Tuesday 17 March 2009

Fresh caught trout

This week my mighty outdoorsman went fishing.

I was in meetings at work that ran late and therefore missed the succession of excitable text messages that went along with his success. But when I got home (too late to cook), the evidence was clear - two lovely fat rainbow trout, one 4lb, one 5lb, nicely cleaned (all carnage disposed of) and ready for eating.

The larger one was beheaded and de-finned, I put it in a cure in the fridge for another day's eating.

The smaller one was filleted, a bit of salt, a bit of pepper and into the oven. None of our pans were big enough to fry them in and we wanted to avoid eating in relays.

I roasted some new potatoes with olive oil, whole cloves of garlic and some peeled shallots, tucking a couple of fresh bayleaves into the tin.

As a sauce, I chucked another shallot, cut into brunoise, into a cup of white wine in a small pan and reduced it down to about a quarter cup, then added a rough puree of blanched watercress, the juice of half a lemon and mounted it with some nice butter. It was much thicker than a beurre blanc, but on the same principle.

A bit of lemon-dressed green salad, and there we were. Obviously the fillets were way too big for us to finish, so there is a nice pile of flaked baked fish in the freezer waiting to be made into fishcakes. We gave Urchin a bit as well (without the seasonings) but the fussy beast was utterly unimpressed.

12 comments:

Heather said...

impressive catch! looks yummy :)

Laurie said...

Wow! Those trout are gorgeous! I can only imagine how good the first one must have been. Your sauce sound like a perfect match.

I can't believe your cat didn't gobble that right up.

Bettina Douglas said...

I was thinking Urchin would have thought this was just for her.

I'm still getting over the okra.

Alicia Foodycat said...

Heather - I was impressed too!

Laurie - I know! She was sniffing around the kitchen but as soon as it was in her dish she turned her back.

Mother - the contrariness of cats. And I knew the okra would amaze you.

Rachel said...

What beautiful fish. Your watercress accompaniment sounds just delicious.

Heather said...

Those are THE fattest trout I have ever seen. And I live in the Great Northwest! Kudos to your intrepid sportsman.

HH said...

Wow! What a great catch, and beautifully cooked as always!!

Sam said...

Those trout are enormous! The watercress sauce sounds delicious, a perfect accompaniment.

hungryandfrozen said...

Look at those trouts! Very impressive. The meal sounds incredible - especially that sauce :)

Alicia Foodycat said...

Rachel - thanks!

Heather - he's pretty clever, isn't he?

HH - thank you!

Sam - I didn't know trout got that big.

Laura - thanks - I was pretty happy with the sauce.

NKP said...

I love rainbow trout! So wonderful that he caught his own.

Peter M said...

I love rainbow trout this fresh catch must have been yum-world!

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