Snapper Baked in Parchment
With Shrimp and Vegetables

From “Charlie Palmer’s Practical Guide to the New American Kitchen” 

Ingredients

1 small zucchini
1 yellow summer squash
1 shallot
Extra-virgin olive oil
Maldon sea salt
4 sprigs fresh thyme
4 bay leaves
4 red snapper fillets (about 5 oz each), skin lightly scored
½ pt cherry tomatoes
8 oz chanterelle mushrooms, cleaned and sliced
12 medium shrimp, peeled and deveined

Prepare four 13 x 18 inch pieces of cooking parchment. 

Slice the zucchini and yellow squash into thin (about 1/8 inch) rounds with a mandoline.  Peel and slice the shallot on the mandoline.  On one half of each piece of parchment, make a bed of squash slices interlaced with shallots; drizzle with oil and season with sea salt and freshly ground white pepper.  Place a sprig of thyme and a bay leaf on each portion of vegetables and then lay a snapper fillet on top.  Scatter tomatoes and mushroom slices around the fish.  Arrange three shrimp on each snapper fillet.  Season with salt and pepper and drizzle with a little more oil. 

Fold the parchment over the fish so the edges meet.  Starting from one folded corner, begin to twist and pleat the edges of the parchment together about 1 inch at a time, crimping each pleat so it holds.  Work your way around to the other folded edge to form a half round packet.  Refrigerate the packets on a tray until you’re ready to cook them. 

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.  Bake the parchment packets for 20 minutes, then transfer them to dinner plates.  Cut a small slit in one side of each packet for easier opening.