Trout With Flaked Almonds.

Fresh Trout Not Very Visible.

OK I said enough,  it is time, at least on a Sunday, to eat something normal. We had a trout in our deep freeze and I hadn't the foggiest idea how to coo it. I have never eaten fresh trout. So I opened the "Petit Larousse De La Cuisine" given to me for Christmas by a very good friend in 2009. Under "trout" I made the first recipe this book had. ( This book has 1800 recipes). The recipe calls for butter, and I did use butter!! This morning my sugar level went from 100 yesterday to 125!! but it was delicious. Trout flesh is delicious. I had it only smoked in the past which I love....
Here is how I was instructed to cook it.

Ingredients.
Serves 2:

-  1 trout 800 gr washed, dried well, and set on kitchen paper to absorb all liquids.

-  75 gr of flaked almonds.

-  Enough flour to well coat the fish.

-  70 gr fresh butter.
-  Juice of 1 to 2 lemons.
-  1 Tbsp. very finely cut parsley.

-  1 Tbsp. cider vinegar.
-  Salt & Pepper to taste. None if you wish.

Method:
-  Preheat your oven to 200 degrees C and add your almonds till they are golden.  Take out from oven and set aside.

-  Add salt and pepper to the fish.
-  Coat trout very well from both sides. Not the interior.

-  Melt 50 gr of butter in a pan which will hold the whole fish. (mine did not so I had to cut the tail as seen in the pictures).
-  Saute from both sides until the fish is cooked. You can check the doneness of the trout when you cut along the backbone and flesh separates easily from the backbone.

-  In the meantime add the roasted almonds.
-  Serve the trout on the plate and add lemon juice and parsley. Keep warm.

-  Add the remaining butter and the vinegar to the pan to deglaze then add the whole lot to the trout.

Some additional information I have (in addition to the instructions of the book) to make life easier for those of you who have never cooked trout.

-  If you intend to cook fish in the pan often, buy an oblong pan to fit a normal size fish that is if you want to cook it whole. I had to cut the tail off of mine because the round pan I have - 28 cm - was not large enough.
-  The pan you buy must be stick proof  have a cover to it.
-  Put the pan with the fish to saute on a small fire, low heat, and cover.
-  Let the fish cook slowly with vapors.
-  The important thing is for it not to stick on the bottom. Sticking on the bottom with take the skin off and the fish will look messy. Keep on turning it without hurting the skin or the whole appearance of the fish.
-  When you make your cut along the backbone make sure the meat comes off easily.
-  Have a long wide spatula to lift the whole fish without breaking it.
-  Before serving you can take off the skin if you wish to show the beautifully pink flesh of the trout.

I have not done all the above yesterday and so my serving plate was messy.

Serve the trout with:

-  Lemon rind.

-  Puree of spinach with garlic powder, nutmeg and butter.

-  1 cup of buckwheat to two cups of water, one Tbsp. of soy sauce, and ½ cup of dry onion simmer very slowly for 20 minutes. (Add buckwheat when the water with the dry onion and soy sauce boil, mix and simmer at lowest heat for 20 minutes). Sorry no picture.

An extremely nourishing meal but not for diabetics. I wonder if I used olive oil instead of butter what would the  results be on my sugar level this morning??

Bon appétit,
Stelio