Sometimes, weekends call for elaborate meals resulting from marathons in the kitchen.  Sometimes, I just like to enjoy the chaos a little bit longer and find an easy way out when it comes to dinner.  This doesn’t have to mean calling for a pizza delivery.  We ended up spending at the beach a little longer than expected on Saturday evening.  The gorgeous weather and the sight of a baby sea turtle heading off to sea were far more intriguing to us than dinner!  Still, I wasn’t about to sacrifice the chance to have delicious and healthy seafood.

The grill is obviously a great choice when you don’t want to mess up the kitchen and be doing dishes at 9 pm, but some items are just too fragile for the grill (like the Royal Red shrimp I had brought home with me).  This is when foil and parchment can be your best friend.  It’s very forgiving and you can pretty much put any combination of herbs, seasonings, or vegetables inside with the fish.  You can cook it in the oven OR on the grill.

I started with squares of parchment paper and folded each square in half, Grouper, Royal Red Shrimp, sliced lemon, a few tablespoons of butter, and chopped garlic.

I placed a piece of Grouper right against the crease in the paper so it was sort of in the middle.  You can add anything to it you’d like!  I added sliced lemon, a tablespoon of butter, a little chopped garlic, and parsley.  I also had some Royal Red Shrimp on hand so I added those as well.  The more the merrier!  After you build your fish with everything you want, go ahead and fold the paper over and start turning and creasing the edges so that you end up with either a square or a semi-circle shape.

Obviously, you can’t put this directly on the grill.  Use a cookie sheet or something else that is safe for the grill to provide a barrier between the flames and the paper.  350 – 400 degrees is a good temperature whether you are using the grill or the oven.  We left ours on the around 20 minutes with the lid closed.  You obviously have to guess a little bit since you can’t see the fish, but once I heard things bubbling I was confident that it was finished cooking.

When we removed them from the grill, the paper was slightly brown but not burnt by any means.

By enclosing the fish in the parchment, you are essentially steaming it.  There is no need for any oils or breading or coating.  This is about as simple and as healthy as it gets!  I didn’t even add salt.  The lemon flavored every single bite of the fish.  It was tender and delicious!  The best part about it was that there was not a single pot or pan to be washed at the end of the night.