The Trout's Out

A few weeks ago a friend of MrP gave us a beautiful river trout he had caught.  Was obviously more than just a few weeks as it was before the wedding when I was in a barely cooking phase.  The friend had only just got back from his fishing trip and put his spoils straight into the freezer so our trout went from his freezer into ours.

It was a beautiful rainbow trout, a big beautiful rainbow trout.  Not this exact one, obviously.  My camera is still playing up.  But to be honest, and I have no need for the "fishermans exaggeration" as I didn't catch it, it was probably as big.

So even without it's head it was a rather awkward addition to the freezer.  Requiring constant repositioning every time I wanted something in or out of the freezer.

I am still trying to stick to fish friday and for the last three the trout was on the menu, only to escape.  So last Friday morning I was determined and the trout was out.

Once defrosted it was even more lovely than I thought, the flesh really firm and fresh, the skin bright and doing it's name justice.

We both love fish and although I don't mind too much the effort of picking through the bones, it does test MrP's patience and detract from the enjoyment.  So I set about filleting our trout, and to be fair didn't too a bad job.  I then sandwiched the two fillets back together with a filling of chives, parsley, lemon slices and knobs of butter.  Tied up with string, slit the skin, rubbed with oil and a generous sprinkling of maldon salt and grilled.

Served with some garlic roasted potatoes it was a feast, and a shame MrP didn't get back from the pub till 11 o'clock.

This meant there was rather a lot of our trout left and it would have been a crying shame for him to go to waste, and just rather rude.

Fishcakes were dismissed.  Having done them with fresh and tinned salmon, tinned always works better.  Salad too easy.  A while ago I did a salmon pasta jobbie    so thought something like that would be nice.

Enough linguine for 2
Left over trout
1 courgette - grated
1 shallot - chopped
A good handfull of grated parmesan cheese
About 1/2 a tub of philadelphia light
Juice of a lemon
A small handfull of chopped parsley
salt and pepper.

About 5 mins before the pasta is ready sweat the shallot off in some olive oil, add the grated courgette.  Before draining the pasta scoop out about half a mug full of the water. Drain the pasta and add to the pan with the courgettes in, off the heat now.  Put the pasta water back into the pasta pan, add the philadelphia and let it bubble for a bit to thicken up, add lots of black pepper and a little salt.  Put the parmesan, parsley and lemon juice in with the pasta, pour over the 'sauce' and mix it all together.

Lovely.  I piled a good handfull of spinach and watercress on top and some rather nice foccacia I'd made earlier in the day.  A recipe from a new book I wasn't meant to buy.