Hope y’all had a great Thanksgiving weekend with successful turkeys all around. With the smorgasbord of richness in store in the few weeks heading up to yuletide, here’s an easy simple way to utilize cold-weather market produce and bristling* fish.
—The general idea here is that we won’t have enough time to fully cook thick vegetables and our fish evenly. This is where a mandoline is super-handy. So—mandoline aromatic vegetables (baby carrots, fennel, celery, etc) and slice an onion wafer thin.
—Rough-chop kale and add thin-sliced vegetables, tossing with olive oil, salt, and lemon juice.
—Make a compound butter with parsley, thyme, fennel tips, garlic, lemon zest, and a bit of salt.
—Strew the vegetables in the bottom of a largish baking/casserole dish. Place two superfresh small whole trout (or fillets of fish) on top of the vegetables and rub the insides of the fish with compound butter.
—Splash in a cup of white wine and cover with foil.
—Bake in a temperate oven (350º-375º) for approximately 20 minutes.
Provided there is enough salt, fat, and moisture, this is one of the most satisfying ways of preparing fish. You don’t lose the essence of the unique flavor of the fish with lots of extraneous flavors and the fish is effectively steamed with aromatics, lending lots of leeway in cooking time.
_Matt
*This is a terrible and ineffective play on words. For one thing “brisling” is a noun referring to “sprats”, which I think generally implies herring that is preserved (which has nothing to do with this post). Additionally, “bristling” refers to the actual hair standing on end on the back of an animal. I’m sorry, but I couldn’t help myself.
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