| Level: | Easy |
| Total: | 30 min |
| Active: | 30 min |
| Yield: | 4 servings |
Ingredients
- 1 tablespoon plus 10 tablespoons cold unsalted butter, cut into pats
- 3 cloves garlic, smashed
- 2 sprigs fresh thyme
- 1/4 cup heavy cream
- 1 1/2 tablespoons chopped chives
- 2 teaspoons sherry or white wine vinegar
- 1 teaspoon minced fresh tarragon
- Fine sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
- 4 rainbow trout (about 3/4 pound each), butterflied and backbone removed
- Instant flour, such as Wondra, or cake flour, for dusting fish
- Canola oil, for coating pans
Instructions
- If it’s convenient, set the serving plates to warm in a low oven (175 degrees F) as you prepare the fish.
- For the sauce, melt 1 tablespoon of the butter in a small saucepan over medium heat. Add the garlic and thyme and cook them briefly until lightly browned. Add the cream, bring it to a boil and reduce quickly by half. Add the remaining 10 tablespoons butter gradually, pat by pat, whisking until incorporated. When the sauce is smooth and thick, discard the garlic and thyme and add the chives, sherry vinegar, tarragon and salt and pepper to taste.
- Heat two large cast-iron skillets over medium-high heat. Sprinkle both sides of the fish with salt and pepper and dust the skin sides with the flour. When the pans are hot, add enough canola oil to thinly coat the bottom of each and add a fish to each pan, skin-side down. Cook until the skins turn golden brown and opaque doneness creeps into the pink flesh of the fish. You want to cook the fish nearly all the way through on the skin side. Flip the fish and transfer them to a plate to keep warm in the oven. Cook the remaining fish.
- Pour 3 to 4 tablespoons of sauce onto each warm plate, top with a trout, skin side pointing up, and serve immediately.
Nutrition Facts
| Serving Size | 1 of 4 servings |
| Calories | 882 |
| Total Fat | 64 g |
| Saturated Fat | 29 g |
| Carbohydrates | 5 g |
| Dietary Fiber | 1 g |
| Sugar | 1 g |
| Protein | 69 g |
| Cholesterol | 305 mg |
| Sodium | 958 mg |
Reviews
One of the best sauces I’ve ever made/had. The trout came together so well. My husband and myself really enjoyed it!
Fast and easy.
Delicious! Used lemon instead of red wine vinegar and cut down the butter – used only about 6-8 tbsp and it didn’t feel like it was missing flavor or richness.
This is a great recipe – the only thing I question is why use canola oil? Living natural as you do, I would use real oil and not one invented by a couple of men.
very easy taste great !!!
Amazing recipe
This sauce is absolutely delicious. Worth going for brown trout when in season it’s so good. Going to try with hake tonight and replace tarragon with fennel and serve with samphire.
Delicious! Amy your show was the best – please come back on air !!
To the person concerned about all the butter….simple, use less butter and/or only make this recipe once in a while. You know the old saying, everything in moderation.
I have to admit I have never tried Trout. I do like salmon though (both Steelhead and Atlantic) so I might try this recipe on it. I have reservations about the butter sauce though. I have been watching Amy’s show for the past month or so and for the most part I like the recipes. They are easy for a novice like myself but I have noticed that almost everything involves butter in some way. Kind of concerned about the implications for heart disease…..which brings me to my next question. How does Amy stay so thin and lovely cooking with all this butter? I am guessing she doesn’t eat alot of the food herself.