The flaky filo pastry keeps the fish moist and delicious. For a nicer presentation, cut each parcel in half at an angle before placing on sauce.
This was so fun to make! Definitely a good and EASY Sunday dinner. I made some changes: For the filling, I mixed some chopped up (RAW) chicken, 2 tsp of minced garlic, some dill, salt and pepper and some of the chopped scallions. The raw chopped chicken mixture cooks in 15 minutes like the halibut and is very moist. For the sauce, I only put in half the lemon and I chopped a small shallot for the sauce,plus the scallions, salt, pepper and cream. YUM! My husband (who is very picky) absolutely loved it. A word about the sauce, I was reading other reviews that people are boiling it longer to lose the lemon flavor. This will not lessen the flavor, it just ensures that the cream doesn't curdle or is too runny. If you don't like a really tart/lemony sauce, I would reduce the amount of lemon juice to 1 1/2 TBS and boil it down like the recipes states. Don't boil too long or you will scorch the lemon and have a burnt tasting cream sauce. Also, for those who have never used phyllo - its FUN! Don't read the directions on the box, they are too daunting and not necessary. Just thaw the phyllo overnight and take out as many sheets as you need (make sure you have all the ingredients ready though). Lay the phyllo down like a sheet of paper "landscape"-wise (like a piece of paper). Brush up and down with butter, if you brush left to right, you will rip the pieces. But if you do rip the pieces, you can't even tell after they bake. Thanks for the easy and elegant recipe! - 18 Mar 2007 (Review from Allrecipes USA and Canada)
My family can't wait to eat this again - what a delicious way to eat halibut! The only changes I made were to use half & half instead of whipping cream and less lemon juice. I used the rest of my phyllo dough package to make dessert: spray a muffin pan with Pam & take one phyllo dough folded into 4ths molding it into the pan - spray again and repeat, alternating the direction of the dough, using 4 sheets per cup. Then sprinkle with cinnamon & sugar & bake. Makes cute dessert cups for fruit with whipped cream, or whatever! A nice dessert with this dish. I saw the recipe somewhere on here, but can't find it again! - 10 Apr 2007 (Review from Allrecipes USA and Canada)
I would have given this recipe 5 stars except for the sauce. Both my husband and I thought it ruined the flavor of the phyllo wrapped fish. We live in Alaska and catch all our own fish so we make this often using a variety of spices. Play around with the spices and we also make it with every kind of fish possible; cod, salmon, king mackrell, red drum, sea bass and more. - 16 Feb 2008 (Review from Allrecipes USA and Canada)