Salmon En Papillote With Mangos and Orange Suprêmes

Photo: Anne Livingston

Ingredients

1 pound King or Coho salmon – preferably a piece that is consistent in thickness throughout

onion, cut into rings

2 oranges, cut into suprêmes, then squeezed for juice

1 mango, cut into cubes

Kosher salt and freshly ground pepper

1/4 cup dried cranberries

1/4 cup melted butter

2 teaspoons - 3 minced chives (and chive blossoms, if you have them), for garnish

Preparation

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

Cut salmon into four pieces.

Cut 4 large pieces of parchment, around 16 inches long each.

Fold each piece of parchment in half and cut out half a heart, as if you were making a valentine. It will help if your valentine is very rounded.

Place salmon filets onto the hearts, at the edge of the fold in the center of the shape. Sprinkle with salt and pepper.

Cover each filet with ¼ each of the onion rings, the mango cubes, and the orange suprêmes, along with some of the orange juice. Top with dried cranberries.

With a pastry brush, spread melted butter all along the edge of the heart on both sides, then fold the heart over to close. Now you will seal this packet closed. Starting at the top of the heart at the crease, make a 1/2-inch-deep fold in the open edge of the parchment. Because the shape is curved, you can hold this fold down and make another fold overlapping the first one, which holds it in place. Do this again and again around the round part of the heart. Once you get to the bottom tip and run out of curve, make one last good fold to hold all the previous ones in place, then twist the bottom firmly several times to secure it.

Brush the top of each sealed packet with more melted butter.

Place packets in a shallow baking dish and bake for 12 minutes for an inch-thick fillet, which is the fatter part of many salmon you’ll find at the market—the medium-large ones, not the really big ones. For the skinnier part of a salmon steak, cooking time will be more like 8 minutes or even less. Watch for the puffing up of the packet, which will indicate sufficient steam has been produced in the packet to cook the salmon well.

Remove packets from oven and let them rest for a few moments to finish steaming before serving.

To serve, place each packet on a plate and cut a cross in the top of the packet, right in the center, then fold back each of the four flaps to create a square hole that reveals the salmon and its toppings underneath. If the salmon has shifted over, just gently tilt the plate so that the fish slides over and becomes centered. Sprinkle with chives and chives blossoms, if you have them. Serve immediately upon opening.