make | simple sicilian: fish in a little bag

We made a recipe this week that was super easy and super tasty.  The best thing is you make it all in a little parcel out of tin-foil and then there's hardly any washing up! Just the pan you used to make the quinoa and the plate and cutlery you used to eat it off of.

We called this Sicilian style because it utilises lemons and tomatoes, two big flavours of Sicily.  We used cod fillets, but you can use whichever fish you like best.  It would even work with a chicken breast!

We used a mixture of quinoa and brown rice.  Quinoa is really tasty, but you must rinse it before you cook it to get rid of the soapy flavour that coats the grains.  Whenever you're cooking quinoa, boil it in water or stock for the first 10 minutes, and then leave it for another 10 minutes with a sheet of kitchen roll over the top and then the lid on the pan until all the water is absorbed.  You'll get it perfectly cooked every time.

Take this recipe and switch it up to use whatever you've got in the house.  We love cooking in these foil bags - all the flavours really get going in there, and nothing goes dry.  Hope you enjoy it too!

Enjoy today!!

- rosinaviolets    x

Sicilian fish in a bag (or anything-in-a-bag!!)

200g quinoa, rinsed
100g brown rice
2 big handfuls cherry tomatoes
300ml hot vegetable stock
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1 lemon
bunch of basil, stalks removed
4 x 150g fillets of whatever fish you like best

• Get your oven to 200 degrees C.  

• Put the quinoa, rice, stock, tomatoes and cinnamon in a saucepan, and bring up to the boil.  Simmer the whole lot for 10 minutes.  

• Whilst that's going on, make your bags.  Take a piece of kitchen foil, about A3 size, and fold in half.  Fold over the 2 sides a number of times to make a little bag, but leave the top open (as shown in the picture).  Get a baking tray ready for your bags to go on.  

• Take the quinoa and rice mixture off the heat.  Put a sheet of kitchen roll and then the lid on the pan, and leave for about another 5 - 10 minutes, until all the  liquid has been absorbed.  

• Finely grate the zest of your lemon into the quinoa and rice mixture.  Tear in the basil.  Mix it all up and then divide it between the bags.  Chop the lemon into wedges ready for when the bags come out of the oven.  

• Place a fillet of fish on top of each pile of quinoa and rice mix in the bags.  Season with salt and pepper.  Seal up the bag and put them on the baking tray.  

• Bake them in the oven for between 20 - 25 minutes, until the fish is done all the way through.  Serve with green veggies!