Oven-Baked Trout with Potatoes, Fennel and Onion
Just 30 years ago, the people's fish were hake and pollock. Not to mention herring, which you can hardly call fish; it's more of an appetizer, anonymous but incredibly tasty and coveted.
And I can still picture those huge frozen blocks of water and hake carcasses. My mom worked in a store back then, and I remember the loaders breaking those slabs apart with a crowbar or an ordinary two-kilo weight.
The hake was thawed and usually fried or stewed. The smell of fried hake is the smell of my childhood. Compared to those days, now is practically a time of plenty.
The variety of fish and seafood in the shops is simply amazing. Fish that are exotic to the older generation: sea bream, sea bass, eel, all sorts of shellfish, big shrimp. And not so long ago, “red fish” simply meant fish with red rather than white flesh. It made practically no difference what it was: trout, pink salmon, salmon and so on. Just red fish. In the vast majority of cases, it was lightly salted or smoked.
Fresh-frozen whole fish were much rarer, and even then only in specialty (large) stores, closed distribution outlets or expensive collective-farm markets. I remember from childhood that my parents would go to Bessarabka or the Volodymyrskyi market in Kyiv for “red fish”. Not every day, of course, but before big holidays.
Nowadays buying red fish isn't an issue. What's more worrying is buying good-quality fish, as with any other product. Once we've bought something good in a particular place, we usually keep buying there. As the saying goes, if it ain't broke, don't fix it.
We usually buy a large trout or salmon, cut it into steaks and thaw them as needed. But now and then we get small whole trout for individual servings. Trout is very tasty simply fried with a minimum of spices. Grilled trout steaks are a truly amazing dish, especially with a complex vegetable side. Pasta with red fish and tomato sauce turns out really tasty at our place; it's a much-loved home dish we make often. Or trout Bergamo style, a recipe brought back from Italy. Hot-smoked salmon doesn't count, that's next-level stuff, and neither does the delicious pasta with salmon. But the tastiest of all is a single-serving trout baked in the oven.
Ingredients
1 serving
- Trout (350-400 g) 1
- Onion 1
- Fennel 0.5
- Spices: salt, mixed peppercorns, herbs, mustard seeds, coriander, lemon to taste
- Potatoes, tomato, garlic, parsley for the side
Step-by-step recipe
- First, scale the trout. Naturally, thaw the fish first. Trout scales easily. Then rinse the fish thoroughly under running water. With kitchen shears, cut through the rib bones inside the belly cavity next to the backbone. Remove the backbone completely, trying not to damage the trout or cut away too much flesh.
- Carefully pick out all the large bones, trimming them with a knife where needed. Essentially, you should end up with a skin-on fillet with the tail sticking out.
- In a mortar, combine salt (sea salt works), mixed peppercorns, whole mustard and coriander seeds, and a dried blend of aromatic herbs (oregano, basil, sage, mint and so on). Proportions to taste, but for one trout a small coffee spoon of each is plenty. Grind the mixture, but not to a dust; a medium grind is fine. Sprinkle the inside of the fish with the spices, again to taste. Set aside a little of the blend (a couple of pinches); the rest you can keep for later or throw away. Put 2-3 thin slices of lemon inside the fish and refrigerate it for 30-40 minutes.
- While the fish “rests” in the cold, take care of the side dish. Here you can let your imagination run free. We really liked a side of baked potatoes, tomatoes and garlic, the way we made it when we stuffed mackerel, so we decided to repeat it. Bake two potatoes, cool them to room temperature and peel. Scald the tomato with boiling water and peel it. Finely grate the garlic.
- At the same time, peel the onion, cut it into thick strips and fry in olive oil until soft. Coarsely chop the fennel bulb and cook it with the onion until golden. No need to add spices or salt.
- Take the fish out of the fridge and remove the lemon slices. Lightly grease a baking dish with oil. Lay the lemon slices the fish marinated with on the bottom. Thinly slice the prepared tomato and put a few slices on the bottom of the dish.
- Lay the trout in the dish, opened out. Spoon the fried onion and fennel inside. Fold the fish closed over the filling. The trout should end up lying on its side.
- Arrange the side dish around the trout: pieces of baked potato mixed with pieces of tomato. Brush the vegetables with the grated garlic and sprinkle with a little of the remaining spice blend. Sprinkle the rest of the spices over the fish.
- Carefully drizzle the vegetables and fish with olive oil. It's even worth brushing the fish with oil. But don't pour on too much.
- Put the dish with the trout into an oven preheated to 210°C. Bake for about 30 minutes, roughly as for oven-baked mackerel. Then again, every oven is different. I suggest checking the fish for doneness by carefully lifting the edge. When done, the inside of the trout turns pale pink. But if liquid starts collecting in the dish and gently bubbling, the trout will be ready in just 10-12 minutes.
- Transfer the baked trout to a plate. Arrange the potatoes and tomato around it and garnish with parsley.
- Serve the baked trout only hot, with a glass of white table wine.
| Serves: | 1 serving |
| Calories: | 158 |
| Prep: | 1 h |
| Cook: | 30 mins |
| Total: | 1 h 30 mins |
| Category: | Main Dishes |
| Cuisine: | European |
| Rating: |
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4.6
(6)
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