Wednesday, January 28, 2009

Whisk Wednesdays—Truite aux Amandes (Trout with Almonds)

Truite aux Amandes (Trout with Almonds)It's all about fish for the next four weeks. And this week's trout couldn't be easier. I thought last week's pork dish was easy, but this one beats that! All you need is some browned butter and almonds (and trout, of course) and you have trout almondine.

First, you season the trout with salt and pepper. Then, dredge it in flour and pan-fry it in butter and oil. After it's finished cooking, you let it rest while you brown some butter and almonds. Sprinkle some parsley around, squeeze a lemon on top, and you've got lunch or dinner ready in no time flat. It's tasty hot or cold too.

The hardest part is cleaning the fish, which is probably what this class is all about over at Le Cordon Bleu. I wimped out on this step and was lucky enough to find trout already cleaned at the grocery store. Instead, I watched this video about how to clean a rainbow trout.



Recipe

Serves 6 (I halved the recipe.)

Truite aux Amandes (Trout with Almonds) mise en place
1 trout, about 1½ pounds
½ lemon
Salt and freshly ground pepper
6 tablespoons all-purpose flour
8 tablespoons unsalted butter
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
3 ounces sliced almonds
½ tablespoon chopped parsley
Parsley for garnish

You can find the recipe for Truite aux Amandes (Trout with Almonds) in the book Le Cordon Bleu at Home or here. To see how the rest of the Whisk Wednesdays group fared with their recipe, click here (or check out the sidebar) and then click on each blogger!

Truite aux Amandes (Trout with Almonds)Tasting Notes
I loved this dish, and I'm planning on using more browned butter and sliced almonds on other types of fish, chicken and vegetables. Affordable, easy and delicious. This is definitely a keeper.

Next Week (February 4)
• Bar à la Normande (Sea Bass with Mushrooms and Cream) pages 180-181

. . . . . . . . . .

Running total: $1,038.85 + $7.02 (trout) + $3.42 (other ingredients) = $1,049.29

Butter used so far: 9 pounds, 16 tablespoons

. . . . . . . . . .
::Whisk Wednesdays::
We're cooking our way through a cooking school curriculum using the Le Cordon Bleu at Home cookbook. The "classes" are based on the Le Cordon Bleu curriculum found online and used as a guideline. Not all the items in the curriculum are in the cookbook, but most are. Where the items are not in the book, we try to find a suitable substitution. Find out more here.
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  • 10 comments:

    Melissa said...

    Beautiful trout! It looks so perfect. I did find "Ruby Red Trout", only filets...gosh reminds me of salmon...but not in taste. Just looks of the meat...

    Michelle said...

    Your trout looks wonderful and the video was great!

    It's hard for me to choose a favorite WW dish so far but this one sure is right up at the top of my list!

    Manggy said...

    I can't say I've ever had trout before (a Philippines thing I guess), but that does look delicious :) Hopefully next time it can be you making a video on how to clean a fish! :)

    Anonymous said...

    Browned butter + almonds + trout. Sold.

    Meeta K. Wolff said...

    we have a trout farm just a few minutes drive from us. i am going to get some fresh trouts for the weekend and make this!

    Maria said...

    The trout looks wonderful!! I need to make this and soon!

    Anonymous said...

    This trout looks delicious! Bet it would go great with a vodka martini chilled using 12,000 - 20,000 year old iceberg ice

    pam said...

    I agree with Michelle this is probably up in the top of your WW recipes!

    Anonymous said...

    It looks purely lovely Shari! There's a huge difference in the appearance of our fishes. I'll come after this one again...but I don't know if I'll ever be able to clean a fish... *giggle*

    Anonymous said...

    What a great job you did on this dish...yours looks absolutely stunning. I am with you: I am thinking there is a whole lot more uses for other types of fish with this sauce! I think fish just went from being very figure friendly to NOT! LOL!