This is incredibly delicious, and is especially fun if you have chive flowers in your garden you can use. It is not hard to do, but is a top-of-the-line company meal, even though I just made it for the two of us last weekend. This recipe is for two, and you can multiply it for more.

The recipe comes from Frances Palmer’s lovely book Life with Flowers, a recipe which she revised from Alice Waters’ one for Chez Panisse, and now I’ve revised it from hers.

We all have gardens and use our chive flowers in this, but it would still be terrific if you don’t have them. You can see a picture of our chive flowers in our garden below.

Halibut with Chives in Parchment Recipe

1 1/2 Tablespoon olive oil
2 leeks, sliced thin
4 ounces of shiitake mushrooms
2 tablespoons of heavy cream
1 large lemon, zested then halved
1/4 cup chive flowers, coarsely chopped (optional)
2 Tablespoons butter, softened
1/4 cup chives, chopped
2 (6 ounce each) halibut fillets
1 tablespoon of thyme leaves
salt and freshly ground pepper

Preheat oven 450ºF.

Cut two sheets of parchment paper, each about 9″x12″.

In a cast iron skillet, heat the oil over medium heat; add leeks, mushrooms, and salt and pepper to taste, and gently saute the leeks and musgrooms until soft, 3 to 5 minutes. Add the cream, 1 Tablespoon of lemon zest, and the juice of 1/2 lemon. Cook until the vegetables have absorbed the cream, then remove the skillet from the heat and fold in half of the chopped chive flowers.

In a small bowl, mash the softened butter. Add the chive greens, and the remaining lemon zest. Season with salt and pepper.

Working with one piece of parchment at a time, arrange the parchment so that the fish will be placed on the center of one half of the shorter side. Brush this area lightly with olive oil.

Place one-quater of the mushroom mixture on this oiled area, then top with a piece of fish. Season the fish with salt and pepper, ten top with a portion of the compound butter. Repeat with the other parchment, mushroom mixture, fish, compound butter. The squeeze the remaining lemon over the teo pieces of fish. Top with the thyme leaves, and most of the remaining chive flowers.

Vold each piece of parchment loosely over the top of the fish and roll and crimp the edges tightly to seal. Place the packets on the baking sheet. Bake for 8-12 minutes depending on the thickness of your fish, and how well you like it done. (The pieces in these photos were cooked perfectly at 10 minutes).

Carefully open each packet, watching out for steam. Slide it out onto a dish with rice and Garnish with the left over chive flowers.

Yum! Enjoy!