When the cat is away...

Mike made plans with his dad tonight, so cooking-wise, I'm left to my own devices. Meaning, I don't have to take anyone's food preferences or issues into account. Mike is not especially picky. That thing about risotto is weird, but it stems from a childhood trauma. He is, however, iffy about fish, so fish it will be, tonight.

I have procured a whole, dressed rainbow trout. It has its head, but no guts. I'm going to make trout en papillote, with asparagus, fiddleheads and new potatoes, and also a lemon meringue pie. The pie is for when Mike and his dad come over for dessert after their dinner. This is an easy, no-mess (except for the decapitation of the fish) and nearly foolproof way of preparing fish. For those of you that care about such things (and I'm not one of them), it is also nearly free of added fat.

One whole trout is enough for 2 people (you'll have to split it in 2), or you could figure 1 filet per person. Get your oven set to 400F. You'll need one 16" square piece of parchment paper per trout filet. Fold the parchment square in half, then open it back up. Along half of each square, arrange 4 or 5 very thin slices of lemon, then put your fish on top, skin side down, then drizzle with 1 tsp evoo (all things considered, as far as I'm concerned, that's almost no fat), season with salt and pepper, and a sprig or two of thyme (or half a stem of rosemary, if you like).

Fold the parchment over top, fold the edges over each other, and then fold them again to really seal the package. If you seal it well enough, the parchment will puff up all sexy-like when the fish is done. But you should put the packages on a baking sheet with a raised edge, so that if you didn't seal the fish package well, you won't have a trout-y oven mess. Bake for 10 minutes, or until the fish is just opaque and flaky- trout, like salmon, is good to eat just shy of cooked all the way through. Like a medium-medium rare.

And the juices in the packet? Liquid gold. Pour them over the fish, to serve.