Little is as easy to cook as food prepared on a camping trip.

Remember hobo packs, those mixtures of vegetables and fish (or hot dogs and sliced onions) wrapped in foil and cooked in the coals? If so, congratulations: En papillote is a fancy word for something a nine-year-old can do.

Steam-cooking food in a parchment or foil pouch, aka en papillote, is a gentle way to prepare ingredients. The natural juices of the meat, fish or vegetables, enhanced by the addition of aromatics, collect in the pouch, forming an effortless sauce. If you form the pouches with foil, you can cook them on the grill. If baking in the oven, use parchment paper, which puffs and bronzes as it cooks.

Want to try it at home? Use this handy slide show to learn just how simple this fancy-sounding cooking technique is.