes it difficult to end up with dry, overcooked fish, too.
Although the Bahamian version uses fresh fish – and by “fresh” I mean “that grouper was swimming in the ocean two hours ago” – this recipe works wonders with the more affordable frozen fillets. Just be sure to use a white fish with this – tuna or salmon made in this method would taste… not so good!
Ingredients:
Fillets of a whitefish (tilapia, grouper, mahi mahi, etc.)
Sliced onion (enough to add one or two slices per fillet)
1 “pat” of butter per fillet
Around 1/4 cup white wine per fillet
Salt
Pepper
Capers (optional)
Hardware:
Aluminum foil
1 small knife
1 cookie sheet (optional)
1) Preheat your oven to 375F.
2) Tear off a large piece of aluminum foil. The piece should be big enough to fit the fillets comfortably and seal at the top. For best results, use a very large sheet folded in half.
3) Put the fish fillet in the center of the foil.
4) Salt and pepper the fish to your liking. Add a few onion rings (slices) to the fish, as well as the butter and capers (if desired).
5) Tightly close the foil up around the fish; leave a small gap to pour the wine into before sealing the pouch completely.
6) Repeat for any additional fillets.
7) Place pouches directly on the middle rack of your oven (or place them on a cookie sheet – this is better in my opinion as any leaks won’t make a mess of the oven).
8) Cook at 375F until done. The amount of time necessary to cook the fish depends on the size and thickness of the fillets. Consider 12 minutes to be a minimum cooking time, although in practice it usually takes around 16 minutes for the average fillet in my oven.