Thursday, August 26, 2010

Grilled Trout with Lemon and Rosemary

I knew I'd be housebound while The Headless Hound recovered from minor surgery on Tuesday evening, so I stopped by Whole Foods for some fresh trout on my way to pick her up from the vet. I've been wanting to make grilled trout with lemon and rosemary ever since some friends made it for us a few weeks ago. It's such a simple dish to prepare -- the key is to get your fishmonger to clean and debone the fish for you -- but because of my increasing focus on photographing everything I make, I'm not blogging much about weeknight meals due to time constraints and bad lighting. (You wouldn't know it from looking at this blog, but I do cook and eat things that aren't laden with butter and sugar.)

By the way, do you have a fishmonger? What qualifies someone as a fishmonger? Does one have to work at a fish market or does manning the seafood counter at Whole Foods count? These are the deep questions I ask myself on random Tuesday nights...

Grilled Trout with Lemon and Rosemary
Serves two hungry people and one sedated dog

4 whole trout (about 1/3 pound each), cleaned and deboned
Olive oil
Coarse sea salt and pepper
2 lemons, sliced
4 large sprigs fresh rosemary

1. Rinse fish and pat dry. Rub fish inside and out with olive oil and season with salt and pepper. Stuff with lemon slices and rosemary.

2. Grill over medium heat for about 5 minutes on the first side, then gently turn over and grill on the other side for 3-4 minutes. Remove the lemon slices and rosemary from the fish cavities and grill the lemon slices and fish for another 2 to 3 minutes. (Removing the lemon slices ensures the fish cooks through.) Serve with grilled lemon slices and fresh lemon wedges for squeezing.

I served the trout over herbed orzo. I won't write a recipe because I honestly just threw a bunch of remnants from the refrigerator into warm, cooked pasta -- the last bits of pesto, the last quarter jar of Kalamata olives, a few crumbles of feta cheese, and generous amounts of fresh lemon juice, salt and pepper.

Confessions:

1. I don't care much for rosemary in my food (too overpowering). Next time I'll probably stuff the trout with thyme or dill. Butter and capers would be a nice finishing touch. (There I go with the butter.)

2. I massacred the trout because we need a new grill grate and heating element. The fish stuck to the grate and went up in flames and fell to pieces when I moved it around. But the nice thing about trout -- and grilling whole fish -- is that it's very forgiving. The end result was still moist and flaky and delicious.

1 comment:

  1. peeerty fish! were there bones? I don't consider it fish-eating unless I'm spitting out bones directly onto the table cloth.

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