An Èn Papillote with sausage, an assorted of vegetables and herbs in a parchment pouch, baked for 30 minutes on the grill or in an oven. The result is delicious!
*See Kitchen Notes for more information or related links.
Cut two large sheets of parchment paper. Each sheet should be large enough to hold half of the ingredients.
Fold the top half of the parchment over the sausage and vegetables. Twist the ends to create a pouch. Try not to leave opening in the folds where steam can escape. Tightly tie each end with string.
Serve over a blend of wild and brown rice*
Sausage - Use a mild to hot Italian sausage or a Mexican chorizo. It's important to put the sausage on the bottom. Being closest to the heat it becomes crispy and almost caramelizes. The sweet crispiness and the flavor of the sausage is one of the things that really make this dish as good as it is.
Vegetables - There are many different vegetables that work with this dish. Most of the time I just use what's in the refrigerator. However, it always needs the garlic and onion and I love a nice summer squash. Go for different colors when you can.
Cut the vegetables in varying sizes based on how fast or slow they cook. Summer quash pieces should be cut relatively large in order to keep them from overcooking and getting mushy. However, winter squash could be cut into smaller pieces. Since I love to bite into a cooked mushroom, I leave them pretty big as well. Onion and bell pepper are smaller and the olives work nicely as thin slices so they can distribute throughout the meal once cooked and transferred to a plate.
Rice - I buy a wild/brown rice blend in bulk at my local co-op and I love it. It consists of several varieties of black and brown rice and it makes a great complement to this sausage and veggies dish; however, brown rice or white rice would probably work just as well. You could also make your own blend by combining 4 to 6 wild and brown rice varieties. Click here for Two Methods of Cooking Brown Rice.
Cooking in parchment method - Cooking in parchment is SO easy and so little cleanup! We normally cook this on the grill, but it could easily be baked in the oven @ about 375° F (190° C).
Recipe author: MJ of MJ's Kitchen