Buttered Bluegill in Parchment with Summer Squash

What a fantastic time of year--fresh vegetables arriving in the kitchen daily, fresh fish being caught. The Friday Night Challenge ingredients:

fish--bacon--asparagus--butter--lemon--summer squash

started me thinking about a process I recently saw in a Julia Child cookbook that uses parchment paper and high heat to assure that the fish cooks through without drying--a major downfall of fish, especially more delicate whitefish-types.

What follows is a relatively simple process for the meal:

Cook about 3 ounces of bacon cut into small pieces. Once it is about half finished, add fresh asparagus and a pat of butter. Add some small diced pieces of summer squash and let everything cook slowly. Add just a bit of lemon juice (about 1/4 t.).

Set the oven to 425 degrees. Prepare a piece of parchment paper with butter and lay the fish on  it along with some of the summer squash that is peeled with a vegetable peeler. Give it a pinch of salt and a squirt of lemon juice. Wrap tightly in the parchment and put on a shallow baking pan. Cook for around 15 minutes and check. The squash won't be overly tender; it will have texture.

While everything else is cooking and baking, peel and cut a cucumber into small bite-sized pieces. Give it a bit of salt and about 1/4t. dried dill. Let it set for a bit. Once the asparagus has cooked to doneness, remove it and the squash as well as about 1/2 of the bacon. Put the remainder of the bacon with the cucumber. Take the remaining bacon fat, add a touch of olive oil, a shake of salt, and a squirt of lemon juice and heat through. Pour over the cucumbers and coat.

Enjoy!