Tuesday, November 3, 2009

I Must be Trout of my Mind

As always, I have fish on Tuesdays from the Fishguy Market. Fishguy is located at 4423 N. Elston and their website is http://www.fishguy.com/.  Today we had the choice of whitefish, snow trout, mahi mahi, and perch (among a few others).  Since whitefish sounds to plain to me and we have eaten so much mahi mahi lately, so I wanted to try something new.  We ended up with a very nice looking snow trout.  I wanted to do something fast (since I don't get home until 9:15) and traditional.  Trout Meunière immediately popped into my head.  Trout Meunière is a crusted trout served with a brown butter and lemon pan sauce.  I found a general recipe online, but changed it a bit while cooking.  I like serving fish with green vegetables, as I think I discussed below, so we settled on green beans.  Anyway, here is what I did.  The whole thing took up 2 pans (one for fish, one for green beans) and it took 15 minutes, so this dish is a definite keeper for the late weeknights.

Recipe (serves 2)
4 trout filets, skin on (they are very thin, which is why you need 4)
3 tbsp butter, preferably unsalted
1 tbsp vegetable or canola oil
juice from 1 lemon, seeds strained out
flour
kosher salt
pepper
a few sprigs of parsley

1.  Salt and pepper both sides of the trout.
2.  Put oil and 1 tbsp of butter into a large sauted pan over medium heat.
3.  Pour about a cup of flour into a long bread pan.  Dredge both sides of the fish in flour.  Gently shake to get off any excess clumps of flour.  Place on a plate while the butter heats.
4.  When the butter begins to foam and turn brown, add the fish filets, skin side down.  Cook for 5 minutes.
5.  Flip fish and cook flesh side down for 4 minutes.  The exterior of the fish will look brown and be crisp at this point.  Gently remove each filet and put it on a plate while you complete the sauce.
6.  Add the remaining 2 tbsp butter to the pan that you just removed the fish from and put it over the heat.  While the butter is melting, scrape the bottom of the pan to get the browned fish incorporated in the sauce
7.  As soon as the butter is melted, pour in the lemon juice.  Cook for 2-3 seconds and remove from heat.
8.  Dress each filet with a sprig of parsely and pour the hot butter sauce over the fish.
9.  Serve with a side of green beans and some lemon wedges.




This dish is quite oily, so it calls for an acidic white wine.  It seems the perfect opportunity to break out a Sauvignon Blanc.  My favorite Sauvignon Blanc is from Frog's Leap (http://www.cuveecellars.com/page/cuvee/PROD/00008/FROG2008005975).  Caymus also makes an amazing Sauvignon Blanc, but that is a bit harder to find in this area.  If you wanted to walk on the wild side, you might try an albarino.  Anyway, give it a shot and let me know what you think.

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