Stone Fruit Pouch

Before Cooking

This week's recipe is from an episode of Good Eats all about cooking in pouches. Pouches can be made from many common kitchen items like aluminum foil (good for the grill) or parchment paper which I had never really thought of using. Since parchment paper will not crimp like aluminum foil will, Alton Brown used staples to hold the pouches together. I was a little dubious about putting staples in the oven but they stood up pretty well even at 500 F. Parchment paper is also great because unlike aluminum foil it will not react with acidic foods and can be reheated in the microwave (the staples would need to be removed of course).

Cooking in this manor far predates the silicon impregnated parchment paper we have today. For centuries 

tamales have been cooked in pouches made of either corn husks or plantain leaves. Across the Atlantic there is a whole family of dishes, called dolma, that use grape leaves to hold a variety of fillings, from meats to grains. Dolma is most popular in the area of the former Ottoman Empire, southeastern Europe to northern Africa. Further east, in India banana leaves are used in a similar fashion. 

After Cooking

Now for my recipe. The first two in the episode were for fish and I was not really in the mood for that kind of endeavor, so I opted for the dessert option (dessert is always a better choice anyways). This pouch consisted of ginger cookies, I had some mini gingerbread men, apricots, plums, lime juice and sugar. Put all that in the oven, wrapped in parchment and in 12 minutes you have an amazing ice cream topping. Sour but sweet at the same time, with fruit that is perfectly tender and the cookies become almost like pudding. This is a favourite for sure. 

On Ice Cream 

Stone Fruit Pouch Recipe