SOB Dinner - Circumstantial Trout

"Circumstantial evidence is occasionally very convincing, as when you find a trout in the milk, to quote Thoreau's example." 

"What's that swimming in my cream?"

Again, from The Noble Bachelor.  Doyle must have been hungry when he wrote that story!  There are certainly many references to food.

I think I may have eaten trout back in my youth. Back then, I ate moose burgers, because my parents had friends that went hunting. So we probably had friends that fished as well.  I probably purged it from my memory banks, just like Holmes would have.

"You see," he explained, "I consider that a man's brain originally is like a little empty attic, and you have to stock it with such furniture as you choose.... Depend upon it there comes a time when for every addition of knowledge you forget something that you knew before. It is of the highest importance, therefore, not to have useless facts elbowing out the useful ones." 

I don't know anyone who goes fishing anymore, so I bought my trout at the market.  I didn't ask about the moose burgers.  Still trying to purge that memory.  I wonder what I forgot that was useful?

Circumstantial Trout

Milky fish

3 trout 

1 onion, sliced

1 lemon, sliced

1/4 cup butter

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.  Have your trout filleted at the market to make it easier to prepare.  You'll probably still have some bones to remove.  Place fillets skin side down in a baking pan.  Season with salt and pepper, then cover with onion and lemon slices and dot with butter.  Bake for 15-20 minutes until fish flakes easily but is still moist.  Remove onion and lemon and place on individual plates.  Serve with cream sauce.  Garnish with fresh chopped tarragon and freshly grated lemon zest.

Cream Sauce

4 cups whipping cream
2 tablespoons butter
2 cups wine (I used Sterling Vintner's Collection Chardonnay 2010)

1/2 cup grated parmesan cheese

2 tablespoons fresh tarragon, chopped, plus extra for garnish

lemon zest

Heat cream and butter in pan until reduced by half.  Add wine, and reduce again until about three cups remain.  Add parmesan cheese and stir until incorporated.  Add fresh tarragon.

The wine with the fish was 2010 Thistle Chardonnay.

Yum!

I'm not usually a fan of Chardonnay, but I liked this one.  It had nice balance.  The trout was quite a delicate flavor, and this wine enhanced that flavor.  If I had do-overs, I would have breaded and pan-fried the trout.  I think the flavor would have benefited from the flavor added by browning it a bit.  But with all I had to juggle in cooking this meal, I just couldn't have managed it in a timely manner.  But it's something to explore in the future, because I did enjoy the trout.

Tomorrow, my favorite course of the meal!