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August 05, 2006

Roasted Whole Trout with Herbs

Last night, when I was getting ready to leave work, I had no idea what I was going to make for dinner. So, I decided to just head for the grocery store, and hope that something would strike me.

I got to the fish counter, and there was a sign: "Rainbow Trout - $2.99/lb". Now, I'm always a little worried when I see fish on sale (does it mean that it's no good and they're trying to get rid of it?), but it's a lot harder to pass off a skanky whole fish as fresh than a skanky filet. These trout looked nice, so I got 2, loaded up on fresh herbs, and headed home to make dinner.

Now, I've never cooked whole trout before in my life, but I wasn't worried, because I have Mark Bittman's Fish, which is pretty much guaranteed to have cooking instructions for any type of seafood I might haul home from the market. So, I found a recipe for whole trout with herbs, and tweaked it a little to account for what I actually had on hand. (If I recall correctly, Bittman uses parsley and tarragon. I used parsley, rosemary, and thyme. Next time I'll have to add sage, and call it Scarborough Fair Trout.)

Ingredients

  • 2 whole trout (about 1 lb. each), cleaned and gutted, heads on.
  • 1 tbsp. minced parsley, plus extra for garnish
  • 1 tsp. minced fresh rosemary leaves, plus ~4 small rosemary branches
  • 1 tsp. fresh thyme leaves, plus ~4 sprigs fresh thyme
  • 1 large clove garlic, minced
  • 1 tbsp. lemon juice
  • 2 tbsp. olive oil
  • salt and pepper to taste
  • lemon wedges

Steps

  1. Preheat the oven to 450 degrees.
  2. Mix the parsley, rosemary, thyme, garlic, lemon juice, olive oil in a small bowl.
  3. Salt and pepper the trout inside and out. Stuff the cavity of each with rosemary branches and thyme sprigs. Smear the outside with the herb/lemon/olive oil mixture and put the trout in a baking dish.
  4. Bake for 15 minutes, or until the flesh flakes off easily with a fork. Serve garnished with extra parsley, and lemon wedges.
Serves 2 pretty generously. Add a salad on the side, and you've got dinner.

Trout tastes a lot like a very mild salmon, with a nice buttery texture. I think it would be very easy for it to be bland, but roasting it with the herbs this way really gets the herb flavor into the fish.

Posted by spaceling at August 5, 2006 10:33 AM

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